The light begins

I was discussing today with one of my Ravelry groups how I was having a terrible time starting Mystic Light. Every time I knit to the top of the set up pattern, I would end up with a mess of stitches that I couldn’t make heads or tails of. Finally after sitting with it for awhile, I realized that cables with no anchor stitches on the side twist. So I am going to attempt to explain what happened. I used, for this, larger yarn, and the pictures came out a bit blurry but I think you will get the idea.

At the top of the cable line this is what I would end up with:

Once I realized that I had to physically hold the cables in place, the pattern made more sense.

Then picking up the stitches on the sides made a great deal more sense to me. And it also anchored the cables.

And a quick picture of where I am on the project.

You can see how the initial cable pattern makes the cable line along the bottom which is continued as I work the pattern.  It is very pretty!