A little knitting how-to today. The upcoming Cultivar Cardigan features a design with clusters of bobbles. I'm not a huge bobble knitter, but in careful quantities, bobbles can add a lovely bit of texture.
Technical note for camera nerds: The photos are a little backlit, I'm tinkering with a light tent for this kind of how-to photo. Found fantastic DIY instructions online to make your own light box out of pvc and a sheet. And, a while ago, I made a remote shutter release from a dollar-store cell phone hands-free set.
But taking pictures of your knitting, so that they appear from the point of view of the knitter (unlike other how-to's, where the picture is taken from the perspective of the person watching) is quite tricky. Tripods, lights, the desk, the chair, and somehow getting the camera to focus on the knitting, not your hands... Quite an adventure.
In these pictures, I'm basically straddling the tripod and holding the shutter release in my teeth. Really, really, glamorous.
Let's do a small 3-stitch bobble:
 Knit into the stitch where you want the bobble,but don't slip the stitch off the left needle. |
 Knit into the back of the stitch, and again, don't slide the stitch off the left needle. |
 And then knit into front of the stitch, this time sliding itoff the left needle. You have made 3 stitches in one. |
 Turn your work. |
 Purl across the 3 stitches. (For a taller bobble, you can repeat the last 2 steps.) |
 Turn your work again. Slip 2 as if to knit-2-together. |
 Knit 1. |
 Carefully lift the 2 slipped stitches... |
 over the knitted one. That's it, there's a bobble. |
 At first the bobble might want to pop to the back, but after you knit a few rows, you'll be able to see your bobble clearly on the front of the work. |