Tunisian Crochet

I have crocheted since I was a small girl, however I learned how to do Tunisian Crochet in  January 2011 while my aunt and cousins were visiting from Indiana. Once I learned the "foundation row" and the "simple stitch" I was "hooked" and began learning more stitches and techniques.

What is Tunisian Crochet?

Tunisian Crochet borrows stitches from both crocheting and knitting. Instead of using a regular crochet hook, this technique requires a longer crochet hook because the loops are worked on and off the crochet hook.

Using the standard Tunisian crochet hook is great for smaller projects, however when crocheting a larger piece like an Afghan, it would be necessary to make panels and then piece them together. Since I am one who dislikes piecing items together I had to come up with another solution. I searched the craft stores and then went online to find hooks long enough to crochet a large afghan. I discovered a gold mine when I finally found "Denise Interchangeable Crochet Hooks." This solved my problem and have now crocheted  a total of eight afghans with the longer hooks and I haven't had to worry about piecing the afghans together.

Last summer I decided to try my hand at using this technique to crochet a sweater for my granddaughter. I bought a book on my iPad Kindle app and crocheted "The Big Sister Sweater." It is a raglan pull on sweater using the Tunisian Gobelin Stitch. I enjoyed making the sweater, however I have to admit that I wasn't pleased with how I pieced it together. My granddaughter liked it and I guess that is all that matters.

Later I used the same kind of pattern idea and designed my own sweater using the simple stitch. My granddaughter doesn't like long sleeves and wanted me to make a sweater with a capped sleeve. I made the sweater a little longer because she wanted to wear it with her leggins. For this sweater I used Caron Simply Soft yarn and found that it may have been a little heavy for this kind of a sweater.  My precious granddaughter  is modeling the sweater on the right.


I am in the process of finishing another sweater that I designed myself using a sport weight yarn using and the Honey Comb stitch. I like the weight of this yarn much better for her sweaters.