There was a quick sketch, that I had jotted down on some random paper in the bathroom, that came to mind. One I had been thinking about for a long time, but wasn’t sure I should do anything with. I don’t want to go into too much detail, but I did want to share the swatches I made.

These swatches aren’t going to Interweave Crochet, but only because I decided against using the yarn; it’s not light-weight enough, and I quickly figured out that I would need something with a bit of stretch.

The first is the full view of the swatch:

Don’t you just love the color? It’s so bold. I love punches of color. And I freakin’ love that button, but, alas, the button will not be used in the next swatch. The girlfriend nixed it as a potential since it’s kind of toddler-ish, which I get, and maybe I could crochet a final piece in toddler-sized and use these buttons. Yum! Makes me think of Spring, edging on Summer, for some reason. Maybe it’s more that those were the days that my cousins and I use to brush the flowers in our grandmother’s front-yard garden with our toes while we sat, feet dangling over a little ledge, and ate watermelon.

This next image of the swatch is a closeup of the top portion:

So. much. freaking. love. for that button. Seriously. Doesn’t the yellow of the button go so well with the depth of the blue? Sorry–the swatch! The top of the swatch is in a single crochet ribbing, just your typical back-loop-only rib, using a hook that’s smaller than what I would recommend.

Tip: for ribbing, I almost always go down a hook size or two to get a nice, tight (not firm or unmoving, but close-together stitches) fabric so there’s more snap-back to the stretch.

The final image is a close-up of the shell/diamond lace work:

I love this pattern. It’s relatively simple, with an easy 8+1 stitch repeat, with a whole 4-row pattern that you can have memorized after the first full repeat. I actually went up 3 hook sizes from the hook I used for the ribbing, as I wanted the shell pattern to be lace-y, and to flare out a bit. Depending on the yarn itself, this may require blocking to get the right amount of drape that I want. We’ll see if I can come up with a good yarn. I may actually have to hit up a (gasp) real yarn store.

This style of crochet creates a delicious dense fabric when you work with the common stitches but, with some creativity, you can create open work with great stability and versatility. Tunisian doesn’t exist to merely mimic our knitting-counterparts’ knit and purl stitches. Instead, tunisian exists as a relatively untapped source of new stitch and design options! (more…)

Do you want to name this tunisian stitch I’ve developed? (I say “developed” because of all the stitch dictionaries that include tunisian stitch and stitch patterns, I have not seen this.) E-mail or comment to let me know your name suggestions!

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This is a swatch, and I only state that in case it’s not obvious.

It was crocheted with the Tunisian knit stitch, for the majority of it, accompanied with simple stitch blocks of 5×5 sts. It’s 25 stitches wide, total, but only 20 rows tall.

The color is ridiculously off because I had to post-camera alter it in PSP due to the fact that I took the photos on the top of my desk with lamp light and the on-camera flash. Dumb of me, but I’m _so impatient_ that I couldn’t wait until tomorrow.

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Bernat CottonTots :

Bernat CottonTots is a 100% cotton worsted weight yarn. Bernat recommended a hook size of 4.50mm and a gauge of 20s x 26r in 4”x4”. I used a 5.00mm hook and came out with a gauge of 13.5s x 15.5r in 4”x4”.

While this yarn is the lightest of the three here in this post, it doesn’t hold it’s shape well at all. It has the least amount of vertical and horizontal stretch. The stitches also suffer after the stretching as the cotton doesn’t bounce back. (more…)

WW; H-hook.

This is a swatch that started it’s life out as my attempt to do linked-treble stitches in the round. It’s tricky due to the type of stitch. Once you finish the last linked stitch of the round you have to figure out a way to reach proper height again. Ugh! (more…)

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I bought two of the Harmony Guides (vols 6 and 7) from Amazon.com a couple of weeks ago. This was the first swatch I made from one of their stitch patterns. I thought the spiral effect of the tunisian stitches, and the method in which it’s created, was breathtaking. (more…)