Knitting Cables without a Cable Needle - Fun and Easy!

1. Intro: Hi, I'm Stacy Kenny Mitchell, Knitter and artists. In this class, I'll show you to mock cable stitches. They look like cables, but are made without a cable needle. The first stitch is the yarn over cable, a simple twist that creates an elegant narrow cable. The second is the slipped braided cable. As the name implies, it looks like stitches have been braided. If you feel confident about knitting and purlin than this class, is a great next step. I'll show you step-by-step how to create each of these stitches and then put them together to create a beautiful cabled scar. So grab some yarn and needles, and let's get started. 2. Class Project: The class project is a scar that combines the two stitches taught in this class. The instructions can be found in the resource section. In the lessons, I take you step-by-step through creating a swatch for the scar, including some special techniques for the bind off. My project using scrumptious DK worsted by fiber spades, using a 4.5 millimeter or US seven needle. Although this weight is no longer available, there is a lighter weight version of this yarn still in stock. I give approximate yardage recommendations for several different yarn weights. Just note that the finer the yarn you use, the narrower the scar. The length of scarf is up to you. Remember to purchase enough yarn if you want to make a longer scar. I'm looking forward to seeing your projects, whether you decide to this scar or incorporate the yarn over cable or slipped braided cable into another design. Hathi stitching. 3. Yarn Over Cable: In this lesson, we're going to learn the yarn over cable. Like all of the cable stitches in this class. None of the cable require a cable needle. So they're all just done with your regular knitting needles. No additional tools required. The yarn over cable is done over a multiple of five stitches plus two when it flat. And I have cast on 17 stitches. So that's three times 515 plus the two gives me 17. This stitch is done over four rows that are repeated over and over. And we'll begin with row one, which is on the right side of our fabric. So we'll start by hurling too. Then we will slip one and I'm slipping that knit wise, knitting the next two. And then passing that slip stitch by just going in and grabbing that stitch and then passing it over the two stitches I just knit. Perl to repeat. So we'll slip one and the yarn is the back. As we do that, we're going to slip it knit wise. Knit the next two stitches. Pass that slip stitch over. Bring the yarn to the front as we've Pearl the next two. Yarn to the back. Slip the stitch, knit wise. Knit the next two stitches. Grab that slip stitch. Passive over. Sometimes the yarn splits and you have to be careful. Make sure you're getting just the slip stitch. Pass that over. And we'll end with purlin to turn our work around. We're now on the wrong side. We'll start off with knit two stitches that are in-between the cables. And they're essentially a reverse stock in it stitch, which means that we will knit them on the wrong side and pull them on the right side. Pero one yarn over and pull the next one. The yarn has to go all the way over the needle and a back around so that it's in the right position. To parole the next stitch. We need it to row one, yarn over. Pull row one to row one. Yarn over. Again. I'm bringing that yarn all the way back around to the front row one. And we'll end knit to those yarn overs, help to make up the stitches, that slip stitch that we passed over, which decrease the number of stitches. So now we're back to having 17 stitches on our needle. On the next two rows, we're essentially going to just knit the knits and Pearl, the pearls. We start with our Perl to knit three Perl to knit three row 23. And then we will end for symmetry sake of Perl to those a little bit of a tug. And now we're back to the wrong side, and it is now a knit two, pearl three. The three stitches are what make up the cable. Those are paroled on the wrong side and Knits on the right side. And this completes one full row sequence of this stitch pattern. But it's not really enough to see completely what's going on here. As a matter of fact, if they heard it looks like anything is cabled at all. So let's keep going. And again, I will point out what I am doing as we go so that you can better see it in progress. But now we have definitely established two stitches, three stitches, 23232. And on that first pass, we will actually be decreasing one stitch in each of these little cable sections. But on the wrong side row, we will make that up by doing that yarn over in each of them. And that yarn over is what gives this little bit of a whole, shall we say? In our cables? You might be thinking cables don't really have a whole, but you'll see as it crosses how in essence it, it really does. Alright, let's begin. These are what I like to call the background stitches. Then we're going to slip one and we're