How To
I Believe in Second Chances
In the course of the glorious March romp known as Bang Out a Sweater, I noticed that a few knitters were foregoing the bobbles that give the Crowberry Sweater its name. Their Crowberries were No-berries!
Some people don’t like bobbles, and that’s great—everybody doesn’t have to like everything, in knitting or anything else. But I got the sense that some people weren’t bobbling because they felt their bobbles weren’t good enough, that they couldn’t get them to do right.
I want to preach on that. I feel it’s a mistake to judge a knitting technique while you’re knitting it. If we judged lace knitting by how it looks on the needles, we wouldn’t have it at all—it’s a hot mess on the needles. As a friend’s mom used to say, it’s “mostly unattractive.” And cables in progress, especially in the row of a twist, are gnarly, stressed-out clumps. Even an immaculate stretch of stockinette can look wonky if you hone in on a couple of stitches in isolation. The magic of knitting is in repetition of a move over time, in an artful pattern, whether that move is making a hole in your knitting on purpose, twisting stitches out of order—or creating the little bundles of extra knitted fabric called bobbles.
Viewed at close range, a solitary bobble has a nipplish appearance that is not immediately inspiring. But a string of bobbles, dancing around the shoulders of a patterned yoke—can elevate a handknit like nothing else. Viewed as an ensemble, their individual irregularities fade into a grand whole. And when you block that yoke— boy howdy! It looks great.
Maybe you’ve been watching finished Crowberry Sweaters pop up in the MDK Lounge, or on Ravelry, and you’re feeling a slight twinge of remorse for the bobbly road not taken. But your sweater is banged out, so you feel you’ve let your chance go by.
Take heart! There’s an answer, an elegant, fun, and crafty answer.
The Afterthought Bobble
Take a look around you. Find a piece of knitting, any old swatch or dishcloth or scarf. You can put a bobble on it, right now. Just like that. Go to town! Bobble it up!
One stalwart banger-outer, Shari, known as @IrishPogue, did just that to her Crowberry Vest, with beautiful effect.
Adding bobbles after-the-fact is a straightforward affair.
Consulting the chart, use pins or locking stitch markers to mark the stitches where bobbles are meant to be.
Using your bobble color, stick a knitting needle into one of those marked-for-bobble stitches and work the bobble as instructed in the pattern—or your favorite bobble, if you have a favorite bobble. Strand the bobble color across the WS of the yoke, or—and I’m being bold here but I believe this to be legit—tie a double square knot behind your bobble, weave in or trim the ends, and go make the next bobble. Those little threads are going to meld into the back of the yoke, and the knots will be secure. I believe that! If you don’t, go ahead and strand the bobble yarn across the back. Definitely fewer ends that way!
Shari’s dainty afterthought bobbles are Barbara’s bobbles, which you can learn how to make on YouTube here.
What a splendid result!
Shari’s yarns and shades are:
MC: Plotulopi in Winter Blue Heather + Love Story Einband in Hot Spring Blue
CC Yoke: Plotulopi in Faded Denim Heather + Love Story Einband in Natural White
CC Branches: Plotulopi in Light Forest Heather + Love Story Einband in Westfjord Green
Bobbles: Estonian Kauni Sadama (going rogue!) 5 in Berry
For Photos and sharing her process, Our Thanks to Shari @IrishPogue
This article has it all for me! It was beautifully written!……. with a reminder not to be too judgmental when knitting ( which I always need to remember!)….and a new technique to add to my bag……ending with color inspiration from Shari’s beautiful sweater. Trying to decide what I could make in those colors once I finish my Crowberry and Moss Toss! Thank you! Thank you!
Thanks, Maggie!!
Yes! Everything Maggie said! Plus I always thought there was only one way to make bobbles – the Wonky Way (not a real thing, just mine.) Now I have to look up others, especially those tiny ones – wow! Thanks Ann and Shari.
Thank you, Ginny!
Oops, I meant “Thank you, Kay!”
This has been an inspiration, Kay (yes, beautifully written!). I have always been a bobble hater (too strong a word?? Nope). But on the right day (with plenty of sleep and sunshine) I may actually attempt this! Thank you so much.
Great idea. I don’t usually like bobbles but I will definitely give it another shot. Thank you for the good suggestions and for “preaching”.
My favorite thing about knitting is that there is ALWAYS another way to do ANYTHING! This is great – I love afterthought bobbles! Now I’m going to look in my sweater closet and see what needs to be bobbled-up. Thank you!
As someone who both knits and crochets, my first thought was that afterthought bobbles would be SO easy and effective in crochet, not to mention lightning fast.
