I like the U-shaped ones best, as long as the legs are different lengths.

I hold the long side of the U while I slip the stitches onto the short leg, then I slide the stitches into the curve.

I move the cn to the front or back as needed, and since the stitches are in the middle of the U, I make the pointy parts point straight down, which means they’re out of my way.

When I’m ready to work the stitches on the cn, I slide the stitches onto the long leg and work them while grasping the cn’s short leg.

When There’s Just One Stitch on the Cable Needle

Since I always load the stitches onto the short leg and work them off the long leg, it’s easy for me to tell if I’ve twisted the single stitch before I work it.

I don’t bother with a cn for two-stitch cables. Instead I just work the second stitch, then the first stitch, and then I drop them both off the left needle.

But for a one-over-three cable, I put the single stitch on a cn so I don’t frog it accidentally.