Look ma, no cable needle!

[gwenynen]

Foof. Probably a rash undertaking, but I am knitting some Baroque socks for my MIL's 60th birthday do. The reasoning being, she knits loads of socks, but almost always gives them away because someone has said "oo, those are nice" whilst she's been knitting them, so she has very few pairs of knitted socks. Of course, I'm panicking that these won't be good enough, or that she'd rather have had the wool to knit her own. Still. They are in Malabrigo Sock, Impressionist Sky Blue. They are bloody hard. I am taking telynor's lead and cabling without a cable needle (admittedly, much helped by the fact that there are cable instructions for without as well as with!) I am hoping it gets easier with practice. Also, I am wishing that I had taken telynor's sage advice and bought me some Addi Lace needles. I suspect it would be foolish to change needles halfway through a sock/pair, however, so I will soldier on.
My "last person on the planet to realise it" discovery of the week is the Eye of Partridge heel, which I am doing on some Charlene Schurch socks in a variegated coral pink wool. I know triskellian raved about it last time I saw her, but I think it's the sort of thing one has to do and experience to see the full glory. It shimmers! Bloody hard to keep track, but absolutely worth every minute of it. So very, very pretty. :-D

Comments

[geekette8.livejournal.com]

Go on then - how do you cable with no cable needle? My MIL was telling me the other week that she sometimes used to just hold the stitches tightly between finger and thumb but there's no WAY I'd be dextrous enough to do that.

[dyddgu.livejournal.com]

The instructions on the page for Baroque probably explain it better than I could; telynor showed me at a knitting thing and I didn't quite get it then (it takes a couple of goes for things to sink in). It is mainly, afaict, as your MIL says, a matter of slipping some stitches off the needle and holding the base of them tight so they don't unravel, then rearranging them back on the working needle. In the instructions on the Baroque, it says to use your thumb to hold them against the right needle as they slip off, which certainly eliminates any problem of fitting extra fingers into the whole thing.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Argh the no-needle cable looks terrifying! I don't trust instructions that rely on my sweaty mitts holding the stitches whilst doing something else as well...

Those Baroque socks look bloody impressive, if somewhat... intense? I don't think my attention span could cope with that much concentration. :)

[dyddgu.livejournal.com]

I'm mainly using my thumbnail to press the stitches against the other needle.
Yes, the socks are giving me brainache. I'm only halfway through the first pattern repeat, though, and it is getting slightly easier as I'm learning to read the cable. :-)

[triskellian]

I'm doing Clessidra without a cable needle, and am finding it easier than expected, possibly because the yarn I'm using (CTH) just doesn't seem to unravel without force being applied, so sometimes I'm not even holding the loose stitches while I transfer.

Glad you're enjoying EoP too :-)

[dyddgu.livejournal.com]

I do keep nearly dropping these ones, making tiny splits in the yarn, &c. I think if I stopped concentrating I'd be screwed!

[gylfinir.livejournal.com]

Mae'r rheina'n hyfryd, a dwi'n edmygu dy ddawn! :-)

[dyddgu.livejournal.com]

Diolch :-) Taswn i'n gallu sgwennu cyn gyflymed a dwi'n gweu, base bywyd yn wych ;-)

[antarra.livejournal.com]

I am glad you are trying the cable minus cable needle thing. I was terrified to start with (but then I am always terrified trying something new) and I liked it a lot after a short while. No more hunting for the extra needle down the side of the sofa was a great plus, too.

[dyddgu.livejournal.com]

It is bizarre what I am scared of with knitting, it really is.

[ar-gemlad.livejournal.com]

I'm currently doing socks with 1-stitch cables - easy to do without a cable needle! They're the first cables I've tried, so I haven't had a chance to get intimidated by the idea of doing without the cable needle.

[dyddgu.livejournal.com]

I did simple 1-st cables on my honeycomb jumper without cable needles, though it didn't involve slipping any off the needle, as they were v. simple crosses :-)

[tinyastronomer.livejournal.com]

Whenever I see you referring to the MIL, I think "I didn't miss anything, did I?!", but I assume it's a non-technical definition...?

I really, really, really want to get knitting, but keep getting distracted and scared off by the fact I need to knit glovey bits now rather than just simple rounds.

[dyddgu.livejournal.com]

It's just 'cause I can't be arsed to type 'knirirr's mother' all the time ;-)

[tinyastronomer.livejournal.com]

I thought it might be something like that - makes sense.