Tunisian crochet is not my favorite. It seems overly repetitive to me – just plain boring. Kinda like I feel about working anything in all single crochets. However, there are times when the particular characteristics of tunisian are a real benefit. Drape, stretch, and appearance (like knitting) are some of the benefits of tunisian crochet.
Tunisian is known by other names, some referring to the same stitches and some with slight variations – afghan stitch, shepherd knitting, crochet on the double, and tricot being the main ones. There are even several brand name hooks that purport to be designed specifically for these stitches – Mo-ez is one that comes to mind. Tunisian can be accomplished with a plain old crochet hook (check out entrelac crochet) but is more typically worked using hooks that are about a foot long, some are double ended, and some are cabled. All these hooks are thoroughly discussed in the book, complete with pictures of each hook.
This is a very attractive book. Slick pages of color photos and clear schematics, handy tip boxes, yarn, ease, and body size charts, and the use of lovely yarns, beautifully photographed all make this an appealing book. But, does it make tunisian crochet appealing? Well, yes.
(Note: the Tip Box on page 26 is almost worth the price of this book for those who’ve been frustrated in attempts to learn or perfect tunisian basic stitches.)
Every garment in this book is one I would make and wear! In fact, I’m now anxious to get some Colinette Banyan yarn (used to make a skirt on page 36) to make the scarf shown on page 28. I think even I can stick with these stitches long enough to make these relatively simple but delicious looking garments. The most involved garment is a duster shown on page 50. Even this ‘involved’ garment does not seem overwhelming to me the way that longer sweaters often do.
In addition to garments, there are two blankets, two pillows, placemats, and an ottoman cover for a total of 16 projects. If you like textured afghans, the two in this book are true winners.
One benefit of tunisian is also its downfall to me. Once you’ve mastered a stitch – which might take several rows of work – you’ll have plenty of time to perfect it as you’ll work each row twice – once forward and once backward as it takes two ‘runs’ to complete each row and your work always faces you. Well, having the work always facing me is not a minus – just a note to those who aren’t familiar…..
If you are a crocheter who is completely daunted by knitting but wants to make a project that LOOKS like it was crocheted, tunisian stitches are for you. The tunisian knit stitch is an almost identical twin to the ‘real thing’. There’s a lovely child’s dress in this book that I would SWEAR was knitted. Must trust that it’s crocheted as this is a crochet book, right?
In addition to appealing projects made with delicious yarns, there are excellent ‘how to’ photographs of the basic stitches. As in ‘regular’ crochet, once you’ve mastered the basics, the other stitches build on those. Overall, I’d recommend this book for anyone interested in learning or perfecting tunisian crochet. I think it’s a useful guide that contains good instruction coupled with projects that are practical as well as beautiful.
Book Stats:
Tunisian Crochet, The look of Knitting with the ease of Crocheting
by Sharon Hernes Silverman
Stackpolebooks.com, May, 2009
ISBN: 9780811704847
List price is $24.95
8.5X11 soft cover with 115 pages