I have to admit to being mildly suspicious of Tunisian crochet for a long time. I always thought it was something knitters were trying to do to crochet to make it more like knitting because they didn't think crochet was good enough. My sister-in-law Jessica left a set of Tunisian hooks with me over Christmas and while I liked the look of them, I wasn't sure when I would venture down that path.
It must have been the patterns in the latest Inside Crochet and Simply Crochet that swayed me into picking up one of the extra long hooks, but I have to admit to being happily surprised it wasn't some strange technique at all, rather just a series of interlinked crochet stitches.
I believe the phrase you are looking for is "D'oh, Kat".
And so, I spent the weekend happily swatching and experimenting with various Tunisian stitches. The fabric it makes is solid and drapey, but does take some getting used to design wise, as it seems to have less stretch than normal crochet (and knitting). I designed a hat, which due to my inexperience with Tunisian, turned out TERRIBLY, but I remain undaunted...
Some Tunisian Inspiration:
- It was this pattern that threw me over the edge on wanting to learn.
- I used these tutorials to learn what I was doing.
- Aoibhe Ni's designs are simply gorgeous, if I were a shawl person, I would be queueing up the lot.
- I currently have the long bamboo hooks pictured and a set of Addi Click Hooks. I have to admit to not liking the Addis at all. In Tunisian, you have to work up a few hook sizes as it is much tighter than normal crochet, the Addis are plastic in the 2 upper sizes and squeak horribly. *shudder*
- Vicki Brown has a cute little bag in Tunisian Crochet in the latest edition of Simply Crochet.