August 2010 CAL: Tunisian Scarf Swatching

Below are various iterations of my ongoing Tunisian crochet scarf design project. My biggest issue with Tunisian crochet, particularly for a scarf, is that it doesn’t always look great from the back and a scarf needs to be designed to be viewed from both sides. I’ve made a list of as many Tunisian stitches as I could think of and have swatched with all of them, trying out some combinations and increases and decreases.

I really like the combination of Tunisian knit stitch and Tunisian purl stitch because the former tends to curl forward and the latter curls backward so they balance each other out and look pretty nice from the back when used together.
The front of a Tunisian swatch (the knit/purl part is on the left):
The back of the swatch:

Tags: bulky, CAL, swatches, techniques, tunisian
Category 8/10 Tunisian Scarf, Crochet, Techniques |

August 2010 CAL: Tunisian Scarf

Yep, I know I’m super late on the August 2010 CAL project. The month is more than half over and I hadn’t even decided on a project until yesterday. It’s been a lazy blogging month. What can I say?

Well, I’ve gotten as far as deciding to do a Tunisian crochet scarf and had settled on Obtuse last night… only to start it and discover that I wasn’t very happy with that decision. The pattern is a little confusing and not quite what I hoped it would be. But I have been wanting to design a Tunisian scarf so I’ve finally been adequately inspired to get on that. If anyone is CALing with me (anyone?) I’ll be happy to help you with Obtuse if you choose to try it OR I’ll let you in on the design process of my pattern-in-the-making and walk you through it as I go. Just email me or leave a comment if you’re interested. I’m planning to sell the pattern eventually so you’d be getting a free pattern and free help! The catch being that you might get pieces of a pattern at a time with possible errors (that I’d correct as soon as they are found, of course.) But, I would send you a nice PDF copy of the pattern when it’s finished.

I anticipate getting started on it right away (tonight) and finishing it sometime within the next 2 weeks or so. So far I know that it will be designed with bulky yarn and an M hook. You won’t need a special Tunisian hook for this, just a hook that has a fairly straight handle. I’m using this one… and this yarn:

Tags: bulky, CAL, crochet, pattern, scarf, techniques, tools, tunisian, wool
Category 8/10 Tunisian Scarf, Crochet, Inspiration, Uncategorized |

Finished Fibonacci Stripe Rug

The first (of at least 2) crocheted kitchen rug is finished! I was originally going to crochet a border around it but it wasn’t working out the way I’d hoped it would so I decided to leave it as is. I washed and blocked it last night… washed in vinegar to keep the colors from bleeding. The reason I went with gray instead of white is because I was afraid the black and red would bleed into the white. It doesn’t look like anything bled but there was an awful lot of lint from the yarn. I think it will look better after a second washing. I’m happy with the way it turned out though – it’s the perfect size for in front of the sink and very nice and cushy to stand on. I’m now working on a small matching rug to go under our pug’s food bowls. I’ll post patterns for both in the near future :)

Tags: bulky, CAL, cotton, crochet, FO, rug
Category 7/10 Fibonacci Rugs, Crochet |