KATIE HATFIELD

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Falling in Love with Knitted Cables (and Swatching…)

My Cable Collection Project

This one goes out to my cable-loving knitters! Raise your hand if cables are your favorite go-to in your knits.

They are becoming mine and fast! I was so intimidated for so long, but once I started to experiment with them last year, I realized there was nothing to fear. And I wanted to learn more. I’ve been eyeing the most beautiful cables book from my LYS (Thanks, Freeman’s!) and finally bought it.

Behold, Norah Gaughan’s Knitted Cable Sourcebook.

It’s everything I could have dreamed and hoped for. It’s chock full of the most amazing cable patterns I’ve ever seen. And by chock full, I mean 152 cable patterns and variations. Whaaaaaat.

To help me from getting overwhelmed, I paged through the book and picked out 54 cables that I’m going to swatch over the next few months. I’m wanting to use this as an exercise to practice knitting cables (obvi), improve my chart reading, and build up a personal cable library to choose from for my next knitting projects that I have on my list for the fall. Hopefully I’ll begin to like swatching a bit more by viewing it as an exploration instead of a chore… Plus, this’ll be a great way to bust through my stash of excess yarn!

I’m committing to knitting at least 3 swatches a week and I’ll be sharing some updates, pics and notes every month on my little cable collection project.

Stay tuned, friends!
— KB