So far in our Advanced Cabling Techniques video series, we have covered how to add a splash of color to your cables with intarsia cabling and how to create interlocking cable textures with multiple crossing cables. And just what else can you do with cables? How about adding in a bit of shaping!

For our third video in this series, we show you how to create both increasing and decreasing cables. This technique allows you to shape your cables to grow larger or smaller, letting you create unique and interesting cable patterns. I think increasing and decreasing cables have a lot of potential as interesting design elements on a hat or sweater. In addition to their distinctive look, there are also many clever ways you can incorporate increasing and decreasing cables into your knitting! If that cabled cardigan or Aran sweater is a bit too boxy, simply add in a few increasing and decreasing cables for a bit of clever waist shaping, and voila! A nice, flattering cabled sweater!

Check out the third video installment of our Advanced Cabling Techniques to start creating cables with shaping!

In addition to working with increasing and decreasing cables as waist shaping for sweaters, I also think they would make a wonderful design element for hats and berets. If you want to follow along with Kerin and experiment a bit more with this style of cable knitting, you can get your own copy of the increasing and decreasing cables chart here.

There are so many wonderful possibilities to increasing and decreasing cables. Have you worked with shaping cables before?