Jane's Hooked on Crochet

A place to write about my crocheting, things I'm learning, book reviews, ideas, projects in mind, works in progress, patterns, photos, fair entries, whatever...

Monday, October 08, 2007

Tunisian Sampler Baby Afghan

I just wrote a nice post for the Tunisian Crochet group. I thought it might save time (and get something up in a timely fashion) if I just copied the entire post here. I also spent more than a little time reviewing books on Tunisian Crochet for the group. Today must be spent on lesson plans and grading papers. Ignore those hooks and yarns that are speaking to me.

I've finished the Tunisian Sampler baby afghan that I started so long ago. I assembled it in order of things I'd like to teach in my classes. Right now I teach a beginning class in Tunisian, with the chain,Simple Stitch, and bind off; along with tips of selecting hooks, conquering the curl, how to make nice looking edges, etc. I also teach an advanced beginner where I teach the Tunisian Knit and Tunisian Purl (Kim & ARNie's reverse, I usually call it a front purl or a "purled simple"). I am hoping to get some students that stay for more than the two classes. I'd like to do more of the stitch combinations, changing colors and shells & lacy stitches.

I had a beginner class yesterday, and took the afghan in to show. I laid it on the table where I was teaching. There was a "pumpkin event" in the classroom, so I had a table in the aisle in the yarn department. I only had one student, who was quite happy with the arrangement. We had a lot of fun showing off our work to shoppers in the yarn dept and she picked up the stitches and technique quite quickly. Many people looked at the afghan and said "I want to learn to knit" !!
The event coordinator was "quite taken" with the afghan sampler. She even suggested taking it to the framing department and having it framed so that people wouldn't be fingering it.
I hope this generates more interest in my classes.

I'm now working on a sampler afghan in worsted weight, with the large hooks it still makes a nice, drapey fabric.

Now I have a question. I have several blocks worked in a "double plain" and can't remember where I found the instructions on this. I can't find it in ARNie's Encyclopedia or in the 101 Easy Tunisian Stitches, so I'm thinking that it's in the 52 Tunisian Stitches (my copy has been misplaced and I'm searching for a replacement). Anyone know exactly where I found this stitch?
If you have the instructions, make up a swatch or a block in this pattern, and then check out the back. The back looks nothing like the front, and doesn't have that characteristic Tunisian "roll" on the back. It looks a lot like a crocheted shell or blocks of hdc. Try making a block with alternating rows of two colors and then check out the back! I love this, I'm planning to put a plain color block, and a two color block on the next afghan with the reverse of the fabric on the front side! My student suggested that it would make a lovely sweater. Ah, I've got a design idea. Wish I had time to work up all the ideas I've been getting.

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