Hi again

I'm not sure if the people who wrote to me asking how I did the scarf without a cable needle and without the 'cabling with no cable needle' technique were kidding, missed the post where I described it or have tried it and haven't been able to get it.

So...here again are the basics...just try it...

Let's start with the 1/2RC.

So what we are looking for in that 1/2RC is a cable where the leftmost stitch of the three becomes the rightmost stitch on your right needle. Right? All a cable is is swapping the order of your stitches. For this cable, instead of 1-2-3 going right to left, we want 3-1-2. And because 3 stretches slightly it will make a lovely twist.

(Let me interject here that you still need to think in terms of going at a right or back cable from the front, and a left or front cable from the back, because you are working the opposite stitches from what you would place on the cable needle.)

So...what you are going to do for this is knit stitch #3 but don't take it off the left needle, then knit stitches 1 and 2, in order. Once you have finished stitch 2, let them all drop off the left needle. (You may have to drop stitch one off after you knit it to get into stitch 2. The important thing is, don't drop off stitch 3 till last.)

So, it reiterate, we want the rightmost stitch (#3) to be the last stitch we knit. If it is, the stitch will stretch and angle diagonally to the left...a left crossing cable.

Now for the 1/2LC. Normal cabling instructions say to put the slipped stitch to the front, so we are going in the back. This puts the rightmost stitch over to the left so it angles diagonally. Therefore, we want that first right stitch, the one that is supposed to angle over, to be the last one we knit of the three. Those 1-2-3 stitches have been knitted 2-3-1. The result is that your knitting will angle right - a right crossing cable.

Here's how to do that...knit stitch 2 and stitch 3 in order THROUGH THE BACK LOOPS, knit stitch 1 and let them all drop off your left needle. By some paradoxical quantum leap I am not qualified to comment on, your stitches will not be twisted on the return row.

I absolutely 100% Mean Girl Guarantee™ that this will work, and will be completely indistinguishable from the cable-needle and no-cable-needle versions.

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When I knit the Porch Princess™ sweater for Fee I just took a bunch of measurements for her, knit a tube, put arm holes in the appropriate places and kept trying it on her. While I think my finished version is too short for her long body, it came out pretty well. I am not even sure I took notes on how many stitches, bad Jen.

So, I'm in the market for a mattress. Wish me luck - the world of mattress shopping is crazy. On purpose by the crazy manufacturers.