I am thinking of knitting a sweater with overall cables. I would like to use only a few of the cables. I am thinking that if I subtract 1/2 of the stitches used for a cable, I should be ok. Do you think that would work?
It depends on the pattern, do you have a link? If it’s a 4 st cable, you could do it as a 2 stitch, but it wouldn’t look the same. What may be better is to eliminate some of the cables and use stockinette or ribbing (just k2 p2) in their place.
The pattern is Curry Cabled Cardigan on Ravelry. The reason I’m doing this is because I want set in sleeves instead of drop shoulder. There are 5 over 5 and 2 over 2 cables.
Then it would probably be better to eliminate a line or two of the cables rather than reduce the sts within the cables. Drop out the ones at the sides, that way when you decrease for the armhole shaping, the cable columns can be intact. Maybe for the cables that run up beside the armholed you can do a 2 or 4 st twist instead of the larger ones though.