pink cabled cardigan
This is sweater #11 of my ‘learn to knit by making a dozen self-designed sweaters’ project. (Here are links to #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7 #8, #9, and #10, if you’d like to see my progress.)
With only 2 sweaters left to go, I didn’t think I could really claim to have conquered knitting if I’d never tried to cable, and I couldn’t put that off any longer!
I used Ysolda’s instructions for cabling without a cable needle – I’ve done all my knitting so far with just my interchangeable circular needles, and I like the idea of not needing any extra equipment where possible. Cabling is kind of fun – I don’t know why I waited so long to try it!
Aside from the cables, I tested out a few more new (to me) techniques with this design:
- I read that, when making a turned hem after a provisional cast-on, using one size larger needles for the joining row gives a less visible result, so I tried that. Verdict: I’m not sure it made much difference….
- I didn’t know how to tackle joining the part of the facing that sits behind the cable, so I left those stitches on some waste yarn and then sewed them to the back of the cable later.
Verdict: I’m really happy with how neat it looks! - I worked the cardigan as one piece up to the armholes, but I tried using a ‘basting’ stitch at each side – one extra column of purl stitches, to be ‘seamed’ later to add stability where the side seams would normally be.
‘basting’ column (L: right side, before seaming it invisibly away, R: wrong side)Verdict: It worked, but I think I prefer working in pieces and seaming. Call me weird, but I love mattress stitch!
Apart from that, I used techniques I’ve used before: waist shaping, and an attached icord edging all the way around (including the bottom edge and sleeve cuffs), leaving the icord detached to form buttonholes – a throwback to my very first sweater! In this case though, I think the icord echoes the width of the cables and gives a nice finish.
I really like the finished sweater, but keeping track of the 20 rows of the cable proved a bit frustrating at times – I’m not fully able to read the cable stitches yet to see where I am, as the shaping of the cable only really becomes apparent in later rows. I tried dropping down to fix mistakes, but because cabling takes a different amount of yarn than regular stitches, I wasn’t happy with the results and ended up having to frog 4 rows a couple of times when I’d made the open circle in the cable pattern too long or too short, and only realised much later.
I also found the cabling took too much time away from the meditative action of knitting, so I don’t think I’ll be designing many heavily-cabled pieces in the future (although, a simpler cable with an easier repeat may be an option).
But I’m happy with the end result, and the yarn (a cotton/acrylic blend) will make this a nice lightweight piece for warmer weather (although completely inappropriate for the current Canadian winter – I’ll look forward to wearing it next spring!)
So that was 11 of my 12 sweaters for this ‘learn-to-knit’ project completed, and at this point I was in a quandary as to what to design for the final piece in the collection. Was I still missing any essential knitting skills? (Colourwork is the obvious one, but I want these to all be wardrobe staples I’ll wear all the time, and I really don’t wear multi-coloured sweaters.)
I’ll reveal what I chose to make for the last piece in my next knitting update…
Robynn said
I’m so impressed! I had no idea you were doing this, and what a great way to conquer knitting. It is basically the same way I learned to knit, except that was pre-internet and I had very few books etc, so things like turned hems etc I figured out from scratch
June said
Thank you, Robynn! I have to admit I have 2 row counters and they’re completely useless to me because I cannot remember to update them between rows. Learning to read my knitting (the way I can read crochet) is probably the best answer for me, unless I can somehow find a way to remember to use a row counter consistently..!
I do think I’ll have to try Fair Isle at some point, just for skill-building if nothing else, but probably on a smaller project (wristwarmers or something) using leftover yarn from some of the sweater projects. Shades of grey are a very good idea though, thanks – I can see that working for me 🙂
Robynn said
See that’s the great thing about this kind of row counter – it stays on the needle like a stitch marker. When you slip it over to the right needle, you move up one link. So you don’t have to remember to click or anything – that kind is useless to me too!
June said
Aha! Now if this works with circular needles as well as straights, it might actually be something I can use. I’ll look into it, thank you 🙂