Super Simple Cable Scarf

As a beginning knitter, cables may seem terrifying.  I know they were to me, but after watching a simple tutorial on YouTube I caught the hang of it.  However, when looking at patterns, they were super confusing.  Things like slipping stitches "purl-wise" and knitting and purling through the back loops were scary to me as a beginning cable knitter.  After playing around with a few things and drawing a few diagrams, I came up with this pattern.  It's a simple pattern, the scarf is about 6 inches wide and you can make it as long as you like.

I used size 10 knitting needles with worsted weight yarn and a size 3 dpn to hold the stitches.  But use whatever size needles you're comfortable with or to match up with your yarn.  There was one point I was using a bobby pin to hold my stitches so use whatever you have handy.

Start by using the long-tail cast on method to cast on 36 stitches.  I used the knotless method which can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JC7ZiW6aoH8

After casting on, work pattern for 4 rows, ending on a row 2, then work a cable row, then work pattern from here on out for 5 rows, ending on row 1, then working a cable row. (The long tail cast on usually counts as the first row of a knitting project but I didn't count it here.)

So the pattern goes like this:
Cast-on
Row 1
Row 2
Row 1
Row 2
Cable Row
Row 1
Row 2
Row 1
Row 2
Row 1
Cable row

Pattern:

Row 1: k6, p2, k6, p2, k4, p2, k6, p2, k6
Row 2: p6, k2, p6, k2, p4, k2, p6, k2, p6

Cable Row:

K6, p2, slip 3 stitches onto dpn (or whatever you may be using) K3, k3 off of dpn, p2, k4, p2, slip 3 stitches onto dpn, K3 off of dpn, p2 k6.

Knitting off of the dpn

When you work your last cable row, work 4 rows in pattern and then cast-off by knitting straight across to give the beginning and end an even look.

Work as many repeats of the pattern as you like.  The scarf will curl up a bit, but blocking it after you finish will fix that.  I hope this pattern is easy to follow as I'm still new to the pattern-writing world.  Happy Knitting :)