Tag: CGOA

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Extended Tunisian Stitches – Class Resources

Extending Forward and Return Tunisian Stitches

A NEW class for 2022. This is a three-hour class that was held online for CGOA over two days: Tuesday February 1 and Wednesday February 2, 2022.

Why Extend?

Extended Tunisian stitches bring new textures and flexibility to Tunisian Crochet, sometimes dramatically! With less yarn, and so little effort too. I’ve been exploring extended versions of standard Tunisian stitches for many years. Scroll down to see the Extended Tunisian Stitch Design Gallery.

Here’s why I do it:

  • Make quick progress on a big project, or with very fine yarn. Each row is taller.
  • Get more mileage out of a small pricy skein. An extended Tunisian fabric weighs less because extended stitches are a bit thinner.
  • It’s easy to add shells and other groups of increases wherever you like. This is not true of the most common non-extended stitches–unless you start the stitch with a yarn over, such as a Tunisian double crochet, which is a bit bulkier.
  • Do fine gradations of stitch heights: get the perfect row gauge as well as the stitch gauge stated in a crochet pattern. Make sloping rows for cool color effects. These are options we take for granted with regular crochet.
  • Many of these stitches are self-healing, meaning if you cut (“steek”) them later to make armholes or a head opening they will form their own safely bound off edge.
  • New mosaic–overlay–intermeshed types of colorwork with Tunisian get a boost from extended stitches. See my recent Embossed Stars post.

Makes Great Fabrics!

  • Eliminate the “Tunisian curl”–that annoying thing that happens when the edges of your work roll up while you’re crocheting more rows onto it. Crocheting lace avoids this curling, but extended Tunisian stitches work for dense, non-lacy patterns too.
  • Clothing fits comfortably. Extended Tunisian fabric has more flex, more drape, more stretch. Really thermal yarns, like mohair, alpaca, and Angora have room to expand and breathe.

The Class Resources

Extended Tunisian Stitches: Design Gallery

Rivuline Shawl
Pure Handspun Angora
Ext Color-Pooled Silk
Inverse Ext Tunisian silk!
Close up of the change in stitch pattern for the collar, in progress. These are twisted Tunisian crochet stitches in DesigningVashti Lotus yarn, "Black Gleam" color. (It's inky, glossy, deep black but doesn't look like it in this lightened photo.)
Graven collar Ext Stitch
Tunisian ripple stitch Ziggy Vest with its variation Zegue
Extended St Chevron
Eilanner Shawl by Vashti Braha: Lattice-Edged Tunisian Eyelets
Extend + Shallow Stitches
Superfine Extended Net
Glistening Gloss
Dense or Lacy
Self-Edged Extended St
Six swatches of embossed Tunisian color work method: stars with longer spokes and in a range of yarn thicknesses and fibers; also examples of embossed horizontal bars left ungrouped into stars.
Warm Embossed Ext Stars

Relevant Newsletter Issues & Blog Posts

These are issues of my Crochet Inspirations Newsletter, and blog posts, spanning 2010 to today. Keep in mind that many links in pre-2018 newsletter issues are broken.

Swatches & Tests of Extended Tunisian Stitches

Flickr photo album for this class. This is a great way to see class material at full resolution, and to see an array of new stitch patterns. I love scrolling through my stitch albums. I’m continually creating swatches and photos to add to this album so check it again!

My Pinterest Pin Board created for this class topic. I’ve been finding some creative looks for extended Tunisian stitches in other crocheter’s pins from around the world. We discuss some of them in class.

My Extended Tunisian Stitch Projects (Ravelry)

Extended Tunisian Crochet projects in Ravelry. (Log into your Ravelry account first.) Of my 91 Tunisian projects (so far), these have extended stitches:

  • Embossed Thread Stars; Embossed Thread Coaster; Tunisian Soma Stars
  • Zegue; Ziggy Vest
  • Rainchains
  • Eilanner
  • Graven (its collar)
  • Summer Storm Curtains; Smoky
  • Spoonbill Panel Scarf; Tunisian Spoonbill
  • Zylpha Tunisian Net; Marshmallow Mesmer; Tunisian Mist; Mesmer I
  • Diamond Coaster and the next 4 projects after that
  • Rivuline Shawl
  • Shakti Eyelets
  • Thickie-Dickie
  • Neck Lattice
  • Ostara
  • Swizzle-Shakti
  • Melusine’s Wavest
  • Skinny Shaktism and next 2 projects
  • Summer Islander; Tunisian Island Wrap
  • Vanilla Crown Hat (band)
  • Julep Shrug (sleeves)

Some are pictured above; I’m still adding they images to the Extended Stitches Flickr album.

