Cables

As with my post on lace, I’m not going to go into a great deal of detail about my design process. Among other things, I’m not sure I have a clear enough conscious grasp of how I do it—yet. Maybe someday. In the meantime, I can only suggest copious swatching and trying things out. Even failed attempts will teach you things about design.

For cables or twisted stitches, each square on the grid should be thought of as taking up multiple rows and stitches, so that it outlines a crossing and the minimum vertical space before the next crossing should happen. For cables, you’ll want the cells from the grid to be at least four stitches across and four rows vertically—the cross from a marked cell will happen on just one of those rows. Twisted stitches require at least two cells horizontally and vertically.

Original grid followed by the subdivided grid

Grids3
cablesgridcableskey


Chart

cables1

Once you’ve got your basic chart, you can play around with variations. The simplest variant I came up with is to put a purl column in between every pair of columns with a twist, like this:

cable1

cables2

peace twist 1
Round 1: (1/1 RC, p, k2, p) x 2.
Round 2: (k2, p) x 4.
Round 3: k2, p, 1/1 RC, (p, k2) x 2, p.
Round 4: (k2, p) x 4.
Round 5: (k2, p) x 3, 1/1 RC, p.
Round 6: (k2, p) x 4.
Round 7: (1/1 RC, p, k2, p) x 2.
Round 8: (k2, p) x 4.
Round 9: (k2, p) x 3, 1/1 RC, p.
Round 10: (k2, p) x 4.
Round 11: (k2, p) x 3, 1/1 RC, p.
Round 12: (k2, p) x 4.
Round 13: (k2, p) x 3, 1/1 RC, p.
Round 14: (k2, p) x 4.
Round 15: k2, p, 1/1 RC, (p, k2) x 2, p.
Round 16: (k2, p) x 4.
Round 17: (k2, p) x 3, 1/1 RC, p.
Round 18: (k2, p) x 4.
Round 19: (1/1 RC, p, k2, p) x 2.
Round 20: (k2, p) x 4.

The next swatch is the beginning of more complicated playing around. I declared to myself that the coded crosses would mean anywhere that a knit stitch crossed over a knit stitch; otherwise I could place a knit stitch crossing a purl stitch anywhere I pleased, including on return rows.

cable2

cables3

Chart: peace twist 2
Round 1: k, p, 1/1 LC, p,  * p, 1/1 LC, p2, 1/1 LC, p * , p, 1/1 LC, p, k.
Round 2: k, p, k, 1/1 LPC,  * 1/1 RPC, k4, 1/1 LPC * , 1/1 RPC, k, p, k.
Round 3: k, 1/1 RPC, p, 1/1 RC,  * p, 1/1 LPC, 1/1 RPC, p, 1/1 RC * , p, 1/1 LPC, k.
Round 4: k2, p2, k,  * k, p2, k2, p2, k * , k, p2, k2.
Round 5: 1/1 RC, p, 1/1 RPC,  * 1/1 LPC, p, 1/1 RC, p, 1/1 RPC * , 1/1 LPC, p, 1/1 RC.
Round 6: k, 1/1 LPC, k, p,  * p, k, 1/1 RPC, 1/1 LPC, k, p * , p, k, 1/1 RPC, k.
Round 7: k, p, 1/1 LC, p,  * p, 1/1 LC, p2, 1/1 LC, p * , p, 1/1 LC, p, k.
Round 8: k, 1/1 RPC, k, p,  * p, k, 1/1 LPC, 1/1 RPC, k, p * , p, k, 1/1 LPC, k.
Round 9: 1/1 RC, p, 1/1 LPC,  * 1/1 RPC, p, 1/1 RC, p, 1/1 LPC * , 1/1 RPC, p, 1/1 RC.
Round 10: k2, p2, k,  * k, p2, k2, p2, k * , k, p2, k2.
Round 11: 1/1 RC, p2, k,  * k, p2, 1/1 RC, p2, k * , k, p2, 1/1 RC.
Round 12: k2, p2, k,  * k, p2, k2, p2, k * , k, p2, k2.
Round 13: 1/1 RC, p2, k,  * k, p2, 1/1 RC, p2, k * , k, p2, 1/1 RC.
Round 14: k2, p2, k,  * k, p2, k2, p2, k * , k, p2, k2.
Round 15: k2, p2, 1/1 RC,  * p2, k2, p2, 1/1 RC * , p2, k2.
Round 16: k2, p2, k,  * k, p2, k2, p2, k * , k, p2, k2.
Round 17: 1/1 RC, p, 1/1 RPC,  * 1/1 LPC, p, 1/1 RC, p, 1/1 RPC * , 1/1 LPC, p, 1/1 RC.
Round 18: k, 1/1 LPC, k, p,  * p, k, 1/1 RPC, 1/1 LPC, k, p * , p, k, 1/1 RPC, k.
Round 19: k, p, 1/1 LC, p,  * p, 1/1 LC, p2, 1/1 LC, p * , p, 1/1 LC, p, k.
Round 20: k, p, k2, p,  * p, k2, p2, k2, p * , p, k2, p, k.

Next: Other methods of encryption.