Cabeling without a cable needle

I thought I would post how I cable w/o a cable needle. 1st, I should remind you I am left handed and knit as such (from left to right) so this may seem backwards if you are a right handed knitter. This method works best when knitting in the round. For this swatch, because I turned the work, I had to slip the cable stitches knit wise to reposition them and then put them back on my right needle. When knitting in the round the stitches are already in the right position for this method so this step is not necessary.

I began to figure out I knit differently while making this post. this was the post that opened my eyes to the fact that I am a combination knitter. This tutorial is done form the stitch orientation of the leading leg being in back so I am knitting through the back loop, but it doesn't twist my stitches.

This is a 6 stitch wide cable and equals a cable stitch wehre it directs you to hold the stitches to the front. For me these cables twist to the right due to the direction I knit.

Here I have my stitches in the right position and am ready to start the cable.


Here I have skipped the 1st 3 stitches, leaving them on the needle and knit into the 4th stitch back.

Leaving the 3 skiped stitches on the needle along with the one I just knit I knit into the next stitch.



Here I have knit my 3rd stitch. You see the 1st 3 skiped stitches on the needle still and the next 3 stitches are actually still on BOTH needles.
Now I pinch the 1st 3skiped stitches and pull out my right needle leaving the 3 stitches i just knit on my left needle.


holding my left needle to the back I put my right needle back into the life stitches I was pinching this is where the cable crosses.

Now I bring my needles back to the normal positions and knit into the stitches that were originally skipped and continue on as normal.