slipping that knit wise, Renton knit individually the next two stitches. And then we will grab that slipped stitch and pull it over. That what is what it looks like? The cross of the cable. Perl to the background. Slip one, knit the next two stitches. Has that slip stitch over Perl to once more slip the first stitch. Knit. Next two stitches. Pass that slip stitch over. And then we will end with some background stitches. Here you will see that we have less stitches. We started with 17 and now we have 51014 stitches. We're going to make that up on this next row. On this wrong side row, we are performing a yarn over in-between the two pearls stitches. So our background stitches getting it. Then here we Perl one yarn over. We have to bring the yarn all the way around the needle because the next stitches also paroled. Knit to hurl one yarn over Perl one. Knit to Perl one yarn over. I'm just bringing my yarn all the way around the needle and back to the front. For a one. Knit two. Then these next two rows, we're back to just knitting the nits purlin, the pearls will Perl to knit three. For all tune it three Perl to knit three and end with Perl two groups. If you accidentally drop a yarn over, and it can happen, You're just want to pick that up by scooping up that yarn that's between the two stitches. That is the yarn over. Right? Fourth row of our four row repeat is still just knit the knits Pearl the pearls. So we will be needing to and purlin three. Right? We have completed a second set of repeats. And you can see now how it's starting to look like a little cable. Let's do one more so that you can see a full sequence of three and really start to see them stacking together. And remember when we start off, we're going to slip the first one knit wise, knit the next two, and then pass that slip stitch over. That essentially is what forms that crossing that is characteristic of cables. Slip one knit to pass the slip stitch over. Once we've done that, we need to now bring our stitch count back to the correct amount by adding that yarn over in-between the two pearls stitches. Pero one, yarn over pero, one. Meter backgrounds. Grow one yarn over parole one. We've completed another set of process and you can see how it's really starting to look like a little cable. We finish off these last two rows and we'll go ahead and bind off this swatch. Alright, there we go. We've done three row sequences, and it would be time to do another crossover. I'm gonna go ahead and bind this off. And in the next lesson, we will learn another cable stitch without a cable needle adheres that are completed swatch. 4. Slipped Braided Cable Part 1: In this lesson, we are going to make a slipped rated cable. This particular stitch is worked over a panel of nine stitches, which is five stitches for the actual cable with two stitches on each side for the background or the reverse stock in it. Because I'm going to do three cables in a row. I have done five stitches for each of those, plus two stitches in-between and two stitches on the edge. So that's 2525 to 52 and that comes out to 23 stitches. Let's get started. We're going to start on the wrong side row. It begins with knit two and Perl five. And then we repeat that all the way to the end, ending with a knit two. So essentially we are knitting those backgrounds stitches, which are the stitches between the cables and purlin, the five cable stitches. You could insert any one of these braided cables anywhere within a pattern, especially if you were making a foe. Aaron knit sweater and didn't want to do actual cables using a cable needle. This is a great alternative. So again, we have just done knit to pro five all the way across and we're ending with our knit two. Now we're going to start our first right side row. And our backgrounds stitches will be paroled. So we'll start with Perl to. Then for our braid, we're going to knit to slip one with a yarn still in the back. Knit two. And we just repeat that all the way through. So essentially we are just not knitting that center stitch of the five and instead are just slipping it with a yarn in the bag. And because it's not being worked, were just slipping it over to the other needle. It gets slipped. Parolees. Back to our wrong side row. We start with knit two. Then we Perl to, we are going to slip that same stitch. And again, we just looked at parole lies. Then Perl to Perl to slip one for. My yarn is in the front that keeps the yarn that's going behind the stitch on the wrong side of the fabric because we currently have the wrong side of the fabric facing us. Pretty easy so far. On our fourth row here, which is on the right side of the fabric. This is where things get a little tricky, but not too tricky. And I would venture to say less tricky than if you're trying to use a method where you have to hold the stitch off of the needle before you work it. Let me show you what I mean. I probe the first two as those are the background stitches. Then we're going to knit the next