JOURNAL: TECHNIQUE AND PATTERN
Tunisian, tapestry, mosaic… Esme of Red Sparrow Crochet loves all the techniques that help her create amazing homewares.
Let me start with a confession: I can’t knit. In fact, I’m knit-phobic. My mum tried to teach me when I was young but I failed miserably – I forgot how to cast on, cast off… disastrous. But the thing was, I kept looking at Kaffe Fassett’s book Glorious Knitting and loving the textures, colours and intricate designs of Fair Isle and wishing I could do that. When I learnt to crochet I had absolutely no idea of its depth and flexibility – in fact, it’s actually an incredibly versatile and utterly magical craft. And 11 years in, I feel like I’m only just starting the journey…
BACK TO BASICS
If you’re anything like me and love experimenting with colour and texture, then classic crochet is a great place to start. Not only are there a wealth of delicious textures to squish and squeeze (bobbles, popcorns, cables, waffles…) but yarn colours these days are simply breathtaking. There’s a hyper-rainbow waiting to be chased! Classic crochet lends itself perfectly to stripes, blocks and squares, ripples and zigzags, and with its easy colour changes at the end of a row or rounds, it’s the perfect opportunity to leap outside of your ‘colour safety zone’ and experiment. Of course, more colours mean more ends to sew in, but with all big projects, I tend to drop the hook (unwillingly) and sew them in every few rows. My ‘In Living Colour’ throw was heavily inspired by colour theorist Josef Albers. I often look at that throw and dream about making another in a new colourway. More hours in the day would be so handy, wouldn’t they?
A KNITTING CROCHET HYBRID
I have my daughter to thank for my introduction to Tunisian crochet: when I taught her classic crochet, she was a bit ‘whatevs, Mum’ (heartbreaking for me!). But she bought herself a Tunisian crochet hook and suddenly had 20 neat stitches all lined up, and the most beautiful work appearing. Tunisian crochet is the gorgeous love-child of crochet and knitting – load up the hook with stitches on the ‘forward pass’, then take them all off again on the ‘return pass’. There does seem to be more yarn-fiddling to do, wrapping it in weird directions around the hook (a bit like working purlwise in knitting, apparently). So, whilst it’s painful to switch off that ‘automatic crochet’ part of your brain and retrain your hands, the results are worth it. I’d recommend the honeycomb stitch and smock stitch, they’re totally swoon-worthy! The only downside is the fabric will curl, so you need to be ready to block like crazy to tame the roly-poly effect. And whilst it’s
easy to switch yarns and create gorgeous colourways, I think the phrase ‘less is more’ definitely applies to Tunisian crochet. Beautiful yarn, single colour: let the texture sing!
PAINTING PICTURES WITH YARN
It’s true tapestry crochet can seem like a slightly daunting prospect, what with all those colour changes and charts to follow, but once you have grasped the principles it’s a fantastic method for creating complex colourful patterns – very much like Fair Isle knitting. As it produces a fairly thick fabric, it lends itself to making baskets, cushions and super-warm throws. Additional yarn colours are hidden inside the worked stitches along the top of the work, ready to dip into mid-row. This creates the stunning, almost woven, effect. My only criticism of this technique is that sometimes the ‘other’ colour can peep out a bit, but that is part of its intrinsic charm. Oh, and there are the dreaded ends again, but we’re not going to let them spoil the colourful fun are we?
MARVELLOUS MOSAIC
But now it’s now time to swoon over my one true love – mosaic crochet! There are different styles of this gorgeous technique, but the basic premise is the same: chain stitches are used to create ‘gaps’, which are filled in with long stitches to create patterns. Simple and stunning, but maybe best of all – you’ll love this – there are practically NO ENDS to sew in! By working two rows in one colour (leaving the other colour hanging at the side, ready to be used for the next two rows) there’s no fastening off, no extra yarn running along the top of the work to get all tangled… it’s beautiful, fun, geometric perfection. A basic palette of two colours seems to work best; I think our brains respond happily to simple, repetitive design, and that’s the true strength of mosaic.
So for now, sorry knitting, but you’re not getting a look-in. Crochet has so much to offer that I’m not going to put my hook down… And also sorry to my lovely mum. You tried.
“My one true love – mosaic crochet!”