Same Pattern Different Look, But Why?

I just made my second Tunisian short row dish cloth, pattern link is here, I find them to be one of the best dish cloths to use, so durable.

The 3 below are made from the same pattern, but if you look closely you will see a difference with one of the dish cloths, one difference being the middle one was not made by me, but why is it so different when the exact same pattern was used and they are all face up?

Rachel from HGTV kindly supplied me with the middle picture of her dish cloth and pointed out the obvious difference to me and why it was so.

It's quite simply that I am a righty and she is a lefty, so the pattern turns in the opposite direction. How about that? I found it quite interesting. How's this one though, Rachel would drive on the right hand side of the road, whilst I drive on the left hand side of the road. US versus AU.

The Tunisian Joining Method

Using the Tunisian joining method for crochet squares can certainly make a nice joint to be seen or a hidden join. It seems to be a bit faster and I joined 8 squares at a time with these squares. I think if I had a smaller Tunisian hook than the 4.00mm I have on hand, I would have opted for a smaller one. You can see more on the Tunisian joining method here, with the original learning link I used. Next time I will use a different colour for the joining method so as it can be seen much better, the photo's do not do it much justice.

This is the joining side.

This is the opposite side to the joining side.

This is the size 4.00mm Tunisian hook I used.

New Tunisian Hook Additions

I ordered these from Crochet Australia, last week and I have them already. I also received a complimentary bag of lollies.

I did not feel so comfortable with the bamboo hook and I also wanted a larger hook, so I've gone from a 4mm to 6 mm here. I also think it will help with the ply of yarn I am using, evidently you need to use a hook a couple of sizes larger than you would normally use, when working with Tunisian St.
The circular crochet hooks are to be used for hat experimentation, can't wait to try them.
I'm going to frog my experimental Tunisian scarf as I have come up with a better idea, so stay tuned.
At the moment I am working on a graphghan and want to concentrate on that, I'm having fun with it and it will be completed in a few days, so stay tuned for that on too.

Tunisian Worked In The Round

Well this is a little hat made with the Tunisian st and an extendable Tunisian hook. It does look like it is work around, but it is not. The regular Tunisian forward and return has been used here, but there is one exception. At the end of the forward row, you slip st to the beginning of the row you are working on, then you complete the return row as usual. I tell you this had me stumped for a bit. When I was working with the extendable hook, I could not reach half of the st's to work on, it was like I needed a rubber hook to bend to meet the st's I needed to work on. So then I tried 3 crochet hooks, like working with knitting dpn's, that did work but it was uncomfortable. So I tried the extendable again, this time I pushed the st's I had just worked on (say half of the row) all the way down to the end of the extension and I was able to reach the unworked st's. YES!

This hat was just a demo, the above picture is the right way out and the picture below is wrong side out. You can see the size difference in st's where I used the 3 hooks in the lower white part. The hat was worked from the bottom upwards. And a doll is my model.

Make a crochet/extendable tunisian hook

This is how it all started. Stramenda from Cochet Lovers group on ravelry, came up with the idea of us making our own hooks/tunisian hooks. The following picture's and information are firstly from Stramenda as she was the first to begin making her own hook, followed by HappyPeacock, then myself. I have included their own description in their words on how they went about making their hooks. I really never thought it would happen, let alone myself participating and making one also.

Stramenda's Hook

OK, here’s my first attempt. I only had a kitchen paring knife and some old 120 sand paper handy, so I have not used appropriate tools, and this took me about 45 minutes. So with the right tools and right sandpaper, I imagine the process will be quicker and the hook will be better :-)


When hubby arrives I’m going to dash off to Bunnings and get some proper stuff, including finer sandpaper to finish it off, a little saw to saw off the end, and some sort of clear varnish :-)
If I can find a straighter stick, I could sand the entire length and leave the knob on the end and it would be a great tunisian !!

Introducing, my new afghan hook !!
She’s about 10mm in width, and a massive 47 cm long !!! She’s not totally straight, but the width is even all along. I finished her off with 800 sandpaper so she’s actually shiny even before painting, and after a test run, the hook head is pointy enough and deep enough, and she works beautifully !! Super silky smooth too !
I’ve always wanted a wider and longer afghan hook, and I managed to whittle one out of a very long twig. The yarn on this hook is a super thick yarn :-)

She’s not yet totally refined. She needs a light coat of clear paint, and I’m wondering what to do with the end. I can drill a little hole and put a cable in with superglue, or I can find a nice decorative knob to either screw in or glue on.
She’s longer than my keyboard !!