two. Drop that stitch. Now usually when you drop a stitch in knitting, it will tend to run. However, this is the stitch that we have slipped. So none of the yarn that actually forms this stitch is live on the needles. So I can pull and pull as long as they don't pull down here, this stitch will not run. We're going to knit these next two stitches. And then I will reach down, grab. 5. Slipped Braided Cable Part 2: Alright, that's just one part of the cable. And so now let's go ahead and do the other cross direction. It gets set up again over four rows. On this particular row. We are just going to knit two. Parole five. We'll do that all the way across our fabric. We're back to our right side. We can see that cross a little bit better. And this is when we start establishing that slipped stitch. So we'll begin with purlin two, that's our background. Then we will knit to slip one. And again, I'm slipping at parole wise because it does not get worked again on this row. Perl to knit, to slip one. And again my yarn is in the back because I'm on the right side row. And I want to make sure that the yarn that gets carried behind that slip stitch stays on the wrong side of the fabric. It to slip one per wise. To end Perl to. On this wrong side row, we continue to slip that center stitch of the cable area. So we knit our background stitches. Perl to slip one. It's that same slip stitch. And the yarn stays in the front. So that, that yarn that gets carried behind this stitch stays on the wrong side of the fabric. Roll those two it to Perl to slip. Parole too. It to Perl to slip. Perl two. And n with our knit two background stitches. We're back to the front again and it's time to cross. This time, we want to make that center stitch cross to the beginning. And how do we do that? Let me show you. We start with our Perl to making sure your yarn is in the back. The work, we are going to slip. The first two stitches. I did slip them knit wise. I'm going to drop off that stitch. Slip these stitches back, grab this stitch that we dropped. Go ahead and knit it. And then knit these four stitches. Let's keep going. Pearl or two backgrounds stitches. Now before I slipped these first two stitches, knit wise, it doesn't really matter as long as whichever direction you slip them, You follow that same direction coming back so that when I did pero lies and then I scooted them right back the same way. Then going to pick up this stitch that we dropped it, it, then these four stitches Perl to we'll do one more. I'll slip these knit wise so you can see dropped that one. And then I just have to flip them back. And it lies. That keeps the stitch from twisting on the needle. Grabbing the dropped stitch, knitting, knitting the next four, and then pulling the two backgrounds stitches. Now you can start to see the cabling happening. But let's do a few more of these rows so that we can really see it in action. So the next row after doing a cross is pretty much just re-establishing the knits and the pearls. Now let's say if changed order somewhat so we will knit two and Perl five all the way across. Alright, now we're ready to continue by setting up that slipped stitch. We do that for two rows. Starting on a right side row. We parole or to knit, to slip one, knit to continue that all the way across this row. Now on to the wrong side where we are going to continue to slip that center stitch. That's part of the five cables. Stitches. Start with Knit to Perl, to slip one. Pearl too. We'll do that all the way across this row. Alright, we're back to the right side and it's time to cross. This time we'll be taking the center stitch, the one that we'd been slipping. And we will knit it at the end of the little cable section. We start with our Perl to knit, to drop the stitch, it to pick up the stitch. And you can see it appear to drop all the way down here. But that is only because it was slipped and it is in no danger of running and pulling out the stitches below it. And it stretches nicely. And now we can really begin to see that breed happening. Again it to drop-off that stitch. The next two. Rob that stitch that was dropped, knit it. And it's good to go. Let's finish out the row. Here's how it's looking so far. And you can see it really does start to look like a braided cable. Let's keep going for a few more rows and I'll show you what the final swatch looks like. I thought it would be prudent to show you once more how to do the cross where we take the center stitch and knit it at the very beginning. Because of course we have to move these two stitches out of the way. So we'll start with our Perl to, for our background stitches. Making sure the yarn is in the back. We can slip the two stitches, drop-off that stitch that's been slipped in all the previous the two previous rows. Slip it back. Those stitches that we've moved over and that allows us to put that slip stitch that wasn't the center now at the beginning. And when we knit that, then we can just follow by knitting the next four. And that crosses it to the front. So this particular cross is a little more tedious than the other one that we did where we knit the drop stitch at the end. But again, you can just slip the two drop, slip those back, pick up the dropped stitch, and then go ahead and knit it. And then knit the next four, which are the remaining stitches of the cable. And we're ready to do that once more. Slits at the first two, drop, slip those two back, pick up the dropped stitch, knit it, and then knit next four. Here's our finished swatch. 