Learn how to make cable stitches on the Dream Ring.

The main challenge when cabling on a knitting loom is the difficulty of making the loops stretch from their original peg position to the new position required to form the cable. One way to get around this is to make cables on a two-sided knittingboard, like the Dreamboard. If you make the cable stitch on only one side of the loom, while doing a regular wrap on the other side of the loom, there is more play in the loops and more room to stretch the loops from their original position over to the next peg.

Cabling on a round loom is more of a challenge, but if you use the Dream Ring which has movable pegs, to make cables, rather than transferring the loops over from one peg to another you can move the pegs themselves. That's a lot easier than transferring loops that are under tension because of the extra leverage you get with the loop on the peg.

The steps shown below will teach you how to make cables on the Dream Ring but you can also use this tutorial to make cables on a two-sided knitting board. Simply move the loops on the pegs instead of moving the pegs themselves. It will be easier if you use something like our Loop Transfer Tool to move the loops rather than just your regular knitting tool.

We will begin the tutorial at the point where you have already knit several rows on a circular loom. For this example, you will be wrapping back and forth on 16 pegs of the loom, rather than knitting round and round the whole loom. We used chunky yarn for this example.

The most important thing to remember when cabling is to wrap very loosely!

After you have knit off all 16 pegs (which were LOOSELY wrapped) you are ready to begin cabling. Start by pulling pegs #5 and #6 out of the loom. Don't let the loops come off the pegs.

Also pull pegs #7 and #8 out of the loom. Hold  2 pegs with each hand.

Move pegs #5 and #6 toward the back. Bring pegs # 7 and #8 forward and place them partially in the holes that were originally occupied by pegs #5 and #6. Don't push them all the way down yet.

Bring the two pegs that were originally in holes #5 and #6 around from behind and place them lightly in holes #7 and #8, keeping them in the same order.

Now, press down on all 4 pegs. If they are under a lot of tension, it's easier to push down a little on each peg, before pushing them all the way into position.

You can leave those 4 pegs at their standard height as in the picture above. Or, if it's easier for you to keep track of which pegs you have already finished with, you can temporarily push them down lower than the other pegs.

Now, we will repeat the same procedure with the next four pegs. Pull pegs #9 and #10 out of the loom.

Also pull pegs #11 and #12 out of the loom, holding two pegs in each hand. (A mind trick that I play to help me remember the steps is to continue to think of these four pegs as #5, #6, #7 and #8 because the steps are the same- just in a different place on the loom.)

Place pegs #11 and #12 partially in the first two open holes (I'm really thinking #7 and #8 here). Then bring pegs #9 and # 10 around behind (and again, in my mind I'm really thinking #5 and #6 because it's just a repeat of the same procedure used with the first set of four pegs).

Because there is already some tension in the yarn from the first set of four pegs that were transferred, it will be an even tighter stretch when you place pegs# 9 and #10 into holes #11 and #12.

That extra tension is why you only place the pegs partially in the holes until you get all four pegs in place.

Now press all four pegs down, pushing a little on each peg until they are all in place.

The transfer is now completed on the second set of four pegs.

Pegs #5 through #12 are pushed down here only to show you which pegs have been involved in the cabling so far. You may now push all of the pegs up to their standard height.

Now wrap all 16 of the pegs just as you normally would. Don't forget, wrap loose, loose, loose! Pull the bottom loop over the top loop on all the pegs.

Uh oh! Remember that really tight tension we talked about when inserting the peg in hole #12? Now the loop is really tight and hard to get over the top of the peg. Leave that peg until last. Go to the far left side and continue there.

That's better. These loops are easy to pull over the tops of the pegs. Oops! Peg #5 is a little tight.

Just push the peg down and it is much easier to lift the loop over. Be careful that you don't accidentally pull both loops off the peg. Once you get past that peg, extra play in the yarn is passed from one peg to the next, making each loop easier to lift over its  peg.

Now when you lift the loop of that extra-tight peg#12, there is no problem. It isn't tight anymore.

Next, wrap all of the pegs again, this time coming from the other direction. Remember to wrap VERY loosely.

Pull the bottom loop over the top loop of each peg. This is also called "knitting off" the peg. Nothing tight that time.

You can push down pegs #5 and #6 and #11 and #12 so you will remember not to work with those pegs this time around.

Out of the eight pegs that we have been cabling, we will only be working with the middle four pegs this time. So, pull pegs #7 and #8 out of the loom.

With the other hand, pull out pegs #9 and #10. In all of the previous cables, the right hand set of pegs were brought to the left front. This time, we will do the opposite....

The left hand set of pegs will be brought to the right front. To do this, bring pegs # 7 and #8 forward and place them partially in the holes that were originally occupied by pegs # 9 and #10. Then bring by pegs # 9 and #10 around the back and place them partially in the holes that were originally occupied by pegs #7 and #8.

Press all four pegs down into their standard position. Push all of the surrounding pegs up if you pushed some of them down to mark your place.

Now wrap all 16 of the pegs, loosely, just as you normally would. Pull the bottom loop over the top loop. This time when you knit off the pegs, there isn't as much tension, because only the middle four pegs were cabled.

 

Next, wrap all of the pegs again, this time coming from the other direction. Remember to wrap VERY loosely.  Knit off those pegs and you will be ready to repeat the steps starting at the beginning by pulling out pegs #5 and #6.

f you look closely at this example, you will notice that there are two sets of cables on one level where their tops both slant to the right. Those are the first two sets of four pegs that we cabled: pegs # 5, #6, #7, # 8 and pegs # 9, #10, #11, #12. The cable above that is centered between those but the top slants to the right. That cable was made when we switched pegs #7 and #8 with pegs #9 and #10.