Cable Schmable
OK, I was very excited to make a new tank from the Yarn Girls’ Beyond the Basics book that involved a cable in the middle of the front panel of the tank. I figured that with only one cable to worry about, that would be a good project to tackle as a first cable project. Well, the back was completed in just two days (started Sunday, finished yesterday). So far, it looks gorgeous. I’m using Lily Sugar N Cream yarn in Shaded Denim. I cast on and figured out what I needed to do to accomodate my adjusted width for the tank (just added a couple stitches, but I figured it out quite well), where I would just add a couple extra stitches on either side of the cable area, but the cable part of the pattern would remain intact and unchanged. Simple solution. So, I go and spend a good portion of this afternoon following the directions in the book, and it just looks like a tangled mess. I don’t know what I did wrong! So, I frogged back to the ribbed border/edging again, and I will try again tomorrow. I think I will need one of those thick wood cable needles instead of the skinny metal Boye one, since this is being done on #11 needles. I’m using a stitch holder instead for the moment to serve the same purpose so that I don’t lose the stitches. But it’s not working. 
I’m going to double check the Yarn Girls’ website to see if there is any errata (which I doubt), but I have to figure this out. This is one of those beasts in knitting that I must conquer! Bleeh!
Update: I checked, and there’s no corrections for this pattern on the Yarn Girls’ website. Corrections for other patterns, but not this one. Yuck.
Posted on July 11th, 2006 by Dani
Filed under: Projects, Works in Progress
Arg, you’re braver than I. I’m pretty cowed by the idea of cables and I suspect it’ll be a while before I brave tackling them.
Will you post pics when you get it figured out? I would love to see the work in progress!
Sure, no problem. I’ve been knitting almost a year and a half now, so I figured that it was time to learn, and since there was only one big cable in this pattern, I thought it would be easy. It is a teach yourself type of book as it is! Argh, cables! Helen has done them for the blanket she did for Lil’D, so maybe we can ask her if we get stuck.
Xiane, next time you’re in town visiting, give me a heads up and I’ll be happy to show you how to cable. I just made a gorgeous blanket with a series of simple cables and SSKYO’ed eyelets. Easiest pattern in the world once you have the techniques down.
Dani - can’t wait to see it once you get it figured out! You lead the way, I’ll follow. *grin*
Helen - that would be excellent! I would want to meet up with you the next time I’m in town there anyway, and what better to do than to knit!