Cracked it!

I have a passion for shawls, in every shape and size! I find the patterns challenging, a graph of symbols which gradually transfers in yarn to a beautiful design. The more complicated the better and I am happy to place beads but don't like to go overboard, but nupps that is another story. Most pattern books explain that a nupp is created by working five or more stitches (k1,yo,k1,yo,k1,yo,k1,yo) from one in the first row and on the return row you have to knit/purl together stitches made so that you are back to the one stitch that you started with. Sounds easy, but you have to make the stitches quite loose, or you can't get you needle in all seven loops to knit them together and it is quite easy to miss one of the loops making a mess. So I look for tutorials - this one on Youtube uses a crochet hook, but try as I might I can't make a nupp using this method, back to square one and avoiding patterns with nupps and this has limited the patterns that I have been able to do. Then a while back I was faced with nupps in a mystery shawl KAL and I had bought into this, so the accountant in me forced me to re-consider nupps - and I have finally cracked it - and it is really easy - so simple that I am cross that I didn't think of this method before





and here a pic of the shawl I am making at the moment - with lots and lots of nupps