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Tall Stitch Virtuosity Class Resources

Collage of many examples for Tall Stitch Virtuosity Crochet Class by Vashti Braha

Tall Stitch Virtuosity is a new crochet class for 2020. I’ve discovered more than I imagined is possible about tall stitches! In fact, the official class graphic above is about six months old and already seems out of date.

Originally scheduled for the July 2020 Chain Link conference (an annual national event of the CGOA), Tall Stitch Virtuosity is now virtual. The traditional in-person conference is postponed until next summer. The virtual version is split into one-hour sessions over three consecutive days.

This is the first resource page I’ve created for a virtual class. At first I thought a virtual class wouldn’t need one. I started these pages back in 2012 to make online links easy to visit for an in-person event. I’m finding that I don’t want to load up the class handout (a PDF in this case) with what I think of as miscellany. Also, members might have a chance to visit this page over the three days of the class.

— Vashti Braha

Tall Stitch Virtuosity 2020

Nine tall stitch crochet experiments that I've posted recently in my Instagram feed.
Recent tall stitch swatches I’ve posted to my Instagram feed.

Newsletter Issues & Blog Posts

These are issues of my Crochet Inspirations Newsletter, and blog posts, spanning 2010 to today. Keep in mind that many links in pre-2018 newsletter issues are broken.

Tall Stitch Patterns

Some of my published tall stitch patterns over the years. Half of them are Tunisian crochet. Click an image for more info. Missing: Cats Eye Lariat (in Ravelry) and Twinkle Links.

Tall Stitch Projects & Swatches

Tall Stitches Around the World Web

  • Tall Crochet Stitch Artistry pinboard (Pinterest)
  • Bloggers on the lack of tall stitches:
    • Jenny Guldin: “Most lists of the basic crochet stitches end with the triple crochet. Call it a new technique, or call it breaking the rules: I’m tired of being limited to the height of a triple crochet, and I’m not going to take it anymore! Why isn’t there a taller stitch? I’ve received varying answers from many crocheters, but I’ve never heard the suggestion “try it”. There are two basic points of view I’ve heard about the subject: It doesn’t exist, or, there’s no purpose for it. With all due respect, I have two responses: I’ve made it exist, and there is a purpose.”
    • CrochetSpot’s Amy Yarbrough: “These stitches are not very well known today because most modern crochet patterns do not use them. This begs the question, when are they used then? Perhaps the most I have seen these taller stitches used would be in patterns with crochet thread. Such as Irish Crochet Lace, crocheted Antebellum Dolls, and crocheted Doilies.”

Issue 102: Wild Whys of Y-Stitches

Crochet Inspirations Newsletter sent to 8,600 subscribers on June 13, 2020.

Very tall stitches shown as 5 kinds of Y stitches for improving semicircle shapes
(Original header)

These semi-circles are crocheted of Y-shaped stitches. In each case I started with a quadruple-treble stitch (quad; in the UK and AUS I do believe it’s a quint). Yarn over 5x to begin one. After each completed quad I chained 2, then crocheted a shorter stitch into the side of the quad to turn it into a Y-stitch (Y-st).

I’m going to call the shorter stitch a branch that is crocheted into the taller one, or host stitch. 

The Y-sts in these semi-circles vary from very deep (farthest left one) to very shallow (upper right). The longest branch, a triple treble (I yarned over 4x to begin it), is crocheted close to the base of its host quad. The shortest branch is a half double (hdc in the US, htr in UK/AUS). I crocheted it up close to the top of the quad.

Don’t you love how the lacy look changes just from this simple difference?

I also really love how Y-sts look when they radiate from a center. It’s what lured me down a rabbit hole of new delights.

Every stitch you see in this newsletter is my own new stuff.

