Cable me this

After my recent bought with the cable needle I nearly vowed not to go back. There was a lot of whining and throwing of things and swearing that I'd never cable anything. EVER. Then I came to the realization that what I hated wasn't, in fact, the cable needle. No. It wasn't even the cable pattern, necessarily.

It was the fact that I couldn't keep track of which friggen row I was on, so I kept fucking up the pattern which caused loud cursing of the new technique, threatening of irreparable bending to the needle and lots of other childish behavior I'm not extra proud of.

But now I've changed my tune since I decided to bite the bullet and get a row counter. Yes, the mighty row counter. That thing that's constantly mentioned in the Notions part of every pattern I seem to pick up. That thing that I blissfully ignore while saying to myself, "Row counter? Bah! I'm an evil genius. What do I need with a row counter? I can count to eight! Only retards need row counters."

I now have two.

Does that make me retarded? Maybe.

The fact that I bought two row counters and neither fit the needles I used for my first "post row counter" project? I don't know - you decide.

All I know is that now I'm a full-fledged fan of the row counter and feel invincible against any scary Row Counter Intensive project. No more trying to count back rows or stitches to see if I need to bring the yarn forward or backward or if I'm even on the right row for cabling or if I'm even looking at the same pattern in the book.

To celebrate, I am finishing up the scarf you see above. This is the single cable scarf from One Skein. Not sure how many of you out there have this book, but this is the first time I'm actually cracking it open and making something from it. Despite the growing girth of the stash and my unquenchable desire to use up everything I have before I buy anew. I thought I was going to run amok with this book, using up every odd skein for every project in the book. Magically transforming my unwieldy stash into a collection of adorable fiber goods. Then I realized that I didn't want knitted cupcakes or any more little bags and cast the book aside. For me, a lot of the patterns are a bit, eh.

But now - oh no - now I'm on a damn rampage. I'm already planning on more cabley scarves - even the double up one. I might even go nuts and try to join up with these folks.

So, with the teensy outlay of cash for the row counters, I've managed to open myself up to a whole new genre of patterns and can dust off a book from the craft pile and put it to work.

Sqweet.