Author: Vashti Braha

I love to promote crochet as many things: an art, hobby, learning tool, and practical medium. I do this with designs and classes. I try to write about what I don’t see others writing about crochet.
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Beaded “Delta” Types of Crochet Lace

I have some fun photos of beaded crochet swatches to share: overflow from newsletter issue #62, “Delta-Type” Crochet/Hexagonal Lace Types. Click on each photo to enlarge it and see comments.

Note: I’m using “delta crochet” to refer to a category, not for a single kind of stitch pattern, and not for triangular items such as shawls. I mean geometrically a type of lace grid. In the four-sided lacy net category we have the filet type (square/rectangular spaces that stack up in columns), and the fishnet or diamond mesh type, which have diamond-shaped spaces that are offset/staggered. “Delta” is pretty well known to mean triangle, whereas a term like “isometric” might be less helpful. If you have a better term to suggest than “delta,” please leave a comment, thanks  🙂

The gist of the newsletter is: Crochet nets of three-sided triangular lacy holes (or “spaces”) have a fundamentally different kind of lace structure, or grid. You can create them with several different kinds of crochet stitches, and they all differ from nets with four-sided spaces in looks, stretch/drape properties, and the experience of crocheting them.

When I experimented with beading delta laces, interesting things happened. Adding beads to love knots is in some ways very similar to beading chain stitches. I haven’t even tried several more ways to add beads to the ones shown here. Adding beads to the classic tall-stitch delta type, though, is more limited. It would be super tricky* to add beads to a whole post of a tall stitch.

*By “super tricky” I mean unpleasant and perhaps impossible LOL.

Check back, I’m swimming in swatches and blogging them all – my goal is a short blog post most days per week. I love comments!

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Star Stitch Crochet Class Resources

Four kinds of star stitches: corrugated cowl, striped scarf, quilt-like coverlet, sheer glittery lace capelet.

A Star Stitch For Every Purpose is the name of a sold out three-hour crochet class that I taught in July, 2014 at the 20th anniversary annual conference for the national crochet guild (CGOA). I researched over 200 sources from the 1840’s to the present. Class materials included a spiral-bound booklet of star stitches and a step by step how-to section.

Star Stitch: Visit These First

Star Stitch History

The earliest example of star stitches I’ve found so far is in an 1881 issue of a Norwegian magazine. It’s remarkable to me how seldom star stitches have appeared in crochet books since 1881.  

When star stitches do appear in a book or online, they can vary in ways both subtle and dramatic. It’s mainly because it’s a compound stitch. It multiplies the opportunities to vary each step along the way.

This is true not only when completing each star, but also when crocheting the next row into it, and what stitches are in that next row. For example, you can crochet stars into stars – with turning or without. You can alternate a row of stars with a row of, say, single crochet stitches. These simple choices change the look of the stitch, and the experience of crocheting them.

Key historical sources

  • 1881: Nordisk Mønster-Tidende.
  • 1886: Knitting and Crochet.
  • 1891: The Art of Crocheting, by Butterick.
  • 1891: Home Work, by A. M. (Toronto).
  • Late 1800’s: Weldons Practical Crochet, First Series (London).
  • 1910: Fleisher’s Book #8.

More Resources

  • I’ve been unable to locate a print copy of two Japanese “Star Crochet” books mentioned in class, but here is the ISBN for one of the volumes: 978-4-579-11323-1.
  • Star Stitch projects and design prototypes as I add them to Ravelry: https://www.ravelry.com/projects/vashtirama .
  • For more star stitches as I create them, bookmark this Star Stitches photo album in Flickr.
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Tunisian Crochet Lace Class Resources

This clickable list of Tunisian crochet lace resources is mainly to aid students of my classes in exploring more about Tunisian lace crochet at their leisure.  The links below represent the extra information that doesn’t fit into a standard three-hour class. Some are the names of designers, books, other types of crochet lace, etc., that I may have mentioned in a class.

Click: My published Tunisian Crochet downloadable patterns

— Vashti Braha

Tunisian Lace Crochet Class Resources

Click on a photo to enlarge it.

Blogged:

Vashti’s Crochet Inspirations Newsletter Topics:

Some of my not-yet published Tunisian Crochet projects

Story of the Tunisian Wicker Stitch (an eyelet mesh) featured in the Weightless Wrap:

Some Valuable Books

  • 1997: Basics of Tunisian Crochet for Beginners, N. Seto, Japan. ISBN 978-4-529-029285
  • 2000 (1991), Rebecca Jones: Tricot Crochet The Complete Book, Lacis Pubs., Berkeley CA. ISBN 978-1-891656-28-6
  • 2004, Angela “ARNie” Grabowski: Encyclopedia of Tunisian Crochet, LoneStar Abilene Pubg LLC, TX. ISBN 978-0-974972-55-8
  • 2004, Carolyn Christmas and Dorris Brooks: 101 Easy Tunisian StitchesTM, Annies Attic, IN. ISBN 978-1-931171-74-8
  • 2008: Tunisian Crochet Patterns 100, Nihon Amimono Bunka Kyo-kai, Japan ISBN 978-4-529-04484-4
  • 2009, Kim Guzman: Learn to Do Tunisian Lace Stitches, Annie’s Attic, IN. ISBN 978-1-59635-264-3
  • 2009, Sharon Hernes Silverman: Tunisian Crochet: The Look of Knitting with the Ease of Crocheting, Stackpole Books, Mechanicsburg PA. ISBN 978-0-811704-84-7
  • 2014, Kim Guzman: Tunisian Crochet Stitch Guide.
  • Duplet magazine issue #61.
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2014 Summer Crochet Classes, Vashti-Style!

I’m teaching six of my favorite crochet topics at the end of this July, in Manchester, New Hampshire. The occasion is the Crochet Guild of America’s annual national conference AND its 20th anniversary! 

Each of the classes listed below is three hours long, with a break halfway through. That break is a good thing because these classes are more in depth and thorough – even for advanced crocheters – than the usual classes available locally. For class descriptions and images, click the CGOA link above, or go to the Knit and Crochet Show site here.

The first two classes I’ll be teaching focus on two types of Tunisian crochet lace, diagonal meshes and classic filet nets. Both of them are scheduled on Thursday, July 24th:

  • T100C ~ Tunisian Eyelet Meshes: How to Turn Tss Into Lace (9 am – noon)
  • T200C ~ Tunisian Filet Lace: Skill Building Basics (2 pm – 5 pm)

The third and fourth two classes I’ll be teaching each focus on a special stitch type and all that you can do with it: Star Stitches, and Lover’s Knots. Both of them are scheduled on Friday, July 25th:

  • F100C ~ A Star Stitch for Every Purpose  (9 am – noon)
  • F200C ~ 21st Century Love Knot Adventures (2 pm – 5 pm)

My fifth and sixth classes are both about Slip Stitch Crochet: and intro class and then a shaping/special effects class. Both of them are scheduled on Saturday, July 26th:

   S101C ~ Introduction to Slip Stitch Crochet Technique (9 am – noon)

   S200C ~ Slip Stitch Shapes & Shaping Effects (2 pm – 5 pm)

I’ve also done newsletter issues on all of these topics. You can see the most recent ones listed in the Vashti’s Crochet Inspirations Newsletter archive.