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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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: 
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.
Thanks for the recommendation! I love the resulting look of the Tunisian Honeycomb stitch pattern. Adding it to my practice ‘scarf’ :)
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. :-)