I’ve got two projects on the needles with cables right now – the Irish Hiking Scarf, and an afghan square I am testing out.
I’ve tested the no cable needle technique of cabling on the IHS, and didn’t like how it came out (you can read about that *here*) but I thought that the technique it self was pretty smart, and would be useful thing to know.
Lo and behold, I found myself out knitting on the afghan square, and my cable needle turned up missing. Ah Ha! A perfect moment for no needle cabling. And it came out very nicely indeed, and I am confirmed in my thought that knowing how to di it would be useful.
Here’s the scarf – a standard six stitch left twist cable. I didn’t like the needleless cabling on it because it made a very stretched out and obvious stitch (photo’s on the IHS blog I linked above).
Here on the anchor cable pattern though, the stretched stitch is un-noticeable, because it’s only a one stitch cable! I’d apologize for this crummy photo, but it’s not a crummy photo — the square really looks like that. It’s just a crummy pattern in this yarn and gauge. When this swatch is done, I’ll be trying it again in a superwash wool and smaller gauge.
Knit-Write 
the scarf will be nice to wear with any color.Very nice
I wanted a very traditional take on it because it’s being knit for my husband – I showed him a few pictures of Aran sweaters, and he liked those, so once I found the pattern going with the plain white was a simple choice.
I’m thinking of making another one for myself, in a brighter color. My winter coat is black, so I’m thinking something in a red or orange, or perhaps a very rich wine or purple colour.