Four tall stitch circles with new looks thanks to the branches you can add to the sides of them

Branched? “Rune” Stitches?

I searched 34 crochet books for these stitches (16 are stitch dictionaries and the rest are guides to crocheting). Of the 34, 14 at least mention X-stitches. Very few include Y’s and inverted Y’s, or really run with with any of them. 

When I think of “Y-stitches” I picture a category of stitches that remind me of runes and ancient symbols! 

Bend a tall stitch or two to form letter shapes

The list above is about half of some old letters I’d like to try crocheting with branchy tall stitches. See my swatch of a few modern letters in Instagram. (These crazy B’s are for Braha and for Black, as in Black lives matter, and for Because of course they do.)

The first blue wheel above was inspired by ancient wedge-shaped cuneiform strokes. I see the green motifs as being Druidic wheels of seven “trees”. In fact, lately I see Y-stitches all over the place in nature!

Key Y-Thinkers

My three favorite sources on these stitches: James Walters, Duplet magazines (Irene Duplet), and Sheruknitting videos (Elena Rugal). It’s not a stitch shape. It’s a way of thinking. Thank you so much James, Irene, and Elena!

Examples of tall stitch artistry by James Walters, Irene Duplet, Elena Rugal

How To?

I need to blog that. I have ideas for how to sort out the yarn overs, and make the most of them for motifs. Until then, I mention Y-stitches with a how-to link in my tall-stitch circles blog post. Also try some Sheruknitting videos. 

Can you spot the Y-sts? And X-sts in the upper-right blue circle? Y’s are fabulous for reducing the number of tall stitches in round one AND for suavely doubling every stitch as required in round two.

Using tall stitches for circles is how I got here. I had no idea how practical and problem-solving Y-sts could be for crocheting circles—the taller, the better. They offer creative solutions and pretty options for tall-stitch circle crocheting!

OK One More Y-Why for Today:

Convert Two Rows into One

[This section got its own blog post a few weeks later; the light green swatch referred to is also pictured there.]

Sometimes, two or even three rows of a stitch pattern can be turned into one row, using using taller into-the-side stitches. Here’s a two-row shell-and-cluster stitch pattern (upper swatch) turned into one-row one lower swatch). 

You can get more stitches to face the front this way. It also removes a “grid” effect caused by the connections between every stitch across a row. It fits in the “clever substitutions” category which is the topic of newsletter #92.

That grid effect adds structure to the fabric. Removing them adds more drape. So it depends on the yarn and project.

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Slip Stitch Crochet Class Resources

Collage of many examples for Big-Hook Slip Stitch Crochet Class by Vashti Braha
Updated July 20, 2020. First posted in 2012.

This clickable list of slip stitch crochet resources is mainly to aid students of my classes in exploring more about Slip Stitch Crochet at their leisure. (If you have not yet taken any of my slip stitch classes, I hope someday I’ll meet you in one of them!) You’re welcome to enjoy the links below whether you’ve taken the classes or not. They represent the extra information that doesn’t fit into a standard three-hour class. Some are the names of designers, books, other types of slip stitch crochet, etc., that I may have mentioned in a class.

— Vashti Braha

Slip Stitch Crochet Class Resources 2020

  • Simple Stitches, Big Hook
  • Bling Bam Bangle and DesigningVashti Lotus yarn
    Hold 2 Yarns together
  • A smoothly curving slip stitch rib rainbow thanks to invisible increases!
    Slip stitch rib: invisible shaping.

Slip Stitch Crochet Designs

Relevant Crochet Inspirations Newsletter Issues

Related Blog Posts

Special to Big Hook Crocheting

Slip Stitching Around the Internet

Slip Stitch Crochet Books of Interest

  1. Tanja Osswald’s Kettmaschen (in German)
  2. Nancy Nehring’s Learn Slip Stitch Crochet and Slip Stitch Caps
  3. Bendy Carter’s Knit 1 Purl 2 in Crochet.
  4. Dora Ohrenstein’s designs and articles in Interweave Crochet magazine, Fall 2010 and Winter 2011 issues.

