I am home sick today from school knitting away on a sweater I am designing for myself . . . thinking I really need to slip this on and check out the fit. It will have a hem and no ribbing. I have never knitted a sweater like this so I thought I had better make sure I like the fit before I get to far into this project.

A few days ago I took it off the needles and ran a piece of yarn through the sts. (As I am going to do this right and measure as I go!) It was not a huge pain but took far to much time---I thought!

I am sitting here thinking since I have Knit Picks inter-change-able needles and extra cables I could place one of those end thingies on one end of the cable and then start another cable with one of those end thingies---if you are following me here I WOULD NOT NEED TO PLACE THE STS. ON YARN! I would speed up the fitting process!

It worked like a charm. I could slip the sweater on to see that it does fit great (Thank you EZ for your percentage system) and I did not have to spend extra time placing the sts. on and off a piece of yarn!

I just thought this worked so well and saved time! That way I can spend more time knitting and less time moving the sts. on and off a piece of yarn.

Now you can all say "Well Nancy it took you how many years to figure this out?!"

No, I say, yes, brilliant and how do those of us who don't have the modular cables do it too? would a second needle and some rubberbands work?

You just need to knit half your sts on to another cable needle that is long if needed.

It has made checking the size so dang easy!

Yes, dances et al, a second long circular will do it -- long enough to have the extra cable & tips hang down when half your stitches are on it. Rubber bands do help the stitches not slide off, but of course you need the fabric not to be constricted.

If the second ndl is the same size you've been using, you can knit half your sts onto it and then off it again when you're done; if it's a bit smaller, you can slip the next stitches onto it and then knit off the back end of it with your regular needle.

A really helpful technique to have up your sleeve! Thanks for mentioning it, Nancy.