I chose a cable pattern to use in a piece Sarah and I are
making (a nice leafy panel called “Banana Tree”) and set about swatching it up
last night – only to get bogged down in the directions.  It was written line-by-line and I admit to a
slight preference for charts in a pattern like this one.  But the frustrating part was the
abbreviations for the 2-stitch cables. 
All that gobbledy-gook:  1/1LPC, 2-st
RPC, 2-st LC, etc.  I had to look each
one up in the back of the book and write down the specific directions (ex. 1/1
LPC = slip 1 st. to cable needle, hold at front of work, purl 1, knit 1 from
cable needle). 

So, I had to read through each line (ex. P2, k1, 1/1 RPC,
p3, k2, 1/1 LPC, k1, 2-st LC, p3), referencing each abbreviation as I
went!  And while I am pretty docile when
it comes to using a cable needle, I could not see myself using one for single
stitches like that – especially row after row. 
Silly and awkward, both.  So, while
reading the pattern line-by-line and referencing my own written notes, I had to
translate the cables into “twists” (working the 2^nd stitch then the
first stitch and dropping them off together).

Well, I got through one repeat of the pattern and decided
that it would be ideal for the sweater. 
But working it the way I had been doing would 1) take forever, 2) make
me crazy, 3) probably end in disaster as I was sure to mis-read something. 

So, I sat myself down and made a chart.  I even developed a code for the twists (to
handle all the variations of whether the first stitch lies in front or back,
whether it is knit or purled, whether the 2^nd stitch is knit of
purled) that I could read on sight.  It
took a while – quite a while – to do, but I will go flying through this pattern
now!  And without going bananas!