Knitting

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Stitch of the Week: Trinity Stitch

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trinity stitchBack in the day when my About site was young, I worked a swatch of some common knitting stitch almost weekly. (You can find them in my stitch pattern glossary.) I guess I got busy and had covered so many of the common ones that I started accidentally repeating myself, so I got out of the habit of doing it.

I also had a really bad camera back in the beginning, so some of these need to be reworked, or at least reshot if I could find the old swatches. Which maybe sharing them with you will inspire me to do.

In any case, I think it’s inspiring to look at different stitch patterns and see what people have done with them, so that’s what this stitch of the week post is for.

First up, trinity stitch. This is not an easy one to start with, because there are lots of similar stitch patterns that go by different names. You might also hear this one called blackberry stitch, bramble stitch, cluster stitch and I’m sure other things I’m forgetting right now.

To form it, you work three stitches into one stitch, then purl 3 together. Purling 3 together is rather a pain. Pointy needles will help.

Still, I like this bumpy stitch pattern, and once you get the hang of it, it’s not too much trouble. I’ve actually used it in two projects: a headband and a baby-sized prayer shawl.

Some other free projects that give you a chance to try this stitch include the Trinity Stitch Hat from BreadnBadger and Rag Lana’s Blackberry Street No. 1 scarf. And for a variation on trinity stitch that looks pretty much exactly the same, check out this post on Not Trinity Stitch at the Knitting Fiend/Diet Diary.

Have you ever used trinity stitch? I’d love to hear what you used it for.

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Add Mushrooms to Your Knits with these Fun Knitting Patterns

A few years ago I wrote a post that was full of patterns for knit mushrooms, but I don’t think I ever did a post that was knitting patterns with mushrooms on them, so today’s the day. 

I love the Fungi Beanie from Jacki Bean, which calls for worsted weight yarn and uses duplicate stitch to add the mushrooms and other details. I think the colors she used for the design are tonal/multicolor so it doesn’t use as many colors as it looks like, but you can use whatever red, green, brown and white yarn you have in your stash for those details. 

How about some mushroom socks? The Magic Toadstool sock form Stone Knits includes a ring of mushrooms around the leg, contrasting heel and toe and a little more colorwork at the toe for extra cuteness. As shown it uses four colors and comes in three sizes. 

Or there’s the Fairy Ring Socks from Katie Green, which have mushrooms of two sizes on the legs, plus a bit of wavy grass. They have a contrasting cuff, heel and toe and some colorwork flecks in the body of the sock as well. This one is available in eight sizes to fit everyone from a baby to an XL adult. 

This trippy cowl from Hunt Hand Knits looks like a lot of fun to knit. The Fungus Among Us Cowl is shown using four colors of DK weight yarn, though you can do it with as few as two if you’d rather. 

Stitch some mushroom mittens with this cute pattern from Holly C Watson. This design uses three colors, and it’s shown with a self-striping yarn on the mushroom caps, which makes the colors change without you having to do any work. The pattern is charted but it’s a pretty easy repeat. The mittens are one size. 

If you don’t feel like knitting mushrooms but still want to give your project a touch of the forest, the Toadstools Cardigan from Julie Taylor may be what you’re looking for. It’s stitched as a plain cardigan worked in DK weight yarn and sized for newborns up to 4 years old. The mushrooms are added with embroidery and the pattern includes the design, which you can trace onto water soluble stabilizer to stitch the mushrooms onto your sweater. Or anything else you want. You can find this pattern on Ravelry.