A Nother Night in Tunisia

Tunisian Crochet. We, here in the UK say TYOONIZZYAN. That's sounds right to us. That's the correct way of saying it OF COURSE :) 

But I've been watching the Dora Ohrenstein video put out by Interweave. Yes, I finally succumbed to the advertising and I'm jolly glad I did. The genuinely delightful Dora comes from that OTHER place (voice now dropping to a whisper -you know - lower than a whisper- 'across the pond' - sharp intake of breath!) (return to normal pitch) anyway, WHATEVER: the upshot is I've made the radical decision to take advice from someone who calls it 'Tooneezhun'. 

Tunisian Simple Stitch

Actually it hadn't occurred to me to say it any other way and was a bit of a shock. Used to it now. But you know I should have realised because of Ella Fitzgerald singing 'a night in tooneezhia'. I'm not sure I'd even put tyoo and tyoo together there either! I never stopped to wonder which mystical, romantic, ACTUAL geographic location hosted the wonderful-sounding 'Tooneezha'.
Well there we have it - yet another crochet difference between us and our talented cousins in the colony.

I've dabbled before, but until now have always been 'called away' by some new-to-me conventional crochet technique or stitch pattern that I absolutely had to try, NOW, so although I do have a few samples of this, that and the other in my overflowing swatch box, the Tunisian Technique hadn't QUITE grabbed me by the throat and strangled me.... YET. But (also in Ella's words) I'm beginning to see the light! Dora has shown me The Way. One of my issues was the infamous Tunisian curl - off-putting but fixable through wet blocking - but my main problem was the compactness of the work. No drape. Too limited. But, now Dora has demonstrated that both these things occurred because I was using the same hook - yarnweight ratio as in conventional crochet and I didn't ought to have been. In Tunisian Crochet you use a hook at least two sizes bigger than you would normally. Simple piece of advice, but crucial.

 And now.... well, (understated chuckle) I'm flying! She's solved my bout of purl stitch cackhanditis, properly explained the knit stitch that I was only getting right on a random  basis, and instilled a fever of excitement that's turned me into a high performance swatch machine. 

The justification for all this 'study'? (Ha ha yes, 'study', I like that!) I've only gone and offered the WI college a course in Beginners Tunisian. I don't know yet if they'll book me but I do know I'd better be ready!
And I'm going to offer my own independent one anyway, as soon as I feel I've made enough booboos and solved them to feel ready enough to help others when they go wrong too.

I'm making my BIGGEST blanket so far and I've incorporated some Tunisian Simple Stitch in it (got to have sample products to show!).

Combining with conventional to create a
new take on the crochet square

In the meantime, and on the more conventional front, I've made some socks and a bottle cover (and a lovely mandala) as part of my work with my Tuesday ladies. I'm also trying to write a third article. It's ground somewhat a halt though. Need to jump back in there, and soon.... tomorrow. Yes, definitely tomorrow...

Happiness in a Hook

A busy diary



l to r: Diana, Marta, Bethan and Jo - the Tuesday Night Ladies

My Tuesday Night Ladies have settled in to a regular routine now - which is MARVELLOUS! They come to my house - which, of course, I don't have to pay a hire fee for - and every meeting is like a house warming party. What IS it about this lovely activity that spreads so much hilarity and general good feeling? It's really quite amazing. We fell upon a pattern for something called a mandala in the latest, newest crochet magazine 'Simply Crochet', and all followed it together. We got through about half of it, what with all the story sharing and general merriment as well, and we will do the rest in our next session.

The Simply Crochet Mandala -
to be completed soon

In the meantime, I did my first Improvers, 2-night course at Denman College at the weekend. It was as spiritually edifying and delightful as ever with yet another marvellous bunch of students and fascinating, friendly  fellow tutors. My teaching room was in the main house this time, due to a flood in the designated workshop in the teaching centre. It was a piece of good luck for us really as there can be few crochet workshops as elegant and magnificent as ours was this weekend. I mean it had a full-blown chandelier for goodness' sake!

