Crochet Cables
- canoemtndesigns
- 13 minutes ago
- 4 min read
It seems that in 2024 I was addicted to designing patterns with cables. If you had told me 5 years ago that I would love cables..... I would have thought you were crazy! They look so hard!
Well, turns out that they can be hard to create, but they don't have to be. The first cable patterns I tried before I even started designing where creating the cables from both sides. So fpdc (front post double crochet) on the right side, and bpdc (back post double crochet) on the wrong side. It was so confusing to me. Especially on the wrong side, where do I put the bpdc?
A few years later I decided to try again and found a book with some cable patterns where you only had to make the cables with fpdc and fptr (front post treble crochet), then do sc (single crochet) on the wrong side rows! What?! Now you tell me?! lol That made so much more sense to me and does make it so much easier.
These are the first cable patterns I designed. You can click on the photos to see the patterns. The beanie, gloves and cocoon are "in the round" so easier to do since you are always working on the right side. The scarf is cables one row, sc the next row. Still an easy pattern if you want to try cables for the first time.
After creating those 4 patterns seems I took quite a break from cables. Not sure why, maybe they just weren't on my radar. Most of the time I have so many ideas running around in my head some of them get lost.
Then towards the end of 2023 I thought it might be nice to design two cable blankets for 2 of my uncles. Wow, it's hard to create a design when you have someone specific in mind! The uncles weren't concerned about color, seems they don't have a favorite.... men.... lol So I went to my wall of yarn to see what I had. Thankfully I had colors that went together well, and enough to make a couple of blankets.
The green/blue/grey one was the first one I designed. It uses cables only for the texture. A great unisex design. If you go to the pattern on Ravelry you can see some of the colors my testers used when making their blankets.
The red/grey/blue one is cables and puff/bobbles (everyone calls them something different), to make the design. Again a nice unisex design. I'm trying not to make any of the blankets too "girly" lol.
When these were done I still had some yarn that needed to be used so thought I would do a couple of baby size blankets. 2023/2024 were years I was trying to use up yarn I happened to have, that had been taking up space way to long.
The first blanket was made with Paintbox Yarns Simply Aran. It's a great yarn for baby items and beanies. When I started the blanket I wasn't sure how well the colors would work together, but it turned out quite nice. The other blanket was made with Bernat Premium. I used to love Bernat Premium, but it's not the same as it was 4-5 years ago. If you want to do a project with only 1 color, it's fine. But the colors are different weights now, hard to do anything with stripes.
After the blankets I was on a roll! So still trying to use up Bernat Premium I got to work designing other items with different cable patterns. It was a lot of fun :) The cables on hat, gloves, cowl and ear warmer are similar. The scarf is totally different. All of the patterns (including the blankets) are sc on the wrong side with all of the cables on the right side only. If you are an adventurous beginner and willing to struggle or have to work a bit harder on a pattern you would be able to do these as well. If you get stuck you can always message me on FB or send me an email, I'm happy to help.
The last cable blanket I created was pattern #500. Yes.... I have 500 patterns! (over that now). Who would have thought. I was not keeping track at all, just happily creating patterns. One of my testers messaged me when I was at about 475 and suggested I do something special for #500. So after a lot of thought, and "playing" around with yarn, I decided on a cable blanket with 5 different stitch patterns, why make it easy on myself lol
Wow, that was a lot of work! You would not believe how often I unravelled and started a section over. The cable patterns I decided to use didn't have the same multiple of stitches which can make it a bit more challenging for the designer. I created an 8" panel with all the stitch patterns to make sure they didn't pull or twist the piece. Then it was time to decide on a color, yarn & get to work.
I used Caron One Pound (100% Acrylic, 812 yards / 742 meters, 16 ounces / 453.6 grams) 5 skeins, Color: Off White
It's one of my favorite yarns for making blankets. To me it's a true worsted weight yarn. You can use a 5.5 mm hook. The yarn is easy to work with, never split or tangled. I have used it for a few blankets and will definitely use it again. It would be nice if it came in a few more colors though. Maybe one day :)
How do you feel about cables? Find them intimidating? I did at first as well. Just try a pattern when you are feeling adventurous. And remember, I'm always willing to help, even if it's not my pattern :)
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