Extra Tools for Knitting: Cable Needles

Hi, this is Jill Wright from The Knitting Circle. In this video, we're going to explore some different cable needles. Yes, there's a few different kinds, and I'll give you my suggestions for how to use each one. When it comes to cable needles, they basically come in three different styles. We have the straight cable needle, the straight with the indented cable needle, and the J-shape. They all do the same job, but you might want to use them in slightly different situations. Let's look at the straight needle. This one, I might use for basic narrow cables. Maybe four or six stitches, not too many stitches on there. A good thing about this one is that you can hold it right alongside your other needle. Instead of working off your main needle, work the stitches straight off of this cable needle. That's a real easy way to do it. The next one, the straight with the indent, you might wanna use this one when you need more control over the stitches that you're moving. Because once you slide the stitches onto this needle, you can move them to the center. You can actually drop this needle to the front or the back, wherever you need to go. But it's a little more difficult to hold it parallel to work off of here. You might wanna slip those stitches right back onto your main needle before you work them. And now the J hook, or the J cable needle. You can see it's shaped like a J. This one's super easy care because there's no need to hold on to this one. You can actually drop it to either side. What you would do is pick up the stitches with the short end, make sure you've got your stitches on there, and then you can literally just drop it. You don't need to hold on to it to either side, whichever side you need to use. You can also use this for if you have multiple stitches. If you have a lot of stitches that you wanna move, the wider cables, it's very good for that because you don't have to really watch them to take care of them. You can also, since it has such a long neck there, again, you can hold it parallel, slide your stitches along, and work the stitches off of the cable needle. Very useful. Don't forget to use the cable needle that is closest to the width of your actual knitting needles. Happy cables. Hopefully now you know which cable needle to use. Thanks for watching, and check out the other knitting videos that we have on site.