How to Knit Cables 10 Ways

Cables, crosses, crossed stitches – whatever you call them, crossed stitches are an important part of every knitter’s repertoire. Even while learning to knit, the idea of knitting cables can be a big motivator for leveling up from knit and purl motifs. Mastering basic cables will 100% take you from being a beginning knitter to a confident intermediate. Whether you’re looking to learn how to knit crossed stitches for the first time or you’re here to learn about new combinations of crossing knit and purl stitches in your work (Can you say 2/1 LPC?), these tutorials have got you covered.

As part of the current Read Along Knit Along, we’re knitting The Scarf of Dreams, a lovely lace-and-cable-filled infinity scarf inspired by The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. The final section of this pattern involves knitting a tree using knit, purl and a variety of crossed stitches to create a two-tree motif that stands out from a bed of reverse stockinette stitch. Looking at this twin tree motif, you can see just how much of an impact simple crossed (a.k.a. cabled) stitches can have when worked in beautiful combinations.

Learn How to Knit 10 Different Crossed Stitches

To put it simply, crossed or cabled stitches are knit out of order, most often to create a braided effect in your work. Using different combinations of knit and purl stitches when cabling results in the ability to make different individual stitches or groups of stitches physically stand out in your work. If you’re working knit stitches “over” a bed of purl stitches (like in the tree above), you can really add some visual impact to a project without having to fuss with changing yarn colors. Crossed stitches are a texture-loving knitter’s best friend, so why not learn a couple of new crossed stitch combos to add to your knitting arsenal?

In this collection of 10 crossed stitch tutorial videos, you can learn the following stitches:

• 1/1 LPC – one over one left purl cross
• 1/1 RPC – one over one right purl cross
• 2/1 LC – two over one left cross
• 2/1 LPC – two over one left purl cross
• 2/1 RC – two over one right cross
• 2/1 RPC – two over one right purl cross
• 2/2 LC – two over two left cross
• 2/2 LPC – two over two left purl cross
• 2/2 RC – two over two right cross
• 2/2 RPC – two over two right purl cross

Yes, that’s ten stitches, but once you get the hang of them, you can handle any combination, even things like 3/2 LPC – and that’s when you’ll know you’ve really got crossed stitches down! For easier reference and the sake of avoiding a crazy amount of scrolling in this post :) , I’ve organized all of these videos into a handy playlist, that you can check out below. If you want to save these for later or make sure to catch every knit & crochet video tutorial I make (because there are a lot that don’t make it all the way to the blog!), you can subscribe to the Hands Occupied YouTube channel.

Yarn used in the videos & photos was provided by Lion Brand Yarn, and it’s 24/7 Cotton in Denim. I’m knitting with size US 6 (4 mm) needles by Clover that I had in my stash.