6. Scarf Swatch Part 1: In this lesson, I'm going to combine these two Mach cable stitches into a sequence that will become a scarf. So let's get started. I have cast on 45 stitches, and I'm going to start by knitting the first two, which will serve as edge stitches. Hurling two, which will serve as a background stitch. Then I'm going to slip one knit to pass the slip stitch over. And you may recognize that as the start of our yarn over cable. Then we have two backgrounds. Stitches will Perl those two. We'll do another yarn over cable. So slip one, knit the next two stitches. Slip past the slip stitch over the two stitches. Perl to the background. The next five stitches are part of our braided cable. Now in our swatch, we started with the wrong side row. So instead, I'm gonna go ahead and start with row two because I'm on the right side of the work. And for that, we're going to knit two. Slip one, which I'm slipping her allies and knit to Perl to the background. Then we're going to do another yarn over cable. So that is slip one, that is slipped knit wise. Because then we're going to knit two and pass the slip stitch over. We slip that one knit wise because we turn around and use that stitch and work it in that same row. Perl to we're back to another section of braided cable, which is done over five stitches. So we'll knit to slip one per wise. Knit to Perl to, for the background. Slip one. Knit to pass the slip stitch over. Perl to slip one. To pass the slip stitch over Perl to. Then the last two are the edge stitch of our swatch. I'm going to knit one, bring my yarn forward and slip the last one. This is going to create a really lovely edge. And I'm going to do that. Slipping the last stitch and always knitting the first stitch. So now that we're on the wrong side, we're going to knit that first stitch. Pearl, this next stitch, which is still part of our edging. Then we have backgrounds stitches which get knit on the wrong side. So knit two on our yarn over cable. We're going to Perl one yarn over, making sure the yarn comes all the way back to the front so we can parole the next stitch. Knit two, those are the background. We have another yarn over cable. Perl one, yarn over Perot won. Knit two. Now we are to the braided cable over the five stitches where we are going to Perl to slip one, Perl to knit two backgrounds stitches. We have another yarn over cable. That is Perl, one, yarn over parole one. Knit, two backgrounds stitches. We have another Brita cable. So this one will be Perl to slip, one, Perl to knit two backgrounds stitches. You aren't over cable. Perl one yarn over for a one. Knit two, background. Another yarn over cable. Pero, one, yarn over Perl, one. Knit two. For the background. Perot won and slip one. That's where the edge. Because this swatch is a prototype for what will become a scarf. We want to make sure that the edge, it looks nice and clean. Alright, we're ready for row three. Knit our first two stitches to the edges. Perl to background stitches. We're now to the yarn over cable. And in this case we just knit three Perl to for the background. Another yarn over cable, which has knit three on this row. Two backgrounds stitches. Now we have a cross for our braided cable. Now in our sample swatch that we did earlier, cables that are next to each other, they're all identical. So when the crosses happen, the either all cross to the left or they all cross to the right. If you can do that in your scarf as well, or if you want it to be perfectly symmetrical, then you can decide to, because we have two of them. One will cross to the left and one will cross to the right. And then when we cross again, a few rows from now, it will be opposite. That is what I'm going to do. But you can certainly do your Brady cables exactly the same as you come across them on the when you're stitching. Alright. So this one, I'm gonna go ahead and have cross to towards the right. So I have two slits. The first two stitches, drop. Slip stitch, reached down and pick that up. Knit that stitch and then knit for. Now I'm going to Perl to, that's the background stitch. We have a yarn over in-between, yarn over cable in-between that. So we're going to knit those three Perl to. And now we're to the next braided cable where I had this one cross to the right. I'm going to have this middle stage cross to the left. So I'm going to knit two, drop the slip stitch. Knit to pick up the dropped stitch, need it. And then continue