Estonian Nups

On Saturday I attended the Oxford Branch meeting of the Knitting & Crochet Guild.  It was the first day at our new venue and at a new time.  In case anyone wants to call in when they are visiting Oxford – it is usually the first Saturday in the month from 11-3 in part of the Makerspace on the first floor of Oxford Central library (which is on the edge of the Westgate shopping centre).  From 11-1 we are going to just do knitting and chatting – and then from 1 until 3 we are going to do something more structured.

Normally I go to Oxford Yarn Store before our meetings but this time I thought I had better be there from 11 in case no one else was.  Next month I expect I will be back at the Yarn Store.  I was glad to hear that the lady who had come to teach us about Estonian Nups had been up to the Yarn Store. 

I must admit I didn’t know what an Estonian Nup was  - however when I started knitting one – I knew I had done them before.  I thought it was when I was knitting one of the Arizona Dream throws for Colinette but although the effect looks similar – the instructions seem to be different – but my fingers knew how to do them – so I have definitely done them before at some time.

This is the sample that I made during the session.  It is not too bad.  It is not as neat as it could be.  I also dropped 2 stitches.  The first one – you can see on the back – but the second one – I realised and managed to pick it up again on the next row.   You have to purl 5 together – and it is very easy to only purl 4 and drop one.  It is also quite easy to purl 6 together and accidentally include the next stitch.

Apparently the Estonians knitted fine shawls to sell – and the tended to be sold by the weight – so if they included Nups – they added interest and they added weight – so they could charge more money for their finished work.