I took two classes with Merike Saarniit at Vogue - one on Nupps, Buds and Bobbles, and one on Elongated Stitches. I’d heard good things about Merike after Knit Nation and I was really looking forward to these two.

I’ve done classes in the past with Nancy Bush, and have all the ‘Estonian’ books, but it was great to get an angle on Estonian knitting from a completely different direction. Merike is totally sweet too, and her classes were really fun, as well as being loaded with very useable techniques.

From the bobbles class, this was absolutely my favourite stitch:

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It’s like smocking, but a sneaky technique that doesn’t require a cable needle. and I think it sits better too. I can see myself using this stitch loads, I already have a design in my head (and conveniently, cashmere in stash). This swatch has the wraps worked on a 1×1 rib, but it looks just as effective on stocking stitch or other backgrounds.

My reward for finishing swatches quickly, I got Merike to show me the bobble cast on pictured at the top here:

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The needle I was using was a bit big, so it’s untidy, and also needs a bit more practice. The other swatch is a bunch of bobbles in various stitches.

I have another swatch that I’m not bothering to show, it’s just a series of different nupps. I did them all, and picked my favourite, and you don’t need to see how messy my swatch is!

In the elongated stitches class, we knitted stitch after stitch and, just like in the bobbles class, the first one was my favourite again. (Maybe Merike always does the best stitches first). It’s at the bottom of the swatch on the right.

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I didn’t like the 2-colour stitches at all, but that could have been the yarn I was using (not very suitable) and I can see the potential to explore further.

The stitch at the bottom of the left hand swatch I also love. It would look great in a variegated yarn, but even here you can see how the little v’s kind of ‘hug’ the columns. It makes great ribbing with some purl sts in between.

That was it, Merike is going to be at Knit Nation again this year and I thoroughly recommend you sign up for something with her if you didn’t get a chance to last year!

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