Missing Friends

This weekend, a group of knitter friends are gathering in New York (the City) to eat, dish and shop for yarn.

I Won't Be There
I just couldn't work it all to be able to be there, and I am envious as hell. Marilyn, Kathy, Carol S., Lisa and possibly Selma will be getting together with a couple of other folks in NYC for a fun get-together. Lisa's partner and famed Author of "Self-Made Man", Norah, will be joining them for lunch only (yarn inebriation isn't her thing), and Lisa's mom and Marilyn's granddaughter will be crawling yarn stores as well.

Planning for this has been going on for a while, and now that the date is so close, our little group mailing list has been discussing little else.

It hasn't helped ease my envy.

Current Knitting
I'm almost up to the neck and shoulder shaping on the back of the Faux Rib sweater.



Since this will be a somewhat oversized sweater, I'll need to carefully plan out the neck and shoulder shaping.

Quilting Design
I've worked out the numbers for the rows of mushrooms. Each mushroom block will end up being 8 inches wide and 7.5 inches tall.

I even went so far as to cut out the shapes to show how it will look when finished.



And then created the actual template pieces with the 1/4 inch seam allowance that I'll use to cut fabric.



Now I just have to start playing with fabric patterns and colors to get the desired look. I started with a VERY preliminary version of the quilt, using cyber-swatches of fabric from the Kaffe fabric web site, and this is my first meager attempt (actually, it's about my 7th meager attempt, but it will be easier when I can play with actual fabrics, rather than graphic software).



I tried offsetting the mushrooms in a different graphic, but I think I prefer the pattern to be more stylized looking.



It has been an amazing amount of fun playing with all of Liza's fabrics. Seeing them in person is even more exciting. I can't wait to go shopping again.
Readers' Comments/Questions
Regarding the Trinity Stitch, new knitter, Serendipity says, "I am really stumped at the direction starting on row 9."

A couple of generalized pieces of advice when reading patterns.

1. Always just try it. You might want to try using crap yarn, but just follow instructions and see what happens.

2. Read all the instructions for a pattern stitch over and over trying to picture how it will knit up. When things don't seem to make sense, re-read them again, or go back to #1 advice.

3. Look for Errata on the book or pattern you're trying to do. A Google search for errors in patterns can reveal that it's not you, but the pattern that's screwed up.

4. Ask an experienced knitter to show you.

That being said, here's one on-line version of the Trinity Stitch that I found which will probably be similar to yours:

Row 1 (RS): Purl
Row 2: *[K1, P1, K1 ALL into next stitch; P3 together], repeat from *
Row 3: Purl
Row 4: *[P3 together; K1, P1, K1 ALL into next stitch], repeat from *

I'm assuming that since you're having trouble with rows 9 and 11 on your stitch pattern, they are similar to rows 2 and 4 above.

If you'll notice, each P3 together instruction is accompanied by a K1, P1, K1 ALL into the next stitch. So everytime you reduce stitches, you then increase them the same amount. Sometimes seeing it graphically can help.



Where the dots are Purl stitches and the Up Arrows are P3 Togethers and the Down Arrows are Knit, Purl, Knit all in the same stitch.