Anna's Crafts Room

My lap blanket made out of Tunisian crochet stitch pattern samples is nearly done.

I only have the tiresome, and boring, work of weaving in ends left, and attempt some kind of blocking of the blanket.

Found the pattern on a crochet page on Facebook, according to information seen on that page the creator is in Turkey.

The pattern has no name, and it is rather simple in execution and gives a rather nice structure. You basically purl *around* two stitches (front post crochet around two stitches), then put a simple stitch in the last of the two stitches you purled around.

To get the diagonal look you simply stagger the rows, so every other row you start with a simple stitch and every other you start with a front post purl over two stitches. Due to the fact it is a staggered pattern it can be work with any stitch number.

Something that has struck me after watching a few of these videos from Turkish creators is that they does not go up in hook size the same as many western creators almost always suggests.

Often they show that they are using a 3,5mm hook, which visually looks about right for the yarn weight.

Though they hardly ever tell what yarn they have, I saw one video where it was both showing the yarn label and telling the hook size used. Yarn said 2-4 mm when googling, the creator was using a 2,5 mm as that was what suited her, and said you could go up to 3,5 mm if that suited you better.

So it seem they rely more on what makes a good feel of fabric for your tension then just suggesting to go up in size blindly.

I've noticed that a lot of tutorials suggest going with a larger hook then you would for normal crochet, or at least larger then the label says. One of the reasons for this is that it is supposedly going to help combat the curling many Tunisian crochet stitches is prone to.

Does it really help? I'd say not enough to warrant the suggestion to be followed blindly. The below image shows three samples of Tunisian Simple Stitch. The top one is done with a 4mm hook (which is the suggested on the yarn label), then the middle with a 5mm hook and the last with a 6mm hook. On the sample scale, they curl just the same.

What are the drawbacks on going with a larger hook?

One I see is that if you use a too large hook for the yarn, the right end stitches seem to get sloppier. See image below.

The bottom sample is the one done with a 6mm hook, the middle one with a 5mm hook and the top one is the 4mm hook. To me both the 4mm and 5mm looks decent, but the 6mm looks sloppy.

The left side edge is not as impacted by change of hook size as the right edge is.

The feel is of course also a bit different, the one using a 5mm hook feels thinner and less dense then the 4mm one. The difference in feel is not as noticeable between the 5mm and 6mm sample however.

So what does this mean, which would be the best option?

Well that depends on if you are a tight or loose crocheter, you should always sample and see what works best for you. For me I'm torn between the 4mm and 5mm sample, both works equally well.

None of the samples have been properly blocked so to determine which one to use I would need to do that as well as that would also impact how the finished piece behaves.

While I did my square with the "Diagonal rib lace" last week I did make a small mistake and had to rip back a few times, though since I liked the effect that mistake had, I'm now doing a square doing it that way.

Not sure what I should call this though, it is a kind of lacy pattern however.

Sitting on my boat, testing a theory by making swatches. Cheap polyester yarn.

The theory is to debunc the "known" fact that Tunisian crochet requires a larger hook size then recommended for regular crochet. My opinion is that it is not strictly necessary, and so far it looks like I'm right.