How to knit a cable

There are many different cable stitches. The following tutorial shows how to knit a basic front cable stitch on a small knitted swatch.

The knitting abbreviation for this particular cable stitch is,

C6F = Cable 6 Front

Work knitting until you reach the 6 cable stitches then:
1. Slip the next 3 stitches onto the cable needle,
2. Hold the cable needle in front of the work,
3. Knit the next 3 stitches from the left hand needle onto the right hand needle.
4. Then knit the stitches from the cable needle onto the right hand needle.


You will need
to be able to cast on
to do knit stitch
to do purl stitch
a small amount of left over yarn
one pair of knitting needles
one cable needle (or you can use a double pointed needle)

Cable Swatch
Cast on 14 stitches.
Row 1: Purl 4, Knit 6, Purl 4.
Row 2: Knit 4, Purl 6, Knit 4.
Row 3: as row 1.
Row 4: as row 3.
Row 5: Purl 4, C6F, Purl 4.  
(Row 5 is shown in the following images).

Keep repeating rows 2-5 to practice the stitch.

Row 5: Purl 4 stitches, then  
1. Slip the next 3 stitches onto the cable needle.

2. Hold the 3 stitches in front of the work.

3. Knit the next 3 stitches from the left needle to the right needle.

4. Knit the 3 stitches from the cable needle onto the right hand needle.

Purl the remaining 4 stitches from the left needle to the right needle, Row 5 is completed.

Continue knitting Rows 2 to 5 and repeat as many times as needed to practice C6F.

limoncello plum tart

Limoncello Plum Tart

One of my lovely friends has given me some surplus fruit from her plum tree. Here's a recipe for a lemony, plum tart, originally from Gino D'Acampo's recipe here. I cheated by using 500g of ready-made short crust pastry, also I used a little less of the liqueur. There was quite a lot of the custard filling left over from this recipe. I used it up by filling some ramekins with the spare mixture and added two slices of fruit to make an alternative desert without the pastry. You can prepare this the morning or the afternoon before the meal.

Ingredients
500g ready-made short crust pastry
zest and juice of 2 unwaxed lemons
4 tbsp double cream
100 ground almonds
200g golden caster sugar
5 eggs
120g butter melted
5 tbsp limoncello liqueur
6 plums cut into wedges ( use more if small plums)

Preparation
1. Roll out the pastry and use to line a loose bottomed-tart tin about 25 cm diameter and about 3.5cm deep. Chill for at least 1 hour.

2. Heat the oven to 180C. Line the pastry with greaseproof paper and fill with baking beans and bake blind for 15 minutes. Remove beans and paper.

3. Put the lemon zest and juice, cream, almonds, sugar, eggs and melted butter in a large bowl and whisk until smooth then stir in the limoncello.

4. Arrange the plums on the base of the pastry case and pour over the custard mixture. Bake at 180C for about 20 minutes then turn off the oven and leave the tart to cool in the oven. Serve decorated with icing sugar.