Interweave Crochet - USA (2020 - Winter)

GRAFTING

It’s Not Just for Knitters

By Susanna Tobias

W

hen it comes to the world

of yarn and fi ber, most

crafters know that knitting

and crochet are very different.

Knitting uses two needles, while

crochet uses only one hook.

Knitting keeps all the stitches on

the needles, and crochet fi nishes

a stitch completely before moving

to the next. If you don’t do both

crafts, you may fi nd yourself slightly

envious of one technique or the

other. As a crocheter, I admired

knitting from a distance—until

I discovered Tunisian crochet, and

then everything changed.

Tunisian crochet feels, at least

to me, like somewhat of a hybrid

between the two crafts: Like

knitting, it has both knit and purl

stitches, and all the loops are

placed on the hook, then worked

off the hook (similar to moving

loops from one knitting needle

with some leftover yarn, I sewed

the ends together as I normally

would, and I really didn’t like the

fi nished seam. It just seemed

to call attention to itself—as

though it was the focus, not the

least-signifi cant part of the cowl.

So when I decided that I really

wanted to make this project work,

I determined that I needed to fi gure

out another way to put the ends

together. Since Tunisian crochet

is somewhat similar to knitting,

I sought advice from Joni Coniglio,

Interweave’s senior project editor

for knitting. She suggested grafting

the ends of the cowl together.

Grafting involves using a tapestry

needle to re-create the stitch

pattern by drawing yarn through

each stitch in a certain way. In

order to make the seam invisible,

we came up with the following

processes to graft Tunisian crochet

garter and knit stitches together.

to the other). I don’t know that

I’ll ever be able to knit, but with

Tunisian crochet, I’ve found a way

to somewhat re-create the stitch

patterns seen in knitting.

You may ask why a crocheter

would want to re-create knitting

patterns. For me, it started when

I was searching for a new project

and happened upon the Audrey

Super Scarf (available for free

at http://www.interweave.com). I really

loved the look of the knitted scarf

and fi gured that I could imitate the

cable- and garter-stitch pattern

using Tunisian crochet. Plus,

I really like a challenge!

But, of course, I couldn’t just leave

the pattern as is, and I decided

to turn the scarf into a cowl. My

fi rst attempt at seaming, however,

had less-than-stellar results. When

I worked the pattern the fi rst time

44 Interweave Crochet • Winter 2020

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