Many knitters have turned to needles and toothpicks to make tiny little projects.
What to use instead of cable needle.
The handy thing about cable needles is that they are just the right size.
For the c6b example you d need to insert the right needle into the 3 stitches on the left needle and pull them completely onto the right needle.
I came up with ten things to use instead of a cable needle.
If you want to buy a cable needle or two most come in set of two or three with several different sizes in the set.
Follow along with your own test swatch.
Try both ways and use whichever technique is more comfortable to you.
The needles are remarkably simple in their design.
When choosing the needle diameter use one that is the same size or smaller than the regular needles for the project.
You use one end to slip the stitches on and the other end to knit them off.
I tend to use the straight version if i need to use cable needles often don t for small cables and i tend to use a spare single pointed needle instead of a cable needle most of the time.
Larger knitting needles force you to make larger knitting projects.
Cable needles are only a few inches long and they come in fewer diameters because they only hold a few stitches for a short time.
But there are times when i can t do it this way like big cable patterns unstable bus ride or i just don t feel like doing it hey this is enough of a reason i think.
A regular double pointed needle is perfectly sufficient for your first cabling experiment but i would find it cumbersome and well worth a few dollars to have just the right tool.
You ll find cable needles in metal plastic bamboo wood and even glass.
Slide the remaining cable stitches onto the right needle.
But the technique of cabling without a cable needle is a sure way to speed up your stitch work maintain your knitting speed a little better and help you to fall in love with cablework all over again.
This video demonstrates the technique for how to use a cable needle to create cables in knitted work.
When you suspend stitches on the cable needle let the cable needle dangle down in front of your work giving the yarn a slight.
I have tried several of the popular ones above but have decided to use a straight double pointed dpn bamboo needle instead.
I knit most things with nickel plated needles especially socks.
The bigger or smaller the needle the more delicate the project.
Leave the stitches that you just slid off so they re in the back behind the needles but use your right needle to pull off the remaining cable stitches from the left needle.
Slip 2 sts onto cable needle and hold to back.
2 2 rc right cross.
They are designed to temporarily hold a few stitches out of the way while you work with other stitches.
Instead of knitting stitches directly from the cable needle you may prefer to return the suspended stitches to the lh needle before you knit them.
I was challenged by a friend on how tiny i could knit.