on to background. Three stitches for the yarn over cable to background. Pearl. Three stitches knit for the yarn over cable to backgrounds stitches are two edge stitches where we knit one and then we slipped the last one, but with a yarn in the front. All right, We're back to the wrong side and we're going to continue on. We knit the first stitch. I'm going to Pearl the second. That's part of the edge stitching. Then we have knit two for our background. We're going to Pearl three. That's part of the yarn over cable. Knit two. Pearl three, another yarn over cable. Knit two. Perl five. Knit two, pearls, three. And we'll continue. You're essentially just knitting your knits, curling your pearls. When I come to the last two stitches, I Perl one and then my yarns already in the front and I slipped that last line. 7. Scarf Swatch Part 2: All right, We're back to the beginning and we have the very start of our sequence. And then lovely scar. Knit the first two. Girls, two. And we have completed one whole set of row repeats for our yarn over cable. So we're ready to start. A new sequence of that are braided cables are only halfway done of the sequence will be continuing with those. But on our braided cables were going to slip the first one knit wise. Knit two, and pass that slip stitch over. Here we are again to another yarn over cable. Slip the first one, knit to pass this loop stitch over. Remember after this row you'll have less stitches, one less stitch for every yarn over cable that is across the body of work. But we get those stitches back on that wrong that next wrong side row. We've Perl to. And we are to our braided cable they're wearing she knit to slip one that gets slipped lies with yarn in the back. Knit two background stitch. We have another braided yarn over cable rather. And that is slip one, knit to pass that slip stitch over. Girl two, back to another braided cable. Knit to slip one. Knit two. Background. Another braided cable, slip one. Knit to pass that slip stitch over. Perl to slip one, knit two because we're on another yarn ever cable. Pass that slip stitch over Perl to knit one. Slip, the last one with a yard in the front. You can see it's creating a lovely edge on both sides there, which will give a nice anchor and smooth, lovely smooth edge. So it's really starting to make some progress. Let's keep going. On this wrong side row. We have to make up a stitch for the one that we decreased on the yarn over cables. By performing a yarn over. We start our sequence with knitting the first one and pulling the second. Those are the edge stitches. Then we open it to the background. And yarn, oh, I'm sorry. Perl one yarn over for a one. Knit to another, yarn over cable. So Perl one yarn over Perl one. Knit two were now to a braided cable, which is Perl to slip one. Perl to knit two yarn over cable. Parole one yarn over for a one unit to another braided cable. So that is Perl to slip, one, Perl to background. Yarn over cable. For one, yarn over per one. Knit to our last yarn over cable, parole one yarn over Perl, one, knit two, pero one, and our yarns already in the front. So we can just go ahead and slip that last one. Okay. We're back to the right side again, and it is time to cross on the braided cable. Or yarn over cables are just going to be getting the knits and pulling the pearls. That keeps it pretty simple and are only cabling is done on the braided cables. So we start off with Knit to hurl to knit three. That's our yarn over cable. Know cabling happening on this particular row. Another yarn over cable. So it's just knit three, curl E. Now we are to our braided cable. So on this particular one, the last time I made across, it went from the center to the right. So this time I will need to go from the center to the left. I will knit to drop one stitch, knit to pick up that dropped stitch. And in it, there's the start of that cable. Perl to. Now here we are. We have our yarn over cables and it's just knit three Perl to. Now. Here we are to our next braided cable. So this one, I went from the center to the left. So this process has to go from the center to the right. And to do that with yarn in the back, I'm going to slip to drop this stitch that had been slipped. Move those to slip stitches back, hiccup, the dropped stitch, knit that stitch. The next four. And now we have that cable going and you can see they're going opposite, so they're mirror images of each other. Again, it's totally up to you. You could do both the same way, but it's really easy to see. Once you make that initial decision on which crosses happening first. Then you just know every time there's a cross, you do opposite of what you did last time. Perl to knit three for our yarn over cable. Perl to knit three, purple to one and bring the yarn forward. Just slip the last one. All right. On this wrong side row, all we're doing is knitting, knits and purlin pearls. So there will always be two knits in-between a sequence of either three or five pearls. And I'm always knitting the first one. Then we have one pearl. Here we are with one complete eight row sequence. And these eight rows will be repeated over and over. Within those eight rows, you get two repeats of the yarn over cable. And one full repeat of the braided cable. You would repeat these eight rows over and over until you get to the length of scarf you desire. 