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...