When you knit a basic braid cable, it'll look like three knitted strands that are braided. Knitting braid cable looks hard, but it's really not. Practice by knitting this sample panel of braid cable. The panel is 15 stitches; the braid cable itself is 9 stitches wide.

  1. Cast on 15 sts.

  2. Follow this stitch pattern:

    Rows 1 and 5 (RS): P3, k9, p3.

    Rows 2, 4, 6, and 8: K3, p9, k3.

    Row 3: P3, sl next 3 sts to cn and hold in front, k3, k3 from cn, k3, p3.

    Row 7: P3, k3, sl next 3 sts to cn and hold in back, k3, k3 from cn, p3.

  3. Rep Rows 1–8.

You can make a petite version of this braid cable simply by reducing the number of cable stitches (the stitches between the set-up stitches on the edge) to 6. Cross 2 stitches over 2 for this variation.