Saturday, November 23, 2013

A Day of Cabling

Today's latest fashionable knits are cable knit headbands. Who knew how this classic stitching technique would not go out of style and flourish even more as it did before. For those who don't know what Cable Knitting is, its a technique where you pretty much knit in the wrong order which casts the knits to overlap each other and create a twisting form.
Here's a quick example:


With this cool pattern you can change it up however you like or keep it classic. A few patterns are:



I decided to venture off and create my very first cable knit headband. Since I didn't know how to cable stitch I had to do some research, and being a visual learner I went to youtube and searched for videos as well as google. I came across this video on VideoJug which really helped me understand what exactly I was doing. 


It  was as easy as knitting or I thought it was…But, I didn't give up. Once you start there's only one thing to do and its to succeed! I reread the instructions, and got my supplies out and began from scratch.  I had maroon yarn and my 2 double pointed needle, I think I used a size 4. Step by step I followed somewhat of the instruction but with my own twist. Instead of knitting and purling, I made one side all knits and the other all purls then I followed the cabling part and it turned out wonderful after a few tries. 
In the end this is what it looked like:

I made it for a good friend of mine and she loved it so I decided i'd make more and try different designs of the cable stick pattern. It's actually not as hard as it looks like, here's the steps for Cable knitting a headband:

Step 1: You will need

  • Some yarn
  • A pair of knitting needles
  • A cable needle

Step 2: Cast on

Begin by casting on 18 stitches.

To learn more about casting on see our video 'How To Cast On'

Step 3: Rows 1-4

On row one, purl 6 stitches, knit six stitches then purl six stitches again.

On the next three rows, knit the knits and purl the purls.

Step 4: Rows 5--8

On the fifth row, purl six stitches then slip the first three knit stitches purl wise onto a cable needle.

Let the cable needle with the stitches dangle to the front of your work.

Knit the next stitch on the needle, pull the yarn tight, and knit the next two stitches.

Now knit the first stitch off the cable needle, pull the yarn tight, and knit the last two stitches.

Put the cable needle to one side and purl the last six stitches.

On the next three rows, simply knit the knits, and purl the purls.

Step 5: Row 9

On the ninth row repeat the cable twist with the cable needle once more.

Magically, a cable stitch will appear.

Step 6: Reversing the cable row

Cables can be made to twist in the opposite direction.