A knitted cable that forms a heart shape. It works as a single motif on a scarf, or repeated as panels joined into a blanket. Despite the obvious association, it does not have to be a Valentine’s project – a cable heart reads as a decorative motif at any time of year.
How it works
The heart is made with cable crossings: stitches held on a cable needle while others are worked, then returned, so the columns of knitting cross over each other. Two curves at the top and a point at the bottom are enough to suggest a heart, and the eye completes it.
If you have cabled before, nothing here is new. If you have not, this is a good first cable – the motif is self-contained, so a mistake costs you the rows since the last crossing rather than an entire garment.
Working the crossings
Cable crossings are simply stitches worked out of order. The cable needle holds a few stitches to the front or the back while you knit the next few, then you work the held ones. Front and back determine which way the cable leans, and that is the whole technique.
Use a cable needle with a bend or a notch. A straight double-pointed needle used as a cable needle slides out at the worst moment.
Tension
Cables pull the fabric in significantly. A cabled panel will be narrower than the same stitch count in plain knitting, and the difference is larger than most people expect.
If you are working the panel into something else, swatch the cable itself rather than plain fabric and measure that. Plan the surrounding stitch counts around the cabled measurement.
Yarn
A smooth, light-coloured yarn with good stitch definition. Cables are texture, and texture is only visible where light and shadow can work – a dark or heavily variegated yarn will hide the crossings entirely.
Wool has the springiness that makes cables stand up crisply. Cotton and acrylic will work but give a flatter result.
As a blanket
Several panels joined side by side make an attractive blanket. Knit them all before joining and block them to matching dimensions; cable panels vary more in width than plain ones.
