Look! Look! Look!
It’s an 8-Stitch cable! My first attempt at cables, and it’s soooo easy! How did I not know how easy it would be? It’s a ten row repeat, and the cables cross on the 4th row (4th… 14th… 24th…). So after the first cross, all you have to do is know what row you’re on (so you know when to cross). The rest is all in the knitting. It tells you what to do. You knit the knits and purl the purls, and WHY HAVEN’T I TRIED THIS SOONER?!?!
I want to cable EVERYTHING now!
(And yes, I know there are cables that require more attention, but I purposely picked a simple-looking one for my first attempt. And it came out FABULOUS!)
Duck And Cover 
Congrats, it looks great! I haven’t been brave enough to do much cabling but you make it sound so fun and easy, maybe I should. 🙂
It really is (or at least the one I chose is). You only have to think just a bit on the 4th row. The rest just knits itself. 😀
Here is the pattern for the swatch. I did 40 rows. You only have to think on the 4th (14th, 24th, 34th) row:
Cast on 30 stitches
Row 1 (WS) – K4, p8, K6, p8, K4
Row 2: P4, k8, P6, K8, P4
Row 3: K4, p8, K6, p8, K4
Row 4: P4, sl next 4 stitches to dpn and hold in back; k4, then k4 from dpn, p6, sl next 4 stitches to dpn and hold in back; k4, then k4 from dpn, p4.
Row 5: K4, p8, K6, p8, K4
Row 6: P4, k8, P6, K8, P4
Row 7: K4, p8, K6, p8, K4
Row 8: P4, k8, P6, K8, P4
Row 9: K4, p8, K6, p8, K4
Row 10: P4, k8, P6, K8, P4
Rep Rows 1-10
I probably should say that this is how I slipped the stitches: I slipped the 4 purlwise to the right hand needle, then I slipped them knitwise to a travel chopstick (I have cable needles, but the travel chopstick was closer). Then you just knit them right off the cable needle. It takes a little balancing (I held the regular needle between my index and middle finger, and the chopstick between my middle and ring finger of my left hand), but once you survive the first crossing, the rest is cake!
Cable all the things!! LOL! That’s how I felt after my first successful cable pattern;)
excellent. I found myself hooked on cables, too, this winter: one you get the hang of it, you won’t go back 🙂
Cables are easy…I just get irritated having to drag around the cable needle everywhere…don’t ask why.
Well- there is the version where you do without the cable needle… I tried it and had to recover a dropped stitch. My yarn is too slippery for that to work.