Tutorial: Continuous Cable Border

This tutorial has been a long time coming. My apologies. It was back in November 2009 when my first was just a little one when I first showed this continuous cable border and I used it again for my sisters wedding present in August 2012. I have received so many e-mails asking for the pattern. Here is the pattern that I will leave up for the month of March on the blog before putting a PDF version it in my Etsy store. If you would like a PDF version of the pattern e-mailed to you during March - please let me know.

I haven't done much hand knitting for a longtime. My little bunnies are SO fascinated by knitting needles and the wonder of throwing a ball of yarn around - I can't tell you how many times I accidentally left the knitting within arm reach of one of them and they pulled the needles out! You would have thought I would have learnt after the first occurrence of needle pulling - but apparently not!

Continuous Cable Border Pattern

Cable Cardigan (with a hood no less)

My very lovely friend gave me this knitting book for my birthday.
Her mother-in-law has knitted so many gorgeous cardigan's for her little girl (which I'm always rather envious of) so I was very excited to get 'the' knitting book shipped all the way from my homeland (England.) For anyone that knows the short history of my knitting skills - clothing has not been something I have explored very much. I made a little rose cardigan for baby bunny before she was born and I recently gave up on a potentially gorgeous cable cardigan (for the more grown up size of person.) So this would be only the second piece of clothing I have ever managed to complete.

I asked baby bunny to model for me. The modeling shoot went something like this ....
... rather a lot of blurry photos because (drum roll please) ... on Saturday baby bunny decided she could walk. She has been walking from piece of furniture to furniture for a while now - but now she has really taken off. ALL she wants to do is walk - until she is so tired she sits down with a whimper. It is a whole different ball game with her on her feet. This morning I have already found one plastic cup, a toothbrush and a bar of soap in the toilet. She is so quick ... I didn't even know she had been in the bathroom!

The cardigan was very easy to knit - but like any good amateur knitter I decided I knew best and amended the pattern slightly. I joined the seams of the hood as I knitted instead of sewing them together later ... ... and I knitted the ribbed trim all in one piece - rather than in three ... ... of course I feel like my amendments were a success! Baby bunny certainly looked mighty cute modeling the cardigan. I think I'm going to have to start knitting her some jumpers for this winter.
And my favorite bit? the homemade label! I really hope baby Nicholas enjoys his new cardigan.

Over 100,000 Knitted Stitches of Love

... 277 stitches per line ... 16 lines per cable pat ... 23 cable pats ...... 4,140 extra stitches for the bobbles ...... and it all adds up to ... 106,076 knitted stitches ...

... which just sounds like a really disappointing number. Why didn't it add up to over a million? As that is what the last few cable pats felt like!

And I have to thank Sol of Lappesola for introducing me to this pattern from The Twist Collective (if you are into knitting check them out) ...
... is it not beautiful? I have purchased the pattern (and boy it looks complicated!!) It will make a perfect project to have on hand for when the bump has arrived and is asleep for 20 minutes here or there. They do sleep sometimes right?

What is at the top of your tree?

I am feeling guilty about my blog. I worry I am lacking in crafting news these days as I am currently buried in my Hugs Kisses and Cables blanket - which will soon be finished - if I can just keep going. At times it feels a little bit like a knitting marathon ... only the serious athletes will survive! Here is a little sneaky peak at my progress.
I'm already pleased with this blanket as it is my very own pattern. I've actually written the pattern down - which I am trying to diligently check (and check again) for any mistakes. I also really love the yarn I am using - it is so soft, easy to work with and the hanks (478yds each!) are just enormous - so it goes a long long way.

With Thanksgiving behind us for another year - I can now fully concentrate on the glitter and excitement of Christmas ... and this Christmas is going to be extra special as my sister is coming to stay with us! (My lovely sister wins the prize for being the most excited about the impending bump!) And Christmas has really begun early for me as I won (yes I actually won something - woo hoo!) a beautiful package of trim from Anne at Bunny Hill Designs. Anne (a faithful bunny lover too) is a very lovely and very very talented lady - do not fail to check out her blog.

In the meantime - with my lack of crafting news - lets talk about decorating Christmas trees!! I faithfully put up our tree on December 1st ... (it is a fake tree - because in a small apartment - coping with constantly dropping needles and then the final fight to get the dead tree back out the door and down in the elevator without covering every inch of floor and stairs with needles ... well I just would prefer not be be cleaning up needles until spring arrives ... my husband would prefer the 'natural smell of pine' ... but he is not the one who cleans ... and it is a rather good fake tree ... Can I stop justifying the fake tree now?) ...

So as I began to say ... I faithfully put up our tree on December 1st and the poor thing looks a little bare in the decoration department - so I'm probably a bit too thrilled about being able to take my sister down to the Union Square Holiday Market (has to be done at night for the extra sparkle effect) ... and pick out some additional decorations. I might have to concentrate on more bunny decorations as we seem a bit short of those ...
... cute bunny, bucket and birdies ...
... slightly scary fir cone bunny (actually I think it might have been bred with a squirrel!) And what would you put on the top of the tree? An angel? A star? What about a beautiful Ballerina Bunny?

Cables, Concentration and Chaos

I am SO distracted by packing and such - that my craft and blogging life has rather taken a back seat - much to my frustration. The movers come on Monday :-( And although I am totally in control (I'm so boring and organized) and calm about it all - but doing anything other than sorting and packing is just not happening at the moment.

I have found that unless I feel 'productive' in the craft department I get very annoyed at myself - so I have managed to find a couple of moments start some new Christmas Tree Skirts and in the evenings I have been knitting another cable blanket.
This blanket will be also be a wedding gift - and unlike the Lover's Knot Pattern - I have designed this one myself (this could lead to tears or a knitting award!) It took about 4 or 5 false starts before I got the number of stitches right (my own fault - apparently I can't count - but casting on 260+ stitches looses its appeal pretty quickly) and I found (after much experimentation) that Excel was my best friend in helping me work out this design. Who would have thought that Excel would be such a good friend to me when designing my patchwork and knitting bits!

I am calling my new blanket 'Hugs, Kisses & Cables' - due to the Hugs & Kisses (OXOXO) cable that runs throughout the blanket.
Back to packing then and I am so sorry if I have not yet responded and say thank you for your lovely comments - they really mean a lot to me. Hopefully I will be back in full crafting and blogging mode very soon!!