Help with Braided cable

How-to Questions
1

Ok I am making a scarf for DH and my instructions read

cross 2 over 2 left/purl bg: sl3 to CN, hold in front, k2, [U][B]sl center st from CN back to left hand needle and purl it[/B][I][B]. [/B][/I][/U]K2 from CN.

The underlined part is the one I am having trouble with. Do I slip the stitch over the last one or do I take them both off and put the last one back on? Also if I take them both off and put the back one back on do I hold the stitches in the front or the back of the one I am going to purl? I have knitted a bit of the pattern and have been slipping the middle stitch off the needle and putting the one back on and holding the cable needle stitches in the front but it looks funny and I dont know if I should keep going and it will turn out eventually or try it a different way. So far it doesn’t look right but I have never done a braided cable before.

Someone please help:knitting:

2

I’m not really clear what you’ve been doing from your description, so I’ll chip in here.

The way I read it is–slip the 3 stitches and hold to the front.

Knit 2 from the left needle, then slip the stitch that’s closest to the working tip of the cable needle back onto the left tip and purl it.

Then knit the 2 from the cable needle.

When they refer to the center stitch, I believe it’s the center of the 5 that you’re working.

3

I second what Ingrid said. I’m working on a sweater right now that has a crossing like that. You have a [COLOR=“Blue”]kk[/COLOR][COLOR=“Red”]p[/COLOR][COLOR=“Green”]kk[/COLOR] pattern on the left needle. Slip 3 onto the cable needle (the [COLOR=“Green”]green[/COLOR] and [COLOR=“Red”]red[/COLOR]), knit two from the left needle ([COLOR=“Blue”]blue[/COLOR]), slip the purl stitch ([COLOR=“Red”]red[/COLOR], the center stitch of the five stitches) off the back of the cable needle back onto the left needle, purl it, then knit the other two stitches ([COLOR=“Green”]green[/COLOR]) from the cable needle.

4

Oh my word you have no idea I was taking the second stitch on the cable needle and purling it. Thank you guys sooooo much. And the color coded bit was great.

You two get MEGA KISSES!!!

5

Glad to help.
The instructions from The Girl From Auntie Rogue pattern are really clear. I never imagined I’d be able to decifer cabling for someone else after only my first cabled project!