Cables and Gauge

In doing the preparation for the class Cable Needle Freedom, and now the subsequent book, I experimented with cables and the way in which they draw in stitches across the knitted fabric. This becomes a major issue if you wish to add a decorative cable to the front of a plain sweater, but not to the back.

I have come up with a simple rule of thumb. I use the gauge of my plain stitch as the base gauge for the sweater or the socks or the scarf. I then increase the same number of stitches in the cable area that are used in the cable cross when beginning the body section of the fabric.

For instance if the cable is a 6 st cable (3 sts cross over 3 sts), I increase 3 stitches in that section. When the area of the fabric in which I am cabling is complete, I decrease the stitches right in the cable pattern.

For example, if I were using two decorative cable in a sweater in the section to the underarm and then using seed stitch from the underarm to the top, I would increase at the base of the cable in row above the rib and then decrease the same number of stitches at the top of the cabling before starting the seed stitch.

If this same 6 st cable were running the length of the garment, I would decrease on the last row before working the shoulder.

I do not included these extra stitches in the stitch counts for the garment. I increase when I need them and reduce back to the initial number when I am done.