Cables give lots of new knitters the shakes.  Me included.  Until now. A couple of months ago, I received a copy of the incredibly beautiful book New England Knits by Cecily Glowik McDonald and Melissa LaBarre.

The publisher has an awesome preview function that lets you page through the book. Check it out here: NEK_S10_BLAD_web. I've always wanted to learn how to knit cables. My grandmother made the most beautiful mittens with intertwined cables up the back, so I've always felt like that skill must be in my blood somewhere. Just dormant, like a knitting gene-bomb just waiting to go off. So when this book hit my desk, I decided that it was the Old Port Pullover or bust for me.  If I was going to learn to do cables, I might as well go big or go home.  I bought a pile of beautiful purple wool, dug out the cable needle in the bottom of my knitting bag and went for it. And you know what?  It was easy! You just toss a few stitches on the cable needle, hold them in back, move on to the next few stitches, then go back to the ones on hold.  Boom.  Cables! Here's what my Old Port looks like currently. You can't tell from the scale here, but I'm about 8 inches up from the bottom (cast-on) edge.

I think I'm almost done with the waist decreases.  One more set, then I head into the increases.  Then the yoke, which should be...interesting.  A whole new cable pattern to remember. And a whole new game of "Where do I put my stitch markers?"  I'm very glad that I've been hoarding so many of them.  They're coming in handy, as you can see below.

I'm actually glad for these long, dark fall nights.  I have just the project to keep me cosy.