Special thanks to Mark Rougeux
Cabling needles come in a variety of sizes and shapes. They can make working with cables a joy or a curse, depending on how adept you are at handling them.
The needles are remarkably simple in their design. They are designed to temporarily hold a few stitches out of the way, while you work with other stitches. 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. I find that the stitches slide much easier and keep my yarn tension more consistent. I prefer the bamboo DPN to act as a cabling needle for just the opposite reason. Metal and some of the very hard plastic needles allow the stitches to slide off very easily. I tend to drop many stitches that way. The bamboo needle has more of a drag to it and holds the needles firmly in place until I am ready for them.
This is especially important when doing running cables that cross each other and you end up using two DPNs for cable needles at the same time.
When I use the other types of needles, the ones with the a bend in their middle, the safety-pin style, or the ones that resemble a shepherd’s crook, they tend to overlap or get tangled and that gets my yarn, my needles, my fingers, and often times my mind a bit bunched up. The DPN bamboo needles don’t have to be held in place while you are knitting the cable stitches; they simply hang onto the yarn and stay put.
Another reason I chose to use a DPN is that I have them in my knitting supplies. I didn’t want to go out and purchase more needles if I could use what I already have. I am a firm believer in dual-purpose tools.
At the moment, I am making a pair of socks as a test knitter for a designer and I am using a 2.25 mm (US 1) circular needle. Sock yarn can be difficult to work with at times, because of its gossamer-like weight. It truly is like knitting with air at times. The yarn I am using now is a merino wool and silk blend, so it tends to be a bit slipperier than 100% wool.
You can see the contrast in needle sizes. The larger DPNs are 4.5 mm (US7). I find that the finer the yarn is, the easier it tends to slip off of metal needles. That’s great for knitting, but not so great for cabling. When only one stitch is being held on a bamboo needle, it can slip off quite easily, so care still needs to be taken.
The right tools can make a world of difference in any task, but it’s nice to know that you can save some money here and there by dual purposing what you may already have in your supplies.
Is there a technique or knitting tip you would like to see explained on the blog?
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I would love a tutorial on using double pointed needles or magic loop for making a hat! I can knit in the round but I have been hesitent to make a hat in the round because of the decrease, I usually make them flat and stitch them together!
Hi Nicole…Knittinig a hat in the round is simple. The decreases are just as easy in the round as they are on a flat piece of knitting. When you get to the top of the crown, just remember you will either need to switch to DPNs, or get a set of circular needles (magic loop) with a longer cord. My mantra: The smaller the round, the longer the cord. I begin my CO with a 16″ cord and that serves me well for most of the hat. When I get down to about 30 stitches, I switch to a circular needle with at least a 32″ cord. The cord is floppy but it really does make it easy to continue decreasing, down to about 8 stitches or so, then snip the yarn with about an 8″ tail, thread that through a darning needle, and then slip the remaining stitches onto the darning needles and pull the remaining stitches together. Poke the needle through the center of the resulting circle of stitches, turn the hat inside out and weave in the yarn as you would normally do in any knitted fabric. Hint: If I am making a hat for a child, I usually just tie a triple knot before weaving in the yarn. That way you are sure a hole won’t develop at the crown. Thanks for the idea for a new article. I will get busy and write it up soon. Hope this helps.
A crochet hook is another convenient tool for cabling. Grabbing the stitches with the hook makes it easy to transfer them off the needle, then, by just turning the hook away from the yarn, you can knit them right off,