cable shmable

I know...I know...I know...It's August...not the Day after Thanksgiving...but...if I am going to knit my friends and family things for Christmas presents, I had better get right on it. Usually I make photo albums for them. This year, however, I fell of the photography bandwagon. So...they'll get something I knit as the personal touch.

This brings me to today's post - cabling!

Oh boy. Found exactly what I want to make for a certain member of my family. It's a cable-stitch pattern hat. Perfect. I can alter the pattern to make a matching scarf and mittens. Easy-peasy!

While I am at the store, I have the brilliant idea to knit the cable one color and the background of the hat another color. Did you know this is virtually impossible? Yup...it is.

First, I knit the cable one color and the background the other pulling the strands of the unused color behind the one in use. This didn' work b/c the hat lost its elasticity.

Next, I cut strands of color so I could knit the cable by itself and the background by itself. Unfortunately this meant that while the appropriate parts were the appropriate colors, they were not connected.

I called my mother for advice. While she is not the world's greatest knitter, she is very clever and crafty. Perhaps, she would pull through. Her words of wisdom, "I don't think you can do that."

Thanks, mom. So, the hat is now one color. When I learn how to post images, I'll put one up of the hat. It'll be great when it's done, even if a single color.