Help With Cable Scarf Design

[AnreeAce]

Hello again.

I’m working on designing a cable scarf for my Mom, and I’m a little stuck. This will be my first cable project and I’m pretty excited about it. I must’ve spent at least two hours yesterday dithering over different cable patterns in my Barbara Walker book. At some point I’ll just have to start knitting!

I know that cables are usually on a background of reverse stockinette, and my first thought was to just throw in a couple stitches of stockinette to set each cable apart. Would that be the best way to separate the cables? Am I on the right track?

Any advice would be most welcome, wish me luck!

[Ingrid]

Whenever I've done cables, they're generally done with at least one purl stitch on the sides of them. I don't think they'd stand out very well otherwise.

[AnreeAce]

Yeah, I forgot to mention that in my original post this morning.

That'll teach me to start sending stuff off into the ether before I've finished my first cup of coffee!

My idea is to p2 on either side of the cables, so they'll stand out as you mentioned. Then I'm thinking that I'll k2 before starting the next cable pattern with p2.

Am I making any sense here? Will this help the cable panels to be distinct from each other, and also make the scarf more flexible?

I know that Mom will wear the scarf no matter how it turns out, 'cause that's just who she is, but I'd like to make this a special for her as I can.

Thanks!

[Ingrid]

You could do pretty much anything between them--k2, seed stitch, a little bit of lacy stuff, a twist, whatever looks good.