Display kable table in line with text -- Sweave Rnw file - dataframe

Question

I have an Rnw file with a table using the kable command. I want the table to be displayed in line with the text that it follows. How can I stop the table from being displayed at the top of the page? This is the Rnw code:
\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
Here is my data, which is supposed to be below this sentence.
\\
\begin{abstract}
<<>>=
a <- 1; b <-2; c <-3; d <- 4
df.mse <- data.frame(row.names = c("Normal model", "Laplace model"))
df.mse["Normal model", "Normal MLE"] <- a
df.mse["Normal model", "Laplace MLE"] <- b
df.mse["Laplace model", "Normal MLE"] <- c
df.mse["Laplace model", "Laplace MLE"] <-d
library(knitr)
kable(df.mse, caption="approximate MSE for each model/estimator combination")
#
\end{abstract}
\end{document}
I'd prefer for the solution to not involve changing the actual Tex file, as I'd like to carry on working on the Sweave file without worrying about overriding the solution. I know you can use the float package in LaTeX but I'm not sure how to do that in the context of a Sweave file.

Answer 1

Don't include a caption in the call to kable. Then it will just output a tabular environment without wrapping it in a table float. If the caption is not required, that simply means leaving out the caption argument in your call to kable.
If you do want a caption, but want the table placed inline, you need to start your table with \begin{table}[h]. You can put that in the Rnw file like this:
<<>>=
a <- 1; b <-2; c <-3; d <- 4
df.mse <- data.frame(row.names = c("Normal model", "Laplace model"))
df.mse["Normal model", "Normal MLE"] <- a
df.mse["Normal model", "Laplace MLE"] <- b
df.mse["Laplace model", "Normal MLE"] <- c
df.mse["Laplace model", "Laplace MLE"] <-d
library(knitr)
#
\begin{table}[h]
\caption{This is the caption.}
<<echo=FALSE>>=
kable(df.mse)
#
\end{table}