Crochet cables

[AmyShell]

I am working a pattern from an Annie’s Crochet pattern book called Hooded Pocket Scarves.  This is the Cabled Simplicity Hooded Scarf.  The cables pattern is as follows….

 

ch 12

Row1:Dc in 4th ch from hook and in Each across.  10dc

Row 2: [Sk 2 sts, work fptr in each of the next 2 sts, working in front of last 2 fptr, work fptr in each of 2 sk sts] twice, dc in the last st, ch 3 turn. (8fptr, 2dc)

 

I am stuck where is the front of the 2 sk sts?

[Granny Square]

Hi, welcome to the 'ville!

This a little confusing to explain.  There are front post and back post stitches, right?  In a cable, you are not making all the stitches straight up and down ||||, but rather crossing stitches, // and then \\ that cross over the first 2 , in doing so some stitches will be made over the top of stitches, 

Reading from right to left (the direction you add stitches if you are right handed)you are working over stitches 4, 3, 2, 1.  Your yarn is in position to work into stitch #1 if you weren't doing cables.  Instead, you skip stitch 1 & 2, and work fptrs around 3 and 4.  Then, you have (well, the designer has) 2 choices for a cable - you can either stiches 1 & 2 so they pass in front of the 2 fptrs you just made, or behind them, depending on the direction the cable is supposed to 'cross'.  It's a little bit of a stretch; the cable is 4 stitches, you have just made stitch 3 and 4, and need to stretch your hook and yarn all the way back to stitch 1, in front of the fabric, and make FPTRs around stitch 1, then stitch 2.

I hope that makes sense?  It is sort of mind bending the first time, and calls for a little more hook-wrangling than usual.  I'm sure there's a video for a cable just like yours, but I didn't find one but here is a sketch of the order of the stitches.  The black stitches are the row below, the colored stitches are numbered in the order you would make them.  They are post stitches so not going into the tops of stitches, but around the posts.

Edited October 4, 2021 by Granny Square