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Crochet Advice for Yarn Shops

I used a CGOA column to provide crochet advice for yarn shops in six Yarn Market News issues - five covers from 2007-2009 shown

From 2006 to 2009 I wrote six half-page “News From the CGOA” columns for a trade publication called Yarn Market News. It was mailed free of charge to all industry professionals. Its focus was on helping even the smallest yarn shop succeed.

Scroll to the end of this post for the linked list to all six full-text articles.

Crocheters nowadays might not know how CGOA professionals have worked for decades to make crochet visible in the minds of yarn shop owners and the rest of “the industry”—the yarn industry. It started with the founder, Gwen Blakely Kinsler. She and Nancy Brown, an early guild President, had a CGOA booth at annual industry events. They persisted.

When Crochet Was Sidelined

CGOA professionals spent long hours in CGOA booths at trade shows and markets, served on task forces and committees of other organizations, provided crochet for displays, and invited members of the wider industry to serve on CGOA’s board.

Maybe we need less of this kind of work nowadays. Crochet is no longer sidelined as much in favor of knitting. (Nancy Brown used to say crochet was treated like a “red-headed stepsister”.) Meanwhile the internet is a big factor in declining attendance at trade shows, and in overall ad revenues.

I have fond memories of performing this free labor with Marty Miller and with many more designing friends! Marty and I helped check in fashion show items at the The National Needlearts Association (TNNA) trade shows, for example. Truly, folks: every fashion show entry was knitted except for approximately two crocheted things.

In that climate, you can imagine that yarn shops needed crochet advice badly. I met many yarn shop people at industry events who wanted to attract and satisfy more crocheting customers, but didn’t know how. I drew on these experiences when I wrote the six “News From the CGOA” columns for Yarn Market News.

The Crochet-In

At peak exasperation we staged a crochet-in, as a result of a Crochet Summit, in the middle of the 2007 TNNA show floor. It was a gentle and upbeat protest. Isn’t it weird that it was necessary?

  • 60s-style Crochet-In at 2007 TNNA industry show from front left around: Gwen Blakley Kinsler, Amy (yarn shop staff), Drew Emborsky, Candi Jensen, Doris Chan, Marty Miller, Jane Schwartz, Sheryl Means (Texas yarn shop owner)
    Crochet In, TNNA Show 2007 ©Amy O’Neill Houck
  • Kim Werker's photo of crochet designers & publishers during 60s-style crochet-in protest at 2007 TNNA show
    Another view of the Crochet In, TNNA 2007 ©Kim Werker
  • Amy O'Neill Houck's photo of Brett Bara podcasting while crochet designers protest last of crochet representation 60s-style at 2007 TNNA industry show
    Brett Bara podcasting about the 60’s style Crochet-In: TNNA Show, 2007 ©Amy O’Neill Houck
  • Linda Permann, Doris Chan, and Ellen Gormley using new season's yarns on the yarn wall to create crochet swatches to balance out all the knitted ones.
    TNNA show, 2011: Linda Permann, Doris Chan, Ellen Gormley are crocheting swatches for the ‘Great Wall of Yarn’ to balance out all the knitted ones.
Click each image for more information. Or view Amy O’Neill Houck’s here and my 2011 one here (including as a rough video).

Wearing Crochet Matters

When I re-read this 2008 blog post it does sound like we were starting to make a difference. Even just showing up with crochet on helped at a time when crocheters were under-served by this industry that we share with knitters. I wrote about the Minuet Vest prototype during this time. Doris and I had a blast doing this! Here’s a comment she left on this 2008 post about a TNNA show:

Wearing your stuff in public at events and in your everyday life does help raise the level of crochet consciousness. I used to get annoyed when the typical response was “Oh, did you knit that?”. Can’t fault anyone for not readily discerning the differences between some knit and some crochet stitches. Nowadays I treat such comments as teachable moments…There will come a day when I won’t feel the need to do this, either! 🙂

Yarn shop owners stopped to ask us about the crochet we wore on the trade show floor and displayed in booths. The crochet classes offered at TNNA shows may have been meager at times, but they were well attended by yarn shop staff. I directly experienced yarn shop owners seeking crochet advice. The only source I knew of was the Yarn Market News column. Isn’t this also weird?

