Hi, I'm a new member and have been enjoying the information shared. I'm in the Dallas, Texas area and have been knitting for about 4 years. I am self taught but consider myself an intermediate beginner. I have knitted scarves, socks and 1 sweater (which was my 2nd project! ) and wanted to try using a cable needle. I have a stocking cap pattern with a simple cable in WW wool that I am using and it specifies #8 needles but does not give a clue to how long the cable should be. I knit my socks using the 2 at a time method with 40" cables. I am growing very frustrated with the process of trying to determine how long a cable should be for a project. I'm finding that there are quite a lot of patterns that tell you to use cable needles in a certain size but don't say the length of the cable.
Is there some rule of thumb for determining the length you need? I'm down to a 16" cable but didn't take into account the length of the needles. The only smaller set I could find is an interchangable set which is fine but you have the add the length of the needles to the length of the cable. I guess I will have to go and get a 12" cable and try that. I finally got frustrated and cast on to DPN to get the hat started. I do realize I will have to go to DPNs when I decrease for the top of the hat but wanted to start on the cable needles for the practice.
Thanks for letting me rant...... now if I can just figure out how to know how long the total length of needles and cable needs to be.
Thanks! Michele