Perhaps a little counter intuitively, at the start of the new year I’m looking way back into my past to talk about something I did back in High school. Most of the memories of those days are getting fuzzier the more I move away from them – except for those really awkward memories we all have that come from growing up and figuring ourselves out – but while re-organizing my yarn stash I came across something that brought me right back to those awkward teenage days.
When I was first starting to knit I was fascinated with cables, but also nervous about them. Back then everything in knitting was new, exciting, and a little daunting. Everything looked complicated to someone who had only just started to learn how to knit and purl, and who’s most advanced skill was doing some general ribbing. Cables were a frighting and enticing step into what I considered more “complicated” knitting. And so I decided to read a book about it and then just dip a toe into the water, so to say. To figure out if I was really ready for this complicated cable business.
After reading my book I stumbled upon the attached project, which was to make knitted cable bracelets. I thought this was a fantastic idea at the time: it was a small, simple project that allowed me to practice a new concept and which I could then wear around! (spoilers: I did not, in fact, wear the bracelets. I thought about it, but over my high school years I learned that while I like bangles and jewelry I don’t wear it on anything but special occasions).
I got my yarn, my set of double pointed needles, and then sat down on the couch ready to spend some time puzzling though my new project. I figured out pretty quickly that cables were not as complicated as I had been making them out to be. Part of that probably had to do that the bracelets were small and as such it was pretty easy to work on the cable parts. As a kind of “blast from the past” I decided to use some of my leftover yarn to make one of the bracelet patterns, shown above. It was a little nostalgic, remembering my high-school self as I worked on a project I tried so long ago. I probably won’t keep the bracelet, if only because I really don’t need to be adding more knickknacks and clutter to my room, but it was a fun little project that only took a few minutes to do.
