Cable Knit Scarf Instructions

Video Transcript

"Hi I'm Jan. Today I'm going to talk to you about knitting a cabled scarf. There's a couple elements that are important to put with your cabled scarf and that's the edgings and the sides. You also want the cable to stand out and be the prominent part of the scarf. So it's important to start off with a basic edging, a garter stitch at the bottom. And also some garter stitch or ribbing stitches at the side. This'll keep the scarf from curling up and turning into a tube. Then on either side of the cable there's some what you'd call reverse stockinette stitches, purl on the right side, knit on the wrong side. And then knit stitches that will be formed into the cable. Here's how this scarf was constructed. We catch on 20 stitches. Worked in garter stitch for eight rows. That's knit every row. Knit the first 4 stitches. Purl the next 2 stitches. Knit the next 8 stitches. Purl the next 2 stitches. And knit the next 4 stitches. For the next 6 rows you knit the knits and purl the purls in the middle keeping the first and last 4 stitches in garter stitch. When it comes time to create the cable here's how you do that. One of the things you need is a cable needle. Sort of looks like a small double pointed needle. There's various types of cable needles but these little wood ones that are slightly shaped are my favorites. We'll need it in just a minute. So I'm going to knit the first 4 stitches of the edging. I like to use markers to remind myself where to change the stitch. They just slide from one stitch to the other. Purl the next 2 stitches. Now it's time to work the cable. This cable is done over 8 stitches. When you come to the cable you take the first 4 stitches and you slide them onto the cable needle. Hold them to the back of the work, then knit the next 4 stitches from the needle. Go back to your cable needle and knit the 4 stitches from the cable needle. This makes the twist. And that's how you work a cable knit scarf."