I have been dink’n around lately with a new wildlife design that I call, “Quail in the Snow.” The discoveries I’ve made during the process of developing a bobble for the pine cone have been very interesting. I have already shared with you some of the info in my recent post about “bobbles,” but further trial and error has brought me to some new conclusions.
1. A bobble can be made in one stitch and on one row.
2. Varying the loops can create different special affects.
3. If you want the knitting to expand for a 3-D look, be gentle, don’t pull them to tight, and knit them with one strand of yarn.
4. If you want your bobbles to lie flat on the backside, you need to work your boobles with two yarns- one to make the bobble, and one to knit the stitch in-between. This second yarn is pulled tight across the back. It pushed your bobble out front, and helps to retain a proper stitch gauge- very important.
In the picture below you can see the result of the 3-D affect I acheived with my pine cone. The cone and snow just above it, was worked with one strand. The snow on the other branches was worked with two strands, thus putting it in the background.
You can see that the cone it is raised quite a bit above the surface of the work. To retain the shape, I simply created a web of yarn across the back, weaving it together so that the backside retained the gauge of the entire piece.
Below is one of my new designs, which includes all four charts to play around with. I am still doing a bit of fine tuning, but hope to have it ready soon. This particular design was knitted with Palette fingering yarn from Knitpicks.
Hummmm? A little glitter in the snowflakes might be nice.
This pattern will give you a chance to use Intarsia ( in the round), Fair Isle, bobbles of various kinds, and the experience of creating the pine needles and details with a crochet hook.
It was great fun to do. Quail Motif – PDF
Have a great day!
Knit-tweaker
Creative Knitting - Beyond Knit and Purl 
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