Study in Tunisian Crochet

Pulled out my 9″ long, I-sized Tunisian Crochet hook this past week to expand my crochet repertoire. A bit of inexpensive Red Heart Yarn, my Encyclopedia of Crochet by Donna Kooler, and a few YouTube videos and I was set.

It turned out to be fairly easy to do and I enjoyed seeing the stitch patterns emerge along with ideas I could get with it going forward on my Tropical Butterfly Garden Project. I played with learning no less than 8 different stitches and their combinations, even creating stitches that look just like something that was knit with knitting needles and stitches that resembled purling.

IMG_0004 Tunisian Simple Stitch using Red Heart’s Artist Print Yarn

Using as much of my hook as possible I chained a total of 20 stitches across and have so far made a scarf-like study of about 40 centimeters of varying rows of stitches.  The sides of the scarf are not even as I was focusing on proper tension and the actual creation of the stitch vs. counting the correct amount in a row. A recurring problem for me.

IMG_0009 Tunisian Full Stitch or Slant Stitch (?), An experimental row or two, Tunisian Double Crochet, and several rows of what I call the Knit Stitch because it looks just like knitting. I have noticed several stitches seem to have more than one name.

This style of crochet does also have a tendency to curl which a friend in stitch group did warn me about. It was also suggested to use a larger hook with smaller yarn to help reduce this.

IMG_0011 A bit of Tunisian Lacy Simple Stitch, Tunisian Double Crochet, and then a Tunisian Rib Stitch pattern which I’m not sure I did correctly.

IMG_0013 As I felt more confident with my skills are started combining various stitches within the rows to begin creating varying textures and patterns. The top section is a match to a very interesting bark pattern I saw which visiting the Daintree Rainforest in Australia recently.

From yarn I moved onto wire, of course.

Tunisian Wire Crochet
Tunisian Wire Crochet

The stitch work and techniques are just as easily transferrable as with a regular crochet hook and I like that some of the stitches seem a bit more durable than with regular crochet but I am limited by the 9″ length of my Tunisian Crochet hook. Whereas with a regular crochet hook I am able to have a width as wide as my yarn will allow. As I type this I am getting an idea as to how to use that to my advantage. More Research & Development!

9" Tunisian Crochet Hook packed with 20 stitches of wire crochet work.
9″ Tunisian Crochet Hook packed with 20 stitches of wire crochet work.

At the far end of the work I found I had a lot less leverage in which to create the stitches using the wire and it became more and more difficult to work. When I create my pieces I need to complete them in a reasonable amount of time or I won’t be able to finish so the extra wrestling it took to complete each stitch will need to be reduced.

Working from here on my Study in Tunisian Wire Crochet work: IMG_0023

HoursTracker: Still keeping track of the hours, this week I’ve spent mostly on this Tunisian Crochet which I’ve clocked under the Research & Development: Approximately 4 1/2 hours.

A bit of Marketing, mostly updating a few things on my website and blog post creating which includes taking the photos, editing the photos, and writing, etc: Approximately 2 hours and 40 minutes.

Published by Studio Deanna

Metals + Fibers + Writing

2 thoughts on “Study in Tunisian Crochet

  1. I love the look of the simple stitch but agree that it has a massive tendency to produce fabric that scrolls up on itself.

    If you haven’t already, take a look at the Tunisian honeycomb stitch. It’s actually a combination of stitches that work really well together. :-)

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