Or, Open Letter To My Dearest Husband:
My dear John,
I sincerely apologize for yelling at you tonight and shouting, “shut up, I’m counting”, followed by “leave that f*****g light on”. I have reached the “nupps” section of my Estonian Garden Scarf, and while “nupps” sound like something cute and innocent, they are anything but that.
This behavior most certainly does not reflect my true feelings for you. It only means that I apparently don’t have a drop of Estonian blood in my heritage. It also means that my cockiness at finishing the center section of the scarf, followed by the statement that “I most probably will finish this over the weekend”, was pure folly.
“Nupps!”, henceforth, will be a euphemism for another swear word that cannot be printed in a family knitting blog. As of tonight, I have modified the 5-stitch nupp to a 3-stitch nupp. I refuse to give in and abandon the nupps altogether.
No pictures, as I’ve ripped out the damned thing enough times that it’s now too late to dig out the camera for a photo shoot. At least I had the sense and humility to put in a lifeline thread before I started the nupps section.
Sheepishly,
Lorette
Been there, done that.
Uh, oh. I have a plan that involves nupps.
It is not too hard, takes practice and knitting below the needle with sharp points.
Ooooh,knitting rage- it can be brutal. Many an evening has been saved by a lifeline, and many project set aside because I got cocky and didn’t put one in…
Oh, I took a class on Estonian lace at Stitches and I understand your pain. They seem so benign. It’s a little 2 row bobble. But man, they look so much easier than they are. Good luck with your nupps. Maybe you should start calling them “n*pps” so as not to offend the more demure out there.
Oh how my husband knows that type of annoyance. Sometimes they just don’t realize when it’s not a good time in the knitting world. Oh well, I’m sure they understand and know we don’t really mean to be mean.
Ah, husbands. they just don’t understand, but at least they put up with our obsession. My husband is actually jealous of my knitting. it seems he wants all of that divided and undivided attention himself. Sigh. good luck with the nupps, I’m sure some Estonian genes somewhere will make their appearance shortly.
When I started reading I couldn’t help but laugh. I couldn’t get the thought of a Dear John letter out of my head. Sorry you are having such trouble, hope the next time goes smoothly.
🙂
I almost lost my religion over nupps, and I’m a pretty religious person! My term – d**n nupps. I don’t swear either, but this gave me an exception. I’ve done five Estonian scarves and I ended up using 3 stitch nupps. I honestly can’t tell the difference. Apparently neither can the designer – I gifted the last one to a friend who wore it to lunch with Evelyn Clarke. She commented on how nice it was. So there!
Haven’t knit nupps but I’ve done bobbles that are pretty close! What worked for me was to slide the stitches to be knit together to the left-hand cable part of my needle. Then slip the right-hand needle into all those stitches and knit them together; then slide the left-hand needle out. It is less cumbersome once you get the hang of it! 🙂 Clear as mud?
I have seen multiple suggestions for working those nupps somewhere on the web…can’t remember where unfortunately. Try a google search. It will save your sanity! Good luck! Kate/Massachusetts
I’ve never even heard of a nupp. I’m so outta the loop!
Hehe…I read the beginning of your post to hubby and he laughed too and said that sounds familiar. I needed him to see I am not the only one like that. 🙂
Made some socks with nupps in a Nancy Bush knitalong. Had to hold my breath all through the nupps rows. I turned blue (socks were purple already). May start a nupps avoidance group.
Nora
Around here we call those unfamily-friendly utterances “kntting words.” I may have used a few of them once or twice, even though I’ve yet to attempt nupps. hee hee
It does sound like a naughty cuss word.
Hadn’t even heard of nupps yet. We knitters do have our own lingo, don’t we.