Tuesday, March 25, 2025

Honeycomb cables in bulky yarn
loosen for easier knitting

Honeycomb cabled fabric is pretty to look at, but look out: worked in heavier yarn it can be a pain--literally. Before adopting today's trick for loosening, my aching wrist was coming to dread the crossing row of my new honeycomb cowl.  

All-over honeycomb cable cowl knit in super-bulky yarn (Cascade Lana Grande)

Honeycomb cables are tight because they are knit adjoining: no purl or knit spacer columns provide slack. The heavier the yarn, the tighter the work; the tighter the work, the more contortions required to work the cross. So, that's today's post: a trick to loosen honeycomb knit in heavy yarns. In the right circumstance, this trick can loosen other cable crosses in heavy yarn, also. Nothing earth-shaking, but avoiding injury is a good goal too!

The TL;DR is, knit the work using the needles called for by the pattern. Then, when you get to the crossing row, the trick starts. You knit the entire crossing row with two additional, different needles--one which is a size or two smaller (the smaller needles) and the other is a tiny cable needle or dpn which gives an assist with the actual crossing.

In this way, knitting honeycomb becomes a three-needle dance. 
--the larger (pattern) needles work all rows except the crossing row, then...
--a smaller needle knits the crossing row, while the ...
--actual cables get a crossing assist from a tiny cable needle or dpn.

That's the basics in a nutshell. But for further detail, plus a short video, read on.

Classic honeycomb aran pattern

This is worked on an 8 stitch, 8 row repeat. The instructions below are per repeat. 


ROW

KNIT FLAT

KNIT CIRCULAR

1

purl

knit

2

knit

knit

3

purl

knit

4

FRONT 2/2 CROSS, BACK 2/2 CROSS

5

purl

knit

6

knit

knit

7*

purl

knit

8

 BACK 2/2 CROSS, FRONT 2/2 CROSS

*last repeat, end on row 7

FRONT 2/2 CROSS: slip 2 sts onto cable needle and hold in front of work. Knit next 2 sts, then knit off the 2 stitches held on the cable needle

BACK 2/2 CROSS: slip 2 sts onto cable needle and hold in back of work. Knit the next 2 sts, then knit off the 2 stitches held on the cable needle

Needle sizes in mm


size 1 needle

"tiny dpn" or "tiny cable needle"

2.25 mm

size 7 needle

"smaller needle"

4.5 mm

size 9 needle

"larger needle"

5.5 mm

More detail

On this cowl made of super-bulky yarn, I knit the main body with a size 9 needle, referred to as the "larger needle." On the crossing rows (rows 4 and 8), I switched to a size 7 ("smaller needle"). Just the fact of knitting onto a smaller needle made it easier to knit the stitches, because there was just that extra bit of slack available. 

In the crossing row, while knitting with the smaller needles, each actual cable-cross was worked using a size 1 dpn ("tiny dpn").  This creates even more slack, easing the cross.

Below is a crossing row being worked, where all three needles are part of the action
--the stitches are being knit OFF the larger needle
--the stitches are being knit ONTO the smaller needle
--the CROSSED stitches are held on the tiny dpn needle during the cross, and then knit OFF the dpn  ONTO the smaller needle, by using the smaller needle to do the knitting. 
 
Click to enlarge

The crossing row has already been started, so the smaller needle holds several already-crossed cables (yellow arrows). 
The next cross coming up is a front cross. It has been started by slipping stitches ⓐ & ⓑ  (blue arrows) from the larger needle onto the tiny and holding the tiny needle to the front.
Next, the smaller needle will knit stitches ⓒ & ⓓ (green arrows) off the larger needle. 
Finally, the cross will be made when the smaller needle knits stitches  ⓐ & ⓑ  (blue arrows) off the tiny dpn. 

The second half of the honeycomb (back cross) is knit the same except the tiny dpn is held to the back. 

Here's an 90-second video of the three-needle polka.



Transcript: Hi, TECHknitter here, showing a little trick with honeycomb cables. So, this is the larger needle, it’s a size 9, and this is the smaller needle, it’s a US size 7, and this is a US size 1 double pointed needle being held as a cable needle. So now, I’m holding the stitches in the back, I’m knitting with the smaller needle off the larger. Now I’m knitting off the double-pointed needle. So, that’s the cable cross, and now I’m going to work another cable cross, this time holding the stitches to be crossed to the front. So there’s the number one size needle holding the stitches to the front, here’s the size 7 knitting off the size 9, and then here’s the size 7 knitting off the size 1, to complete the cable cross. Thank you very much for watching, we’ll see you back at the blog.