Crochet Advice for Yarn Shops: Today

If improving crochet – industry relations were all CGOA did, the annual membership dues I pay it would be worth it for me. Shop owners still need business advice about crochet and I don’t know where they can get it nowadays. Soho Publishing ceased publication of Yarn Market News with their January 2020 issue.

CGOA has offered to help local stores succeed with crochet since our founding in 1993. CGOA members have always shopped in their local yarn shops and craft stores, looking for inspiration and new products with crocheters in mind. Yarn Market News offered a way for CGOA to speak directly to yarn shop owners and I’m grateful for it.

Full text of Vashti’s “News From the CGOA” columns in Yarn Market News:

This might also interest you:

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Creative Planned Pooling: Class Resources

Creative Planned Color Pooling Crochet Class 2018 Vashti Braha
Updated on 7/18/18. View the high-res image. This is a conveniently clickable group of things I mention and display in Creative Planned Color Pooling classes. I teach the next one on July 28, 2018 in Portland OR. (An earlier version of this class was called “Crochet Stitch Games” and included game-like serendipity techniques; between then and now, planned pooling has become a popular technique!).     — Vashti Braha

 

Thinking of signing up for this class? I wrote Color Pooling Developments with you in mind.

Crochet Patterns & Crochet Alongs

  • Jempool pattern. It’s the blue scarf on the left in the above photo.
  • Crochet Along: The Jempool CAL (a source of some great info!)
  • See all of Vashti’s color pooling projects and swatches at this self-updating Ravelry link (log in to Ravelry first to see all of them).
  • Crochet to the Color Playbook pattern set. (This is a freeform “stitch pooling” way to modify accidental pooling, rather than doing planned pooling.)

Recommended Issues of Vashti’s Crochet Inspirations Newsletter

My Color Pooling Blog Posts

Photo Albums & Inspiration Boards

Recommended Color Pooling Sites

  • PlannedPooling.com where you can plot the color sequences of your yarn and see how it pools based on your plan.
  • Pooled Knits Ravelry group.
    • This group is how I first found member sanne7788 who does the most inspiring pooled Tunisian crochet I’ve seen so far! (Scroll down to see them all.)
  • Planned Pooling With Crochet Facebook group for crocheting argyles, founded by Summer Cromartie. Especially see Brenda-Leigh Bennett’s 10/21/16 resource page there!
  • Deborah Bagley wrote a meaty multi-part series on several kinds of planned pooling. Start with the introductory roundup of it: Hook and Learn: A Feast for Your Color Pooling Eyes.
  • Laura Bryant: Ikat knitting effects with her ikat-style hand dyed Prism yarns, featured in Vogue Knitting. I took Laura’s pooling class at my local yarn shop and here’s my ikat attempt with slip stitch crochet.
    • If I had to pick only ONE book to read about planned pooling, it would be her 2013 Artful Color, Mindful Knits: The Definitive Guide to Working with Hand-dyed Yarn.
  • Marly Bird: Fantastic YouTube videos and blog posts for crochet planned pooling that argyles.
  • Glamour4You, Sewrella, Rockin’Lola (her granny stitch argyle guest post), Naztazia: Bloggers with popular tutorials for crocheting pooled argyles. Also see Kathy Lashley‘s post, a rare one on the “lightning bolt” effect when pooling in the round, and Kinga Erdem who explains her bold zigzag argyle using just half double crochets [UK: htr].
  • Karla Stuebing: 2013 article, “Art and Science of Planned Pooling.” It’s about knitting but very inspiring for crochet.
  • Wannietta Prescod: this blog post links to her earliest inspiration and to her influential Sweetspot 2009 article for Knitty.
  • Planned pooling crochet patterns, a self-updating link: Ravelry doesn’t seem to have a category for this technique yet, so I used the keyword “pooling”. Of 23 search results it looks like 20 are true planned pooling. Of these, 17 are argyles, and most appear to be seed stitch (as of 4/16/18).
  • Planned pooling knitting patterns, a self-updating link: as with the crochet search link above, I used a keyword search. Of the 91 results (as of 4/16/18), about 80 are true planned pooling designs.

Any Books on Planned Pooling with Crochet?

  • Found one! Yarn Pooling Made Easy by Marly Bird. Published by Leisure Arts, 2017.