I've been trying to learn to cable on and off for a while now, and it's finally beginning to make a bit of sense.
I started out using one of these crooked needles to the left, a short piece of plastic that is actually very good for preserving those cable stitches while you knit or purl, before completing your stitches for the desired effect.
The main problem I had with this cable needle type was that the stitches would sometimes still break free of that 'kink' and slide off the end. Smooth plastic plus slippery acrylic mix yarn = DISASTER (and it's quite difficult - for me at least - to recover from slipped cable stitches).
I then switched to one of these:
...and this was much easier to use as the cable stitches 'hang' quite nicely to the back or front of your work, depending on what your pattern calls for.
Standard cable stitches (where you're literally just crossing over a couple of stitches for a nice decorative and textured effect) work really well with these, but for a long time I'd also been attempting to knit a 'cell' pattern that joins up cabled stitches into an almost bees-nest-like textured pattern of wells. It's a gorgeous stitch if you can get it to work so I thought I'd pass on the pattern.
Cell Pattern
Work in multiples of 8 stitches, plus 1 edge stitch on each side (I started out with 26 stitches to build up a nice example of the pattern)
1st Row:
Knit all
2nd and every alternate row:
Work each stitch in the manner it is presented (ie knit the knit stitches, purl the purl stitches)
Third Row:
K1 (Edge), *Cable 4 Back (take 2 stitches onto your cable needle at the BACK of your work, knit 2 stitches then knit the two stitches on your cable needle), Cable 4 Front (take 2 stitches onto your cable needle at the FRONT of your work, knit 2 stitches, then knit the two stitches on your cable needle)*
Repeat * to * until the last stitch then K1 (Edge)
4th Row:
Work each stitch in the manner it is presented (ie knit the knit stitches, purl the purl stitches)
5th Row:
Knit all
6th Row:
Work each stitch in the manner it is presented (ie knit the knit stitches, purl the purl stitches)
7th Row:
K1 (Edge), *Cable 4 Front (take 2 stitches onto your cable needle at the FRONT of your work, knit 2 stitches then knit the 2 stitches on your cable needle), Cable 4 Back (take 2 stitches onto your cable needle at the BACK of your work, knit 2 stitches, then knit the two stitches on your cable needle)*
Repeat from * to * until the last stitch then K1 (Edge)
8th Row:
Work each stitch in the manner it is presented (ie knit the knit stitches, purl the purl stitches)
Hopefully you'll do better than I did with this! I made one mistake (clearly seen in the photo above) where I took the cable stitches to the front of the work twice (eep!) but once you've started building up these 8 rows a couple of times, you'll start to see this gorgeous cell pattern form. Really great if you're working a nice chunky Beanie, scarf, sweater or cardigan (and the thought of all that cabling doesn't scare you off!)
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