8. Binding Off Scarf: I wanted to show you how I'm going to bind off the scarf in order for the top edge to mimic the bottom edge and to really have the consistency and coherence to our pieces. If I were to just bind off straight across now, even if I knit, bound off in pattern knitting and purlin, as it goes, this would flare out. So I want to go ahead and keep everything as consistent as possible. So let's start by knitting the first two. And then we'll pass the stitch over. I'm keeping it fairly loose as I go. I'm going to Pearl the next one, moving my yarn to the back. Before I pass that stitch over, Pearl again, the next one, yarn to the back, bring that stitch over. That's all fairly normal if you're going in pattern, but here's where it gets a little trickier. So if we were continuing our scarf, we would be slipping this stitch, then knitting each of the next two stitches and passing that over. So I'm going to slip that first one. Knit these two together. Pass the slip stitch over. And then I'm gonna go ahead and pass the stitch over as binding off. Now I'm going to Pearl the next stitch. Pass that stitch over. Pearl the next one. Pass that stitch over. And we're to another yarn over cable. So we slip the first one, knit the next two together. Pass the slip stitch over. That completes the cable look. And then for the binding off, we take that stitch and bring it over. And you can see that has a really nice even appearance. That balance as well with the Start. Here we are at the braided cable. The thing about the braided cable is because that center stitch is usually slipped. It is like the width of this cable is really only for stitches. We're gonna do a similar type of thing where we're going to combine some stitches together so that this doesn't widen out as it's bound off. Will knit the first one. Find that off. Knit the second one. Bind that off. And then I'm going to knit two stitches together. Bind that one off. This last stitch of the cable, and bind that. And that helps bring that cable to maintain the width that it is throughout the entire piece. Then we're back to find those on another yarn over cable. So remember we slip the first one, knit the next two together. Pass that slip stitch over, and then bind to more pearls. And we're to another braided cable. So the same thing. Here. We're going to knit one, bind it all. One, find it all together. Signed it off. The last one, and bind that all. You can see that's a much it out that way. It helps keep the consistency of the width. And we're just going to finish off the rest of the swatch and take a look at our scarf swatch sample. I am down to the last two stitches, which are the edge stitches. Because the very end stitch is, you can kind of think of it as it's turned sideways. I'm gonna go ahead and knit these last two stitches together and bind those off that way. There's our completed swatch for the scarf pattern. You can see it has a lovely edge. All down the side. We have two sets of yarn over cables on each end. Brady cables in the center, and then the very center has another yarn over cable. And I have made my braided cables mirror images of each other. But it's certainly reasonable for you to do both exactly the same, going in the same direction. This swatch was knit with a DK weight yarn on a size six needle. You can knit this scarf in any weight yarn with the appropriate size needle. The larger the yarn larger the needle, the wider the scarf will be. So this particular swatch is measuring about five inches wide. You do want to pick yarn that is relatively smooth so that the definition of the cables really stands out. In the end. You could block it a little bit to stretch it apart. Really bring out the separation between the cables. But it's perfectly fine to leave it like this as well. Still stand nicely out from each other. So let's take a look at the finished scarf. 9. Final Notes: I have a few final notes in regards to choosing a yarn when working with cables. The best yarn to accentuate cables is a smooth, plied yarn. A fuzzy or textured yarn competes for attention and usually doesn't do the cables justice. A lighter color is easier to work with, especially when first learning these stitches. A finer yarn will create a smaller and more delicate cable, whereas a chunkier yarn will create a larger, bolder cable. I recommend a worsted weight yarn to practice with. Be sure to choose appropriately sized needles for your yarn. Experiment using a size smaller or larger, to see how this affects the knitted fabric. And above all, have fun. Remember to breathe and take each step one stitch at a time.