This design is the seventh of a series—twelve explorations of different stitch patterns throughout 2026—and the first of three projects focused on cables. To make a cable, you are going to work some of your stitches out of order to create a twist that adds visual and textural interest to your project. I use a cable needle to complete this manoeuvre, but lots of knitters prefer to work cables—especially the simple cables in this month’s projects—without a cable needle. You can twist your stitches to the right or to the left, and some instructions focus on this visual effect in their abbreviations. Other designers use abbreviations that focus on the action you make to complete the cable, holding stitches to either the front or the back of your work before knitting them out of order. This pattern document will explain both of these abbreviation styles, and includes instructions for a sample square and a headband. It also includes instructions for working a basic 4-stitch rope cable in the round—you can extrapolate from there on your own to work all sorts of cables in the round.

The techniques you will need to know, or learn, to complete this project are:

• cast on and bind off;
• knit and purl;
• C4B (cable 4 stitches, with a twist to the right)
• seaming the cast-on to the bound-off edge.