One of my students brought up something which is becoming increasingly of interest to me and that is: The Invisibility of the Older Woman. It's something I've heard discussed before. I first heard it mentioned when, at 36, I went to Spain on a Flamenco holiday. My fellow student/tourists were almost all quite a bit older than I was. It was brought to my attention a little earlier than might have been, that society isn't very good at giving air space to older women - waiters and bar staff overlook us, that sort of thing. But going to Denman is like changing the filter on a lens and suddenly having access to a quite breathtaking,  rich source of inspiration; of rapier wit, of heart-stopping life stories, of megalithic talents and skills, of productiveness, of strength and resilience in the face of adversity and of positive, nurturing, go-getting, joie-de-vivre. Younger women ARE joining Wi groups up and down the country, of course they are, yet still, it cannot be denied that the AVERAGE age of your AVERAGE Denman student on any given course, IS, come one you can't argue, somewhat, well, a highish number anyway. But, my goodness, if you come away NOT wanting to be a part of that lot, you must be utterly devoid of aspiration.



My second published article

Speaking of amazing ladies, by the way, true to my word I have managed to publish my second article, about Flora Klickmann - now long gone editor of the Girls Own Paper. As part of the article I made up a product from one of her crochet patterns, which I adapted into 'Inside Crochet' house style and included, along with a photo, of course, of the little baby jacket. The garment itself is now to go on display in the Teaching Centre at Denman. Look out too, in the July edition (out at the end of June) for my Beginners Baby Blanket pattern - my first DESIGN to be published.

Fruition of plans is always SO gratifying, don't you think? (Mwah ha ha ha ha ha).

Out Crocheting: Back Soon

Denman College, the educational arm of the
National Federation of Women's Institutes
17th February 2013

The Tutors' Lounge at Denman
(Nugent Harris Room)

It’s February already and I now have TWO more courses at the WI’s Denman College under my belt - clearly I got something right last October! And all that despite having the worst EVER cold, and, of course, being a complete Denman newby to boot.

But this time, I knew how to get there, I knew where my room was, I understood the key system and the dining room and the bar. I could work the visualiser and the plasma screen and the room configuration was already laid out the way I liked it. This time I established more of a relationship with the other tutors, and sat at the tutors’ table in the dining room and retired to the tutors’ drawing room for coffee to discuss tutory things.

 

The Grandfather clock
in the Tutors' Lounge

Lesson time on the
Long Course

And of course I benefited from my teaching experience at Denman last time. My two-night Beginners session on 11th-13th February, though quite pacey in many ways, was still relaxed and laid back in most.

And there was time. Time to reflect, time to rest, time to sleep and time to chat. Denman has a wonderful environment, and one is working amongst people who are all having a marvellous time, learning something new, and having a break from their normal lives. It’s safe and secure and supportive. It was also funny, very funny at times, entertaining, thought-provoking and, in full measure, inspiring, inspirational.

 

Three sessions of three hours at this
Taster Weekend. This was the
first and smallest group I had.

The February Fair Maids

 

I returned two days later to teach at Denman’s New Wave Taster weekend - three three-hour beginners sessions with three different groups - a quite different format with its own set of challenges. In fact by the end of Saturday’s second session, my fellow tutor Louise Brooks (who was running the Make a Fascinator course across the way) and I both had taken on a kind of zombified, haunted stare by the time we emerged from our respective workshops in the teaching centre and toddled back past the cheery border full of February Fair Maids to the Denman Dining Room at the main house.
We’d recovered by Sunday morning though, and agreed that it had been huge fun and we’d do it again like a shot.


Handmade bear, made by my
mum, Julie Rankin, showing off
his Cable Crochet sweater (by me).

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In the meantime I’ve been making baby things for pregnant friends. A little jacket here and little hat there. I’ve begun a major sample of filet crochet that uses lacets, intended for submission to the Diploma panel (long neglected) and I have decided, ultimately, I might see if Denman would like it on a wall somewhere. The thought of that will keep me at it I think. I’ve also made a few flowers, and hats, gloves and necksnugglers AND, (fanfare) finally mastered crocheted cables!  Oh yes - too busy crocheting to blog!