One of my current projects is the "Cabled Newsboy Cap’ from ‘Stitch ‘N Bitch Nation’ by Debbie Stoller. This is the second time I’ve knit it and I’m having problems with the cables. Or rather with wear the cable stitches join with the purl stitches. On the row that I twist the cable the purl stitches seem to stretch on either side and I end up with these big gaps in my knitting. I didn’t have this problem with the first hat. The first time I used "Lion Brand Wool’ but since I wanted something that would be a little more warm weather friendly I decided to knit the second one with ‘Lion Brand Cotton-Ease’. BTW, the hat is knit in the round on circular needles with decreases at the top then you change to DPNs. Is there a special technique for knitting cables in the round that I don’t know about? Could the choice of yarn be the problem? I know the yarns won’t all react the same way to the same situation. Any advice would be appreciated.
I think the problem is that cotton yarn behaves differently to wool. Cotton isn’t at all forgiving and won’t spring back like wool, It doesn’t “puff out” the same.
Gaps are normal next to a cable because the stitches are being stretched so much. Cotton yarn probably just makes it worse because it doesn’t bounce back or stretch the same. Once it’s washed it might be fine, but it’ll never be quite like wool.
Thanks Jints and Jan. I figured that was the problem but wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing something.
I think I might have been purling a little tight so there was no give on those stitches. I’m going to try to change that and see if it works. If it doesn’t I’ll guess I’ll just have to deal with the gaps. It just means there will be more airflow and I was looking for a more warm weather friendly hat.
That’s a good idea. Making the stitches tight when doing cables can make the problem worse. When you’re done, some form of blocking or washing the hat can help even out the gaps.
