I spent
the morning alternately blowing my nose and learning new Tunisian Crochet
stitches. The first problem I wasn't entirely sure was hay fever or a cold,
and the second issue, much more pleasant of course, served to distract me from
the worst of the first.
I've been
gaily broadcasting that I will teach Tunisian at some point soon, and I do
enjoy it, but in actual fact I haven't had an awful lot of experience with it.
I realised I'd need to thrash out some of its pitfalls before I stand up in
front of a group and declare myself able. For one thing I've only ever tried a
couple of Tunisian stitches so I needed to get a few more under my belt.
If you
are wondering, by the way, what the heck Tunisian Crochet is, it's a form of
crochet that is much closer to knitting, in that you work loads of loops onto
the hook, like, as many as your work is wide, just like knitting, and then you
work them all off again. Unlike knitting, you don't work them off onto another
needle, they just get looped into the work, safe, like crochet. I've even seen
it CALLED 'crochetknit'. Of course, if you do want to make anything any wider
than a granny square you'll need a much longer hook than the standard.
 |
At the back is a swatch of Tunisian
Standard stitch in bamboo. In the middle
is Tunisian popcorn in wool, and the front
is Tunisian Knit stitch, still on the hook.
|
I bought
mine from John Lewis. It's not ACTUALLY a Tunisian hook because they come with
a kind of 'stop' on the other end. A hook on one, and a stop on the other. The
ones I've bought from JL are actually 'Double Ended', in that they have a hook
at each end. The point is though, that they are LONG, twice as long as an
ordinary hook. And I've also discovered that there is ANOTHER form of
crocheting, actually a kind of variation of Tunisian, called double ended crocheting,
which puts the hook at the other end to good use and produces double-sided
fabric, sometimes with a different colour on each side!
 |
| Happy Easter, by the way! |
In
continuation of my treatise on technology last week, I got my instructions from
a book for sale on Amazon by simply clicking Look Inside. I won't say which
book because I don't want to go anywhere near infringing anyone's copyright, in
fact I daresay just by mentioning what I have done I could be inciting the
wider public to immoral practices that leave the author popular but poor. Let's
just say that it's a current and useful loop hole that's making it possible for
me to learn crochet stitches without spending any money, and it probably won't
be open for long....
For
yet another crochet technology link, do please also visit my Social Bookmarking
account at Diigo where I clip all the random, crochet and craft-related links I ever
encounter.....
