Yet again.
And then I came along and decided to change this longwinded old post and see whether it would suddenly pop up with the right information. Boom! chacalaka.
I'm not one to go by the rules. I love tunisian crochet, and I am willing to experiment with it. So I've experimented with how to cast on, and I'm experimenting with stitch combinations for a project.
I'm quite annoyed by pulling up threads from a foundation chain. I can never seem to get it quite right, it doesn't have a pleasant effect, even when I use a larger hook to create the chain. Even though I'm not a knitter, I use knit cast-ons to start my tunisian projects, and it works quite well.
Here's cast-on options that actually work on both tunisian and double-ended hooks, each with different properties:
- Crochet chain cast-on
- This is the usual method. I don't like this one, most of the time.
- Knit cast-on
- Use a second smaller crochet hook to make stitches and move them to the tunisian hook.
- Cable cast-on
- Similar to a knit cast-on, use a second smaller hook to help.
- Single cast-on
- Using half-hitches to add loops to the hook loosely, then work them off with a regular return-row. May have to hunt for the vertical threads a little. Too easy to screw it up, can be difficult for the next row because the loops can vary in give and it's easy to make them uneven.
- Double cast-on (long-tail cast-on
- I love this one, but requires leaving a "Tail" long enough to cast the number of stitches required, so can be tricky.
- German twisted cast-on
- This works rather well, too. It's a modification of the double cast-on.
These knit cast-on methods I have not tried yet:
- Chain cast-on
- ?
- Provisional cast-on
- Haven't tried this one yet.
- Tubular cast-on
- Haven't tried yet, but doesn't sound promising.
- Double needle cast-on
- Haven't tried.
- Braided cast-on
- ?
Another thing I'm working out is how to make a "real" rib stitch. A few suggested methods of rib stitches are:
- Recommended: Create horizontal ribbing using a double-ended hook and 2 separate balls of yarn, work return pass + tks forward, turn work & work with second ball a return pass + tks forward. [Can make do with 1 ball of yarn & afghan hook: do 1 row tks, 1 row reverse tks, but easier with 2 balls & reversing the work rather than the stitch.] This makes a very condensed and stretchy thick ribbing.
- Alternating rows of tss and twtss (tunisian simple stitch and tunisian twisted simple stitches) - this may replicate the look, but not the texture or stretch of knit ribbing.
- Alternating rows of tks and tps (tunisian knit stitch and tunisian purl stitch) - this is closer to the texture and stretch of ribbing but not as good as the 2-way tks.
Other Posts in January 2013?