All the rows, except for crossing rows, are knit with the "larger" needles: the size 9 in my example. To switch between needle sizes, simply commence knitting with the new needle. 

Panels


What about a honeycomb panel, rather than an all-honeycomb fabric? If the panel is wide enough and the yarn heavy enough so you dread the crossing rows, you can still use this trick, but only if using circular needles (although it doesn't matter if your circulars are knitting round-and-round, or back-and-forth). 

What you do is, knit every round of the of the garment with the larger needle, except the crossing row of the panel. When you get to the edge of the panel, you knit across the panel using a smaller gauge circular needle with assistance from the tiny cable-needle or dpn for the crosses. At the other edge of the panel, the larger needle takes over again. 

Here is an example.

Click to enlarge
This outside and inside view of a beige ribbed hat show it being knit with a honeycomb panel on the front. In both photos, the crossing row of the panel has just finished being knit with the smaller gauge needles. Past the edge of the completed panel, the larger needle has taken over, and has just worked four stitches of the ribbing. As you see, the cable of the larger needle simply arches over the panel, while the crossing row of the panel, just finished, now rests on the smaller gauge needle. 

As with the maroon cowl, the actual crosses on this honeycomb panel of this beige hat were worked with an assist from the tiny dpn. 

On the round or row after the crossing, the larger gauge needle will simply knit the honeycomb stitches off the smaller gauge one where they meet at the panel edge. The smaller gauge needle will then be put aside until it is again time to knit a crossing row.  

This only works with circular needles, although, again, it does not matter if you are working back-and-forth or round-and-round. This is because straight needles have no flexible cable to bend out of the way. 

Can you use this trick on other cable crossing rows?


This trick works very well on honeycomb, where the crosses disguise any change in gauge. See, honeycomb cables are side-by-side. With no spacer columns, and no "plain knitting" between the cables, there is no "in-between fabric" to show a change of gauge when knitting with smaller needles. In widely spaced cables, this would not be true: the columns between the cables might very well show the effects of having been knit with a smaller needle. 

However, the higher the number of cables, and the lower the number of spacer columns, the more likely a change of gauge on the in-between spacer columns escapes unnoticed. An all-over fabric in heavy yarn, featuring regular cable crosses lined up in the same crossing row with few spacer columns between--that would be a good candidate for experimenting with this trick.

Where heavy cables are close together in a panel, you can try the panel trick. Again, the closer the cables and the fewer "plain" columns in the panel, the more likely this trick is to work without a visible change in gauge across the non-cable columns. This is especially so because any gauge-change is restricted to the panel: the larger needle knits all the rest of the round or row.  

Tension questions?


Do you wonder if slipping a large loop onto a smaller needle (from larger size 9 to the tiny dpn size 1) makes the slipped stitches smaller? The answer is "no."  Recollect that the needle which MADE the stitch determines its actual size, and slipping that stitch onto a smaller needle has no effect on loop size. Therefore, slipping off onto a smaller dpn or cable needle does not make the loop of the stitch smaller. 

Similarly, do you wonder whether knitting the crossing rows with a smaller gauge needle distorts the tension?  In my experience, the answer is also "no," or at least, not so I've ever noticed when knitting with heavy yarns and adjoining (or very close) cables. However, the usual cautions apply! As with all things knitting, your mileage may vary. If in doubt, swatch both ways and judge for yourself. 
_ _ _

Today's post actually only adapts the time-honored trick of using a smaller diameter cable needle when knitting cables in the classic aran manner. This trick amplifies that logic across the entire crossing row. 


--TK

Questions? Feedback? Contact me at 
Blue Sky  @techknitter.bsky.social or  

 ___

Other cable-related posts:

.Afterthought reversible cable-ette border
.Cables crossed wrong: anchored I-cord disguises the miscross 
.Fixing miscrossed cables: unlatching and re-knitting cables crossed the wrong way 
 Infinity Loops.. (improved Celtic Knots)
.Keeping track of cables: box and circle method, intro 
.Tracking complex cables using box-and-circle, Part 2 of a series 
.What is a cable, anyhow? Cable crosses and how to knit them 
.What row am I on in my cable? Counting cable rows