Monica Knits

This sample of a cable 3 front (C3F) and cable 3 back (C3B) was featured in the video and article:

How to: J-Hook Cable Needle
Video Link --> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyVRjVs-CLA
Blog article -->J-Hook Cable Needle Video .

The J-hook or shepherd's crook cable needle offers a number of advantages for knitting cables. Because it has both a leading and trailing arm of different lengths, the chances of twisting the stitches are minimized, because you can more easily tell if the cable needle has been twisted, when compared to cable needles whose arms are equal in length and symmetrical. In addition, the deep U holds the stitches well so that they do not slip off easily. Read more .... for stepwise illustrated instructions and a video demonstrating J-hook use.

The buttonhole or blanket stitch is used to reinforce the knitted buttonhole to prevent it from stretching. In this example, with a self-facing, it serves the dual purpose of attaching the facing to the button band and reinforcing the buttonhole. For this sample, the floss was not color matched as in the original leg warmers, so that you could see how the stitch is constructed. 4 strands of DMC floss were used.

Although these buttonholes are vertical in the completed Leg Warmers, they were knitted in a horizontal band from stitches that were picked up along the chain stitch edge between the cuffs, using the method described in the article Making a Horizontal Buttonhole Look Good. They feature a scalloped edge, self-facing and buttonhole stitch. Read more .... for detailed instructions.