The Knitting Fiend

This Aran sure has a lot of cable crossings, and I got tired of using the darn cable needle. I decided to work the crosses without a cable. That’s fairly easy to do when crossing only two stitches as for a Left Twist (LT) or Right Twist (RT) which I show for “Wicker Work”.

I usually do things differently when I work a pattern with cable crossing involving more than two stitches, and traveling in a variety of directions. In many repetitive patterns, most of the cable crossing happen on the same row. In that case, I usually use a cable needle. But, for the sweater I’m concocting for Jim, the crossings are on so many different rows, and I got sick of using the cable needle! So, I swallowed hard and began to work most crossings without the cable needle. (I still use the cable needle for a few key crossings.)

Here’s an example of how I am crossing the stitches to work cables on this sweater. Some cables involve crossing knits over purls; some involve crossing knits over knits. Sometimes the right stitches cross in front the left stitches, these are often called front cross cables. I may cross the right stitches behind the left stitches; these are called back cross cables.

To illustrate the technique, I will work a back cross involving a purl and two knit stitches. You can adapt this to any type of crossing you like by dropping the correct stitches in step 2 and crossing the appropriate stitches in step 3.

1. Work across until you arrive at the stitches you want to cross. The three stitches to cross are shown on the left needle tip in the photo above left; the goal is to cross the two knit stitches in front of the purl stitch next to the tip.
2. First, make sure the work is not stretched tightly and stitches aren’t being pulled. Carefully drop the three stitches off the left needle tip. When some of the stitches are purls, they will generally automatically lean to the back; the knits will lean to the front. This is convenient, since you almost always cross knits in front of purls. See figure above right.
3. Insert left tip into purl stitch to the right and right tip into 2 knit stitches toward left making sure knit stitches lie in front of purl stitch. (See below left and right.)
   The order you insert the tips this doesn’t matter, but you need to be sure to cross the stitches as required for your particular cable crossing. In this example, I am crossing the knits in front of the purl, and that’s how I have them crossed on the needle tips.
4. Slip the two unworked knit stitches back to the left needle tip. The stitches are now crossed and in position to work off the left needle; see below left. You can now work them off as specified in the directions for your particular stitch pattern.
   For this particular cable crossing, I need to knit the two knit stitches, purl the purl stitch; so I did. (See below right.)

By the way, sometimes, the cable crosses don’t look terrific when I first finish them. One stitch in the row just knitted off may be loose relative to the others. I find that’s easy to fix by inserting a sock needle into the tight stitch and taking up the slack. I also periodically stretch the knitting laterally and vertically to even out the stitches. Works like a charm.

I find working the cables this way time saving. That said, I have some advice. First, practice on a swatch. Second, do keep the work scrunched up a bit when crossing. Stitches will unravel if you pull the knitting laterally. Last, but not least, keep a crochet hook handy, just in case you do drop a stitch.