Phase Two of Cabling Initiated.

Yay! Finished the central part of my Cabled Bolster.

Here's the first part of the pattern:

NOTE: First and last stitch are edge stitches. I use the technique my Grandma taught me. First stitch is always slipped to the right-hand needle and last is always knitted. Both on right and wrong side.
This creates a neat edge with series of bumps and bars. Like this:

Whatever technique you use,keep in mind that you will be picking up stitches from this edge later on. Just don't make it harder than it is :)

CO34  using provisional cast on (32 sts + 2 edge sts - those will NOT be mentioned in directions)

Row1: *p2, k4* 5 times, p2
Row 2, and every even row: *k2, p4* 5 times, k2
Row 3: *p2, cross2L, p2, k4* 2 times, p2, cross2L, p2
Row 4: repeat Row 2.

Continue until desired length. End with Row 2.
Graft using kitchener stitch of three needle bind off.

That's pretty much it for the first part of the pattern. Time for some commentary:

About grafting... Since I'm not good at kitchener stitch, not to mention kitchener stitch for ribbing, I decided to use three needles bind off. To make it clear: I'm not proud of the outcome, the 1 stitch jog is clearly visible, and overall effect is messy... but every cushion has to lie on a bed of sofa, right? This means it has to have a bottom side!

Shame, shame, shame...

I picked up stitches with right side facing me, starting with the last stitch that remained from binding off. At first I picked one stitch from under each bump and bar, but it came close to 120 and that was definitely too much.
So I picked stitches like this: *bar, bump, bar, skip one bump,* four times and than bar, bump, bar, BUMP, and again  *bar, bump,.. and so on.
It resulted in 100 sts. I decided to make a ribbed (2x2) edges, narrowing towards ends. I still have to come up with some kind of fastener, because I want to be able to wash it once in a while.

Here's a look of how much work I still have left to do:

I have lots of free time this week, but in fact I'm really busy. For example I was going to make some serious progress on the Cables Project today but in the meantime I was asked to make a friendship bracelet for my husband, because his previous one broke. I think he has some kind of bracelet addiction :)

Have a nice afternoon!

Gosia.