Today we have more fun with crochet hooks. Teensy, tiny, metal crochet hooks. If you’re a sock knitter and you don’t have one, you should fix this immediately. Get thee to a store, and buy a metal crochet hook, a 2.0 mm one is perfect for all your sock knitting needs. It allows you to pick up stitches with tiny yarn, and it is crucial if you want to work easy nupps in fine weight yarns.
I have a lovely Swallowtail Shawl in progress. It’s been sitting for a while though. Because of the nupps. I breezed through the basic lace, but the nupps (p5tog?!?!?!?!) were killing me. So it was sitting. But last month the sock pattern for the Sugarbee Studios Sock Club had to have nupps. The lace pattern had been picked out for months. So it was time to master the nupp.

This tutorial works well for a k5tog (knit 5 together) or a p5tog (purl 5 together). In the Caloroso socks, it’s a k5tog. In the swallowtail, it’s the backside – a p5tog. Basically what you have in both situations is a case where you increased from one stitch to 5 stitches. And you need to bring them all back together.

Step One: Slip all 5 sts purl-wise off of the left-hand needle onto the crochet hook.

Step Two: For a p5tog, bring the yarn to the front of the crochet hook, and wrap it around the hook itself clock-wise. (For a k5tog, put the yarn at the back of the work and wrap it around the hook clock-wise).

Step Three: Twist the head of the crochet hook to grab the working yarn and pull it through all 5 sts.

Step Four: Use the hook to place the working yarn loop onto the right-hand needle.

Once you get the hang of this, the p5togs and k5togs will go really quickly – no slower than a cable. And you can make pretty things like my Caloroso socks without pulling your hair out.