Monday, December 5, 2011

Nupps and beads

I started knitting an Estonian lace shawl. It has nupps which are like little buttons of yarn. You make a lot of new sts in one st on one row and knit or purl them all together in the next row. People find this to be a pain and often substitute beads for the nupps. Beads are also decorative, so why not?

That was also my plan when I started this shawl. I was going to put little fresh water pearls on the shawl. Well plan A failed because the holes in the beads were too small for two of the yarn thickness to go through. I can. Use them but I have to string them all on in the beginning, which I had not done. On to plan B, which was to try out a very simple method using a crochet hook. That worked but I didn't like the result. It made messy little nupps that looked more like bobbles. Bobbles stick out more and they wobble, whereas nupps don't. 

I resorted to making the nupps the traditional way. I simplified the p7tog part of it by purling 1, putting it back on the left needle and passing the other 6 loops over it before returning it to the right needle. 
Here's the shawl, or a tiny bit of it. There is a lot of knitting left in this one!

My daughter had an indigenous bead wrap on her wrist. I liked it so much, I got one just like it! Aren't they pretty? I have to see how long it will last. 
Back to knitting and nupping!

1 comment:

Colleen said...

I learned a way to do nupps, and I no longer hate them! In the Estonian lace book I have, it says to insert the right needle, and pull down, to even all up before doing the k7tog. I couldnt get the needle in....until I learned a trick...when doing the yo part of the k, yo, k, o, etc, double wrap the yos. Well...it turns out I need to double wrap two of them, not all 3. Then, when I go to k7 tog, I slip the sts to the Rt needle, dropping off the extra wraps, insert the left needle back in, tug down to even up, then p7tog, easy as pie! And my nupps are large, even, and pretty! I'm delighted wi this method! Learned it in the tech nques forum on Ravelry.