today I want to demonstrate a front
cross cable it's a relatively simple
technique that makes everything look
like a million bucks if you can make a
cable sweater people will think you've
been knitting for years before I get
started I just want to
review uh a couple of terms Ms mainly
that we're working in stock AET Stitch
that's where you knit one row Pearl the
next knit one row Pearl the next and
that gives you that nice smooth
stockinet
Stitch the this Swatch is done with
stock AET Stitch the cable is in stock
AET Stitch and to make it pop out the
two stitches before the cable and two
stitches after the cable are in reverse
stock andet
Stitch you can see the back of the
Swatch so you can see how the stockinet
this is actually then reverse stockinet
here all right so I'm going to be using
to demonstrate I'll be using my size
four
needles and a lot of knitting books will
tell you oh you can just use a crochet
hook or you can use a spare needle to
hold your cable stitches I think it's
easier if you just go ahead and buy a
package of cable Stitch holders and the
key is to choose the Stitch holder
that's closest in size to your knitting
needles so I'm going to use the smallest
of these three comes closest in size to
the size four
needles all right so what I'm going to
do is I'm going to begin by casting on
26
stitches because I'm going to knit eight
and then reverse
stockinet for two stitches
six Stitch total for the cable another
two and then
eight okay I've worked a couple rows of
the pattern so we've got stockinet two
reverse stock andet stock andet where
the cable's going to go and so forth
so I'll go ahead and I'll get up to the
cable point so I'm going to start by
knitting those first eight stitches
which gives me the
stockinet now if you're social knitting
and don't want to have to count you can
of
course
add little
markers you know where you need to
change stitches but it'll become pretty
apparent as the pattern gets going so
here's the two reverse stock
andet that are going to make the cable
pop
out now we've got these six
stitches and take the cable Stitch
holder pull three of these
off and pull them down in front of the
work knit the next
three all right this where it gets just
a little
tricky so you don't want to lose the
needles or the stitches off of that
other
needle now we're going to knit off of
the Stitch holder so don't be careful
not to twist your stitches you want to
keep them in the same order and knit
one
two
three it'll feel very tight and it does
play with your gauge when you do uh when
you do
cable so we'll get that out of there and
then continue on so we'll do our two
reverse
stockinet
and knit to the end of the
row now we just go back to the
pattern for
another seven rows and on the eighth row
we'll repeat the cabling so I'm going to
go
ahead and do the back side
here so reverse stocking it now we're
going to
Pearl eight
stitches and we're going to knit two
these are the ones that make the cable
stand
out then Pearl six and these are the
back side of the
cable so they'll be a little
tight they'll feel
different there and
then knit the two for the
reverse and finish
out the
row so this
makes one row of the seven
that we need to knit
before we cable
again so you can look at it and you can
you can see the beginning and it's kind
of exciting to see the very beginning of
your first
cable we've done seven rows of the
pattern stocking net reverse stocking it
the
cable and out the end with reverse and
stocking at so now we're going to Cable
again to give us that second cable
so go ahead and knit these
eight Pearl the two reverse stocking
that and just as
before pull the three
off
hold them in front of the
work knit the
three
remaining again don't want to lose those
stitches now we're going to knit the
three off the cable
needle
Pearl those two reverse stocking
it and knit to the end of the
row
all right and again we're going to
do seven
rows and then
repeat but already you can see that you
have a cable
going so you do the Swatch however long
you want to do
it once it's
blocked flattened
out here's what you've
got so that's a basic front cross
cable