Four letter word

After many attempts at a black cardigan for my mum (I want it to be perfect, but it has other ideas) I thought I'd knit something that wouldn't matter if I screwed up the tension so bad it wouldn't fit a 10 year old. A shawl. Or a shawlette if you prefer (it's smaller, so shouldn't take too long to finish).

For those of you playing at home, this is "Swallowtail" from Interweave Knits Autumn 2006, & some leftover Bendi 2ply from my Eternal Shawl.

I'm trying to remind myself at this point that the two minute noodles you see above will block out like magic. The first pattern is done, & I moved onto the first border pattern (there are two). This pattern (lily of the valley) has something I'd never come across before - nupps.

A nupp is basically another way to do a bobble. You increase 4sts into 1 (K1, yo, K1, yo, K1), then on the return row, you purl all 5sts together. I'm a fairly firm knitter, so I'm having all sorts of dramas getting my needle into all 5 to purl these suckers without them all slithering off the ends of my needles, undoing themselves as they go.

My hands hurt from trying to force them, but do I care? Nupp.

Is it easy? Nupp.

Am I going to let it beat me? Nupp.

Have I learnt a new four letter word? Yup - "nupp".