ETA: I envisage that if I start using pre-manufactured dowels from Bunnings, I can have a longer and straighter hook, any width I want ! Basically as long as I want !! (How long is too long?)

I made Hook Soup today !! (Couldn’t help myself whilst doing the veggie chop)

HappyPeacock's Hook

Notes
I have made a cabled tunisian crochet hook.
Started with all the clever ideas of all the wonderful women of Crochet Lovers Victoria and heaps of information on various websites.
Bought 25mm dowel from Bunnings, plus a coping saw, some Araldite and lots of grades of sandpaper.
After searching the internet for ideas of how to attach a cable and thinking long and hard, all of a sudden I realised that a cable knitting needle was already made for the job, it just had to be made to fit.
So that is what I did.
I cut the dowell and carved the hook my self and sanded it all over. A friend drilled a long hole in the blunt end exactly the same size as the circular knitting needle, then I pared that end down as well. When it was all how I wanted it we used Araldite to hold the needle inside the hook and built up the Araldite around the join to make it as seamless as possible.
Then cut a chunky disk of dowell and sanded it down, Another hole drilled and it was glued onto the other end of the cable needle to act as a stopper.
Both times the needle was cut shorter so the thickest part was used to give the tightest possible fit.
then hook sanded again and coated with furniture polish until it stopped soaking in.
The pine this is made of is very soft. I also bought a piece of Tasmanian oak to try for another hook. It is a hardwood so will be much more work.
I should add here that the hook size is 25mm!

This hook was made by Dawniedear. You can read more about it here, while you are there laughingpurple has some ventures with her own hook making where she has taken to the resources of nature to make her own hook.

My Hook

My Recepie For Making A Hook.

Grab some inspiration. There is plenty on this page.

Take a big breath of self confidence.

Find the materials needed, then begin.

If you make a mistake, keep trying, never give up!

It's looking more like a hook end here, I learn't from my first mistake.

I was using the only materials I could find in my Hubby's garage.

A broom stick handle, a saw, a chisel and a triangular type file.

Here she is after a couple of hours of work. She is sitting along side a 4mm crochet hook. I believe I have made a 20mm hook here.

After rounding off the end of the hook, I have some whipper snipper cord to insert into the end of the hook, then I will attatch the small wooden disc's to the end of the cord, they are light weight, wooden biscuit joiners, which remind me a bit of a wafer. Once this process is complete, I will have my 20mm extendable tunisian hook ready to go.

A New Addiction. Tunisian/Afghan Crochet.

My extremely new experience with Tunisian crochet may be of a help to others who are trying this method first hand too. Below is a picture of my hook, which is called an afghan hook. It is a size AU 5 mm (US 8). It measures about 13 inches long and has a hook on one end and a stopper on the other end, it's cross between a crochet hook and a knitting needle. You can use a normal crochet hook for smaller Tunisian projects.
The starting off method is just like crochet, chain the amount of stitches that you need.
But now it looks like knitting once you have completed the forward pass, by picking up a loop and pulling your yarn through the loop and keeping every single loop on your hook.
Now this is the return row, pull yarn through 1 st first, then pull yarn through 2 stitches at a time until you reach the end of the row.
On the forward pass row, this is the front loop you will pull your yarn through.
This is a sample of the tunisian crochet stitch after a few rows.
Just as in crochet and knit, Tunisian crochet has several types of stitches you can use. Below I have alternated rows of TSS (tunisian simple stitch) and TPS ( tunisian pearl stitch), this pattern makes for a nice closed stitch and I believe is very popular for dish cloths.

Now before I began to making any thing I went to youtube and watched a couple of good video clips. So I sat down and tried it, but some thing was very wrong. When Katie had given me a quick lesson last Saturday, she was picking up the very top loop only and said that is how it is done. I picked 2 you tube video's to watch, which were informative. But I got more confused, why is my Tunisian crochet looking like I have just knitted a few rows, so I tried what Katie had shown me and there was the Tunisian look that I had wanted. I went and watched the videos once again and realised there is Tunisian Knit and Tunisian Crochet. Tunisian Crochet picks up a single front loop, where as Tunisian Knit goes through the middle, out to the back and picks up the loop and draws it out to the front, 2 very different methods. I had been watching a crochet and a knit video, no wonder I was confused. I have also come across some very good video clips on next stitch.

Crochet Afghan Tunisian Stitch - Part 1.

Crochet Afghan Tunisian Stitch - Part 2

You Tube Tunisian Knit