How to Knit a Nupp

1One stitch in, one stitch out

A nupp is a soft, round cluster of loops sitting among the eyelets, like a little button. It starts from a single stitch, sometimes called the mother stitch. You knit into it, make a yarn over, knit into it again, and carry on until there are five, seven or nine loops on your right needle. On the next row the loops are gathered back into one stitch.

So a finished nupp doesn’t change your stitch count: one stitch goes in, one stitch comes out. Five loops make a small, neat nupp; seven or nine make a plumper one, and your pattern says how many. In this guide we make a five-loop nupp.

Needles with sharp tips help a lot, and so does a small crochet hook for the way back. Nupps also use more yarn than plain stitches, so keep that in mind if you add them to a pattern that doesn’t have them.

2Step 1: knit into the stitch, and leave it there

Work up to the stitch where the nupp goes. Knit it loosely, but don’t slip it off the left needle: the mother stitch stays where it is, and you have one new loop on your right needle.

3Step 2: yarn over, and knit into it again

Bring the yarn over the right needle (a yarn over), then knit into the same mother stitch again. Now there are three loops on the right needle: knit, yarn over, knit.

Repeat once more, a yarn over and a knit, and you have five: k1, yo, k1, yo, k1, all into one stitch. For a seven-loop nupp keep going: k1, yo, k1, yo, k1, yo, k1.

4Step 3: slip the stitch off, and keep it loose

Now slip the mother stitch off the left needle. Five loops sit on your right needle, and all of them come out of the same stitch.

This is the moment that decides how easy the next row will be. Pull each loop up a little taller than your other stitches, and don’t tug the yarn tight before you work the next stitch. Long, relaxed loops are easy to gather together; tight ones are a struggle.

5Step 4: purl it together on the way back

Finish the row as the pattern says, turn, and work the wrong-side row up to the nupp. The five loops are waiting together on your left needle. Count them, so you know none has slipped off.

Insert the right needle purlwise into all five loops at once, wrap the yarn and purl them together: p5tog. The five loops become one stitch again, and when you turn the work, the nupp sits on the right side like a little button.

If the needle won’t go through all the loops, don’t force it. Slide a small crochet hook through all five loops purlwise, catch the yarn, pull a new loop through and put it on your right needle. Take care to gather only the nupp loops, not the stitch next to them: the neighbours like to hide right up against the nupp.

6Nupps in the round

In the round there is no wrong-side row to come back on. Make the nupp in exactly the same way on one round. On the next round, when you reach the loops, knit them all together through the back loop: k5tog tbl. You are back to one stitch, and the nupp sits on the outside. The open rosettes of our Sempervivum socks each have a nupp in the centre, so they are a lovely place to practise.

Some patterns work the nupp the other way round, even when knitting flat: the loops are made on a wrong-side row and knitted together through the back loops on the next right-side row. If your pattern closes its nupps differently, follow the pattern.

7Nupp or bobble?

Nupps and bobbles are cousins, but they are made differently. A bobble is usually worked back and forth over a few short rows of its own before it is decreased away. A nupp is quicker: its loops are made on one row and gathered on the next. The loops of a lace nupp are made with yarn overs, so it sits happily among the eyelets around it, and it is usually smaller and flatter than a bobble.

8Nupps on a chart

A nupp takes just one square on a lace chart, because one stitch goes in and one comes out. The symbol isn’t the same in every pattern, so check the key, and check how many loops the pattern wants. In the chart below the nupp is a small filled oval, with a decrease and a yarn over on each side.

If the chart shows only right-side rows, as this one does, the pattern tells you to purl the loops together on the next row. If it shows the wrong-side rows too, look for a symbol in the square above the nupp, or a note in the key. Charts new to you? Start with How to Read a Lace Knitting Chart.

9When a nupp goes wrong

• The loops are too tight to purl together. Use the crochet hook, and on the next nupp pull the loops up longer before you move on.
• You count four loops, or six. Don’t worry: purl together however many loops are there. You still end up with one stitch, so your count is fine, and the nupp is just a tiny bit smaller or bigger than its neighbours.
• You are one stitch short after the nupp row. The stitch next to the nupp was probably caught in the purl-together. Undo that stitch and gather only the nupp loops.