Tunisian Crochet

My grandmother was crocheting all the time. She learned from a neighbor, a gentleman, she had grown up knowing. She taught me how to make a chain, and how to do the single crochet and double crochet stitches, but I didn't do the stitches too well, wasn't interested in practicing and it got boring just making chains. A few years ago I tried taking it up again when I learned about the prayer shawl ministries that had sprung up. The problem was, I kept picking up stitches on one end of the project. When I asked my grandmother what the problem was, she told me, and I asked how to fix it she told me "count." Well, this is one reason I dropped piano lessons, I hate counting! So I dropped crochet too. Instead, I bought a prayer shawl loom, but my hubby promptly confiscated it, tried starting a sweater, and it's still on my loom today!!

Well, in doing some research online I came across something called Tunisian Crochet. What caught my attention was that the person explained it had been known by other names through the years, Afghan Stitch and one that really stood out to me -- Shepherd's Knitting. Well, I love sheep and would love to be a shepherdess, so this caught my interest. I found an online group for Tunisian Crochet, joined, did a crochet-a-long to get my feet wet and now I'm hooked! I have found three Tunisian Crochet shawl patterns online, have only done two so far. The one is a lace pattern and I use Boucle yarn for it and it turns out really soft, dainty and lovely! The shawl pictured above in green is done in the lace pattern. The other shawl is a combination of knit, purl and reverse stitches. The raised bumps are the purl stitch, and the rows across that stand out are the reverse stitch. The knit stitches are worked between the purl stitches alternately.

I bought an afghan pattern, but I have a couple more lace shawls I want to make before I give it a try. I will certainly post a pic if I get it done!