Another Yarn Dilemma - Solved

The top sample is my gauge and sample swatch of the Bobble pattern in Silky Wool. The lower sample is from a sample skein sent by elann.com (Click on the photo for a larger, more detailed view.) It's about half wool/half microfiber, which was a combination that I had originally thought might be good for this sweater. Everything about it looked good, except the color, but they have others. I really thought I might switch after I did the sample last night, but looking at it both in person and in the photos, I really believe I'll stay with the silky wool. It just has a little more interesting look to it.

You probably notice the difference between the lower bobble pattern in the top swatch and the second repeat above it. I was not happy with the way my bobbles looked, even with several suggestions to slip the first stitch on each row, etc. I finally remembered to look in my June Hemmons Hiatt Principles of Knitting book, and of course, she has the answer to this, as well as almost anything else you'd ever want to know about knitting, and a lot of things I didn't know existed. She has a Better Bobble method.* As you can see, the good bobbles all stand up like soldiers, and look very uniform. The other methods lead to bobbles which are shy and retiring. Bold bobbles; that's what we want!

I started on the back again last night, and it's slow going so far. I have a stitch marker between each repeat, and I'm using some commercially-made ones which are okay, but I really wanted some made from straws. So, I snagged a couple straws from a restaurant yesterday, and I'll cut them into slices. That's my favorite type of marker. They're very flexible, lightweight and don't get in the way. Also, easily replaceable.


*Better Bobble Method
R1: YOinc3, turn
R2: P1, YOinc3, P1, turn
R3: K5, turn
R4: SSP*, P1, P2tog, turn
R5: Slip2kwtog, K1, PSSsO

(SSP involves slipping 2 knitwise separately, moving them back to the left needle, and purling them together through the back loop from left to right.)