Out-of-Sync Cable

One of the reasons I started a blog was to revisit some of my early work. I've been knitting for almost 36 years, so some of it is very old. Some of it is in an obsolete medium called "pencil and paper." Some of it, text and graphics, was on - - I kid you not - -  a Commodore 64. Fortunately, I've been able to convert the text, but all those pictures need to be redrawn from scratch. This is going to take a while.

But back to the pencil and paper. About three years after I started knitting, I acquired Charted Knitting Designs by Barbara G. Walker. This was a revelation! My math-mind was totally intrigued. I acquired some knitter's graph paper and started charting and charting. And then filed it all away

Looking through these charts now, I have to admit that some of the patterns are impractically large. They don't fit on one piece of graph paper and would need very thin yarn and miniscule needles to fit on a garment. But some of them are wonderful! This particular one is my favorite, even more so now that I've refined it since I dug it up. It's called "Out-of-Sync Cable" because the shapes in the pattern don't line up.

The unusual thing about this pattern is the cable twists in the very center of the panel. Although they look similar to the other twists, they are actually worked over five stitches. (There's a purl between the two two-stitch ribs.) These need to be worked with two cable needles as explained below.

Also unusual, for me at least, is that I didn't think to create a mirror image of the pattern until late in the design and writing process. I'll have a flipped chart and an explanation of the reversed twists in my next post. Until then . . .