The cable swatch is one complete repeat (24 rows) of the center panel (right side of the photo) and one side panel (left side of the photo).

Starting at the right is a 6 stitch wave cable, then a 4 stitch honeycomb, then a 10 stitch braid, another 4 stitch honeycomb, and another 6 stitch wave. This set of cables represent the side panel. The mirror image of this panel will be repeated on the other side of the center panel.

To the right of the side panel is a 6 stitch braid, then a 23 stitch simple Celtic cable with a 24 row repeat, then another 6 stitch braid.

 Now, I just need to order my yarn!

And it looks GREAT on her!

This is my first “Girl From Auntie” project. I’m truly amazed by the quality of her design on this pattern. Not only is the pattern extremely well written, the charts are easy to follow and the legend is excellent.

Her use decreases to move the cables, and reduce the size of the hat are very creative. All of the decreases are hidden in the knot pattern, there is not one decrease on the vertical cables, at least until the second to last row. The cable pattern goes all the way to the last row, and the symmetry is never lost.

I love this pattern!

This hat was knit using Blue Sky Alpacas Melange, colorway 811 (Bubblegum), which is a deep pink.  This stuff is wonderful to work with.  It’s smooth, even, and very, very, very soft.  I’ll defintely work with it again.

This is could be a challenging project, if you’ve never done cables before, but it is would also be a truly satisfying learning experience.

Well, I finally did it, I learned to do cables without a cable needle.  It is so easy, I’m shocked that they even make cable needles!  I’m working on the Celtic Cable Cap, using a cable needle.  Once I get going, I go pretty quickly.  However, everyone on Ravelry (if you aren’t on yet, go get on the waiting list!) keeps raving about how easy it is to cable without a needle, and how the needle only slows you down.  Well, except for the few people who love their U shaped aluminum needles, and say that they are afraid of dropping stitches.

So, given how everyone says it easy and faster, and the fact that there are some who are afraid to do it, I had to try it myself.  I mean, I don’t want to be left behind while “all the cool kids are doing it”.  At the same time, I like a challenge, so if some people are saying it’s hard, or scary, then I’ve got to try it myself, just to see if I can do it.

Guess what…

It is super easy.

I love my Brittnay Birch Cable Needles, and I doubt I’ll be tossing them with my old metal needles and acrylic yarn, but I doubt I’ll be reaching for them unless I get into some crazy hard cabling.

So for all the nay-sayers who are saying, “Nay!”  Here is a great articleon how to cable without a needle.  I saw some other articles explaining it, but they tend to do the complete cross, then knit the whole mess.  That seems complicated, and tight.  Grumperina’s method has you slip the first half that would normally go on the cable needle, then knit (or purl) the second half.  Then you do the cross, and knit (or purl) the rest.  It’s easier to do than describe.  Go have a look at the pictures, you’ll get it.

I finally got some test yarn for my latest project, FLAK(Follow the Leader Aran Knitting).  I knit the gauge swatch for the filler stitch last night.  I washed and blocked the swatch, can you believe it?  I chose a moss stitch for the filler, instead of the suggested seed stitch.  I got the suggestion from someone’s project on Ravelry, and I like the look of it better.

I’ve decided on Knit Picks Wool of the Andes, in Forest Heater.  I ordered two balls of the yarn, to make sure I liked the color.  I also purchased Claret Heather, but it is way more red than it looks online. 

My gauge is dead on with size 6 (4.0 mm) needles.  I’ve got a little more edging to do on my Reid, which it turns out I should be able to finish as a Christmas gift for my daughter.  So, I won’t be doing much work on the sweater before Christmas.  I might pop into my favorite LYS tomorrow (since they’ll be open) and get one of those fancy rosewood circular needles to work the sweater on.  I’ve been saying all along, that when I do this sweater, I’m going to treat myself to a good set of needles.

It isn’t much yet, but here is my gauge swatch:

I’m thinking of changing out the center cable on the FLAK with something more like this.

I’ll probably have to add a cable on either side, maybe some chevrons.  I’ll keep hunting.  I’m also considering adding a Triquetra to the back, in the middle, between the shoulder blades.  Since the sweater is knit top down, I’ll have to experiment with flipping the chart  over.  I’ll post more on that later.

I finished one of my fingerless gloves, and then decided I need to make them gloves with full fingers…

 The gauge is good, the size is right on, but they are THICK.  They are so heavy that I couldn’t use them as fingerless gloves.  Either I’d wear them when it was really cold, and my fingers would freeze, or I’d wear them when it was warmer, and my hands would be too hot.  I’ve decided to go back and finish the fingers.  I’ll make another pair of fingerless gloves with different yarn that is lighter weight.

 Maybe some of that wonderful Malabrigo.

I really like the way the Triquetra looks on the back.  You can see from the picture that I left all of my bind-offs loose, so I can easily pull them back off and join some new yarn to finish up.

I made a quick trip to the only place open late to get some yarn.  It was a big chain store, so there wasn’t much to choose from.  I ended up with some Paton’s Classic Wool.  It’s pretty good, it’s wool, and it’s inexpensive.  Exactly what I was looking for to use for test swatches.

When I got home I made another alteration to my Triquetra pattern.  Here is what I ended up with:

I like this one better.  The top is narrower, but it’s still a bit round. for my taste.  Maybe I’ll work on that some more. 

I’m planning to use this as a pattern worked in the back of a pair of fingerless gloves I’m trying to design.  So I worked the knit stitches much closer to the pattern.   It is difficult to see in the picture, but it works well.

I’ve been wanting to start doing cables for a while now.  I mean really doing cables, not just doing simple twists, but designing complex patterns.  So, I started off small a simple Triquetra.  Well, I thought it would be simple, I searched and searched, and searched for a chart or pattern I could follow, with no luck.  Then, I came across something kinda close.  I charted it out, and made some modifications, and I came up with this:

There are two things wrong with it.

1. The top loop is way too wide
2. It’s knit with icky acrylic yarn.

Nothing to be done about the acrylic, but I bet I can improve on the pattern.