Comments on: Cable Rebel?

By: travelita

travelita — Sat, 02 Oct 2004 13:39:24 +0000

Pony: too long and poked myself alot, don’t like metal feel, sts stayed on dip well, easy geting sts on but akward taking sts off.
J: easy to get sts on and knit sts off, don’t like metal feel, straight arm seems too long.
Brittany: purchased but haven’t tried yet, like the wood, shorter length, shaved mid, pointed ends are softer than the metal when poked.
It hadn’t occured to me to not knit off the CB needle. Maybe manipulating the CB needle forward stretches/sets the yarn creating memory/better stitch definition than if the sts were knitted off the left needle.
1) Why would cabling be taught front/back, back/front if there were not a benefit?
2) Does the lack of a CB needle create lessoned cable definition, i.e. flatter?

By: terri

terri — Sun, 12 Sep 2004 10:39:23 +0000

I’m another vote for the Brittany cable needle. The wood holds onto the stitch very well, and they come in sets of three; three different sizes. Not cheap, but since when do we knit for cheap?

By: Kathleen

Kathleen — Sun, 12 Sep 2004 10:08:20 +0000

I prefer a dpn too. Although in desperation, I once used a q-tip–without the puffy stuff.

By: cassie-b

cassie-b — Sat, 11 Sep 2004 15:15:08 +0000

I use a double-pointed needle, preferably short. Works for me. Not too long ago, in desperation on a trip, I used a mechanical pencil.

By: Jenn

Jenn — Fri, 10 Sep 2004 13:59:54 +0000

The Phoodie is looking fantastic! Great color choice!
-jenn

By: Oshun

Oshun — Fri, 10 Sep 2004 06:52:40 +0000

The owner of my LYS recently persuaded me to buy a (oh so soft) brittany double pointed cable needle (the one with the groove in the middle) and I am extremely happy with the results: I just put the stitches on to the needle and directly knit from that needle afterwards. I don’t like the no needle cable method (OK I must admit that the hassle of learning it seemed to me more trouble than it was worth).

By: Naomi

Naomi — Thu, 09 Sep 2004 16:55:40 +0000

I learned to cable by using a stitch holder, which necessitated transferring the stitches back to the left needle. I’ve tried cabling without a needle, and it doesn’t work for me; I usually use a dpn or something like it.

By: michele

michele — Thu, 09 Sep 2004 16:32:05 +0000

a woman i met uses a large plastic sewing needle for cables. she leaves a long tail when casting on and ties the needles to the tail, pulls the stitches off the knitting needle with the sewing needle, and then knits right off the sewing needle back to the knitting needle. Never loses or drops her cable needle this way.

By: Margene

Margene — Thu, 09 Sep 2004 15:55:34 +0000

After learning to do needleless cables I haven’t gone back. But I do put the stitches back on the needle if I happen to use a calbe needle. Even when it’s an 8 stitch cable (usually that’s with larger yarn) I still do them without needles. It can cause problems and break the rhythm from time to time but overall it works best for me.

By: Natalie

Natalie — Thu, 09 Sep 2004 15:26:45 +0000

I almost always use a hook-shaped cable needle. I have been cabling w/o a needle on the cabled scarf, but it really depends on the # of stitches and the yarn whether that is a good idea. As for putting them back on the left needle first, I don’t usually do that, but I have been sometimes on the DNA scarf I’m currently knitting.