Crazy cables!

Yesterday, Kris and I took a 3-hour class with the Queen of Cables, Janet Szabo.  If you don’t immediately recognize her name, you’ll surely recognize some of her patterns – they’re everywhere and always full of luscious cables. The picture above shows some of the many swatches she brought to share.  I really like that one in the middle that looks like a knot.

We worked through 3 swatches during the class: a circle, a shape I don’t know how to describe, and a heart. My swatches are unblocked here so they are misbehaving a bit, but you get the general idea: The cool thing about these cables is that they really can go in any direction you want them to – left, right, up, down.  We were inspired to attend this class because Kris wanted to knit a sock for a young woman who had just returned from a semester abroad in Kenya.  While there, she was “branded” (kind of like tattooed, except really more like a brand) with a design that looked like a chain of interlocking horseshoes.  Kris wanted to replicate that pattern down the leg of a sock, and we had trouble finding something in a stitch dictionary that would work.  I think we can make something now, though – thanks, Janet!While in the shop, I also picked up a skein of this New England Highland wool in a school bus yellow shade called High Gold.  It is heathered and contains both yellow and orange.  It will make a cheerful slouchy hat for S1 that will be mighty visible come fall, even if it has to compete with glorious changing foliage: