HACK: Cabled Flax

When Emily did her hack of the Flax sweater I thought: ooh, me too! The Flax seemed like the perfect neutral base to really show off a lovely cable. I decided to skip the garter on the sleeves to keep it super simple and make that cable the star. I knit a little swatch to see how wide my cable would be and away I went. If you haven’t joined our Hackathon yet, you can get all the details here.

project details:

Pattern: Flax (hack in details below)

Yarn: Tanis Fiber Arts Green Label Aran in ‘Chris Grey’

Needles: US #6 / 4mm and US #8 / 5mm

how I did it:

The key to hacking the Flax sweater is your replacement rate. The cable pattern I wanted to add was 24 sts and measured 4 inches across. The gauge for my cable is tighter, more dense, than my stockinette gauge. So I need to add stitches to make it all fit. The gauge for Flax is 18 sts per 4″ so I need to add 6 sts (24-18) to the front and back, where my cable will go.

It just so happens that the Flax sweater already has an increase round right after the ribbing

Next round: knit, increasing 4 (4, 4, 4, 8, 18, 16, 12, 18, 22, 26, 24, 36, 46, 48, 54, 56) sts evenly spaced

I just added my 12 stitch increase here, I knit the 4-6 size so instead of increasing 8 sts evenly spaced, I increased 20.

In the marker set up, you need to add these stitches as well: the sleeves remain the same, but the front and back will each be 6 sts more. For the 4-6 size the front and back have 28 + 6 = 34 sts. I wanted to work my cable in the centre so I worked 5 stockinette sts on either side of the cable. With the raglan increases, these 5 sts will grow, but the cable panel will be the same, always 24 sts down the center of the front and back.

I worked the rest of the pattern the same, skipping the purl stitches on the sleeves and knitting them instead. You will need to account for your extra 12 sts at each stitch count (eg. the body will be 12 sts more). My sweater ended up a bit longer than the length called for because I wanted to end on a chart round 12, so that the start and end of the cable looked similar.

img_8774-ed — Hunter is wearing the classic Flax and Maddie is wearing the hacked version

#TCKhackathon

The free Flax and Flax Light patterns are perfect to hack or use as a base for your own inspiration. It’s so easy to add in a panel or a pattern, and we’ll share another adorable version with you next week!

There is one more week left to join in our #TCKhackathon – a knit-along with a fantastic prize, and even better chat and support on the Facebook group, or if you prefer, the Ravelry group! Remember to tag your projects #TCKhackathon when you share on your favourite social spot!