I’ve always wondered why people seem to be in such distinct camps when it comes to these- knitters won’t crochet and crocheters seem terrified of two sticks. Hybrid patterns like Ariana, and more recently, Jethro, gladden my heart. Maybe a few knitters will be inspired to embrace the granny square trend (it goes away but always comes back!) but made more refined with a bit of knitting added to the mix.
I would love for Kay and Ann to weigh in on this is in a future column.
As someone who both knits and crochets, my first thought was that afterthought bobbles would be SO easy and effective in crochet, not to mention lightning fast.
I’ve always wondered why people seem to be in such distinct camps when it comes to these- knitters won’t crochet and crocheters seem terrified of two sticks. Hybrid patterns like Ariana, and more recently, Jethro, gladden my heart. Maybe a few knitters will be inspired to embrace the granny square trend (it goes away but always comes back!) but made more refined with a bit of knitting added to the mix.
I would love for Kay and Ann to weigh in on this is in a future column.
Thanks so much for the pattern suggestions!! I knit and crochet pretty equally—my preference is to always have one or two projects of each style going at once. I am perhaps particular about aesthetics and my vision, so I find I just can’t make everything I want to make without the option to choose knitting OR crochet. So excited for this new-to-me idea of combining both in one project.
Along with the versatility, I find fluency in two fiber arts techniques really helps me understand the craft at a root level. Sort of like how learning Latin or Chinese expands your understanding of language in a way that benefits your use of English, or one computer programming language improves your ability to think clearly about other programming styles.
When I made my Geogradient KAL shawl, I did a 4 patch granny square center and picked up stitches around for the remaining knitted sections. I am almost done and I am planning to add tiny grannies (grandchildren?) on point for a border, instead of the dio stitch border (which looks very time consuming). Having done that, I definitely want to make more bi-crafty projects, as Marly Bird calls them. I’m also going to check out the patterns you mentioned.
Aw heck I’ll weigh in right this minute! I love this idea of hybridization, Deepa. You are so right that there’s a peculiar bifurcation when it comes to crochet vs knitting—they are such close relatives, shouldn’t they hang out together? I haven’t done much crocheting mostly because of this knitting situation I seem to be tied up in, but I remain certain that crochet is going to enter my life at some point soon. It’s just a lovely way to create fabric. [Runs off to see the patterns you mention]
Yes! Everything Deepa said! I crochet, but not extensively, and recently (Sunday, to be precise) learned how to bobble with a crochet- life changing!
I wish I’d known about this technique in 1989 when I knit a sweater full of grapes, on the vine. (said sweater is a tribute to the weirdness craze of the late 80’s/early 90’s, just after Kaffe’s joyous colour explosion. Belongs in a museum as an ode to younger self’s tenacity)
Thank you for this; I have never liked bobbles but the smaller ones look nice and the Barbara You tube video is very clear. The following Barbara video was showing how to do Kitchener stitch without a tapestry needle….looked easier than the usual method. And now I am down the rabbit hole of Barbara knitting videos! Kay, your comments re not being judgemental while the knitting is in progress are so right; I can’t count the number of times that I have been ready to rip but it usually is fine, except for short rows (my Achilles heel).
Hi Kay! I absolutely tied the double square knots ‘behind the scenes’. I just made sure there was a Plötulopi float to anchor my knots so they won’t pop through to the front.
I enjoyed this article so much, thanks for featuring my vest and those sweet little Barbara bobbles.
This is great news for me because my old eyes could not see bobbles in the printed chart for the sleeves and I knitted them without bobbles. After double-checking the online version of the pattern I discovered my “oops!” These afterthought bobbles will be better size wise for my sleeves anyway, so all is good! Thank you!
Bobbilicious!
I don’t know if anybody will be interested in this, but I have been knitting bobbles on two different ones of Nancy Bates’ National Parks hats. The bobbles on the Zion hat did not work out well, and insisted on receding to the inside of the hat. And I checked the instructions again and again over the two hats I knitted to that pattern! (Slow learner.) The bobbles on the Sequoia hat, with a different technique, worked fine. So if at first your bobbles don’t suit, I guess the lesson is to try a different bobble. Thank you for reading.
I knit the bobbles, but didn’t like how they looked especially, so I’m going to investigate other types of knitted bobbles to se if I can get a more satisfactory result.
I agree, so many knits look better after blocking. There are several hats in my collection that were never blocked, must see to them!
As a child I had an Aran sweater with a row of bobbles up the spine. I’d forget they were there and lean back and Ouch! I have declared myself to have bobble trauma and really don’t do more than the occasional nup on a scarf or shawl. The bobbles on this are cute, but it’s the principle of it by now.