A while ago I saw a beautiful pattern for crocheted fingerless gloves on Ravelry - Comet by Tanja Oswald. It had horizontal cables and instantly started thinking about how to do horizontal cables in knitting ... it took me a while to figure it out and I'm still not happy with the result and there is room for improvement, but it's a path worth pursuing.
Other ideas for horizontal cables (different ones though) can be found here:
- http://dragoncrafter.livejournal.com/28161.html?nojs=1
- http://bigdamnknitter.wordpress.com/2009/01/04/horizontal-cables/