Lately I have been trying to teach myself Tunisian Crochet.  Michaels' July-September projects included a Tunisian Crochet tablet cover and when I got the pattern, I figured I might need to actually learn how to make it before I put it on my class schedule! Crazy, right?

The Tunisian Tablet Cover project was not a successful class project, but I got hooked on it!  (get it? hooked?  I am tooo hilarious.)

No but seriously folks, Tunisian Crochet is basically a hybrid of knit and crochet, that I find I prefer to knitting.  Look, I don't want to make anyone mad, and knitting is fine. I don't hate knitting.  I plan to brush up on my knitting this winter if you must know.  But in the meantime, let me tell you how awesome Tunisian Crochet is.  You use one giant crochet hook with a stopper on the end- called an afghan hook or Tunisian hook- which you can get basically anywhere.  Michaels carries an H size, and I also have J and M which I purchased at more specialty yarn/fabric stores.  Like knitting, you work the basic stitch by keeping all your loops on your hook on a forward pass, then working back across the row.  Unlike most crochet, there is definitely a right side and wrong side, as the same side faces you the whole time.  I haven't gotten brave enough to do color work yet, but this is the technique you use for fair isle crochet, and I think also tapestry crochet.  Fair isle crochet is another thing I plan to work on this winter! (side note: I have a LOT of projects planned for this winter so I should probably say my goodbyes now.)

You're probably wondering where this is all going, and if I've completely lost focus on showing you pictures of my work in progress.  I have been working on this blanket pattern: http://www.allfreecrochet.com/Granny-Square-Afghans/Granny-Square-Tunisian-Throw-from-Lion-Brand

The cool thing about this blanket is that it incorporates blocks of 9 different Tunisian stitches so it's been a great learning opportunity.  I have successfully worked my way through H, doing one block of each pattern at a time basically.  I did do a couple blocks of the first two.  I have selected all green colors because I am planning to give this to my sweet tiny grandmother for Christmas and she loves green.

She's too adorable not to include:



Step one was I bought a bunch of yarn.  That's the beginning of most of my projects/days.  I selected 9 different colors, all medium (4) weight, some variegated, some not and picked which would be which square and labeled as follows:
And just because I can, here's a shameless picture of my WIP on my balcony at the hotel I'm currently staying in during my conference in Golden, Colorado.  I'm a little homesick, but you can't feel too bad on a beautiful clear fall day in the mountains.