Let’s say you have a good friend from Estonia, and you want to knit something quick and lovely for her birthday. You see this on another friend’s blog, and you know your birthday girl likes Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool, and she looks great in all shades of green…

But as you’re approaching the bind off (and running out of yarn two rows short of the goal… luckily there was still more of the Bronzed Green at The Knitting Bee), you realize something is missing. Ishbel is gorgeous as written. But you can’t knit a shawl for an Estonian girl without nupps, can you? And wouldn’t that bind off edge look fetching with little yarn pearls accentuating the points?

Ah, that’s it. If you’d like to nuppify the edge of your own Ishbel (and who isn’t knitting one of these? They’re like the potato chips of shawl knitting!), here’s how to do it: On the last RS row, k1; k into next stitch (but don’t slip it off the left needle)-yo-k1-yo-k1 all very loosely into that same stitch; work to the stitch between yarnovers and repeat the k1-yo-k1-yo-k1 into that stitch; repeat in every following stitch between yarnovers and in second to last stitch. During the purl-side bind off, purl the 5 nupp stitches together whenever you meet them, being careful not to involve the natural yo on the far side of the group. Since this is a p2tog-replace resulting st on left needle-p2tog again bind off, you’ll actually be purling six stitches together, but this is not difficult if you’ve made the nupp nice and loose. I accomplished it with an Addi Turbo, the world’s bluntest and slipperiest needle. I blocked Ishbel without any pins and found the Silky Wool was happy to show off her lace pattern with just a gentle smoothing. I pinched the nupps and tugged on them gently to make them stand proud to the RS and to highlight the scalloped edge.

There’s only one problem: now I want nupps on the edges of practically everything. Expect to see this treatment appearing in future Blue Garter designs…