Tunisian CAL – Weeks 3 and 4 – Spring into Fall Designs

This week we learned the knit stitch and the purl stitch. Additionally, Kaila learned that she has no interest in repeating either stitch! 😊

As you may have gathered, this was not Kaila’s favorite week. In fact, when we were discussing it, she admitted that she had been dreading these stitches. Having never knitted before, I didn’t feel the same apprehension and I absolutely loved making the purl stitch and the texture it created. Though I find this with most of crochet, there is a rhythmic quality to making this stitch that I really enjoy. I may also be biased toward this stitch because I MADE A SQUARE!! Well, I was only 1/16^th off on one side, so I’m counting that as a win toward my goal.

Although Kaila was not as big a fan of the texture of the purl, I think we both agree that it was nice to not have the fabric curl. And speaking of curl, let’s talk about the knit stitch. If I could get my hair to form the perfect ringlet that my knit stitch crochet did, I’d be thrilled! In truth, it was frustrating to have that much curl while working on the sample and something that I had to get used to. I found it difficult to know if I was changing my tension slightly while crocheting because it was curling. I was also nervous to loosen my tension too much and risk creating more of a trapezoid instead of a square (it is still a bit trapezoidal…). Despite all this fear/concern/overthinking, the knit stitch turned out beautifully and I would really love to work it again.

It was interesting to think about the concept of tension and how it is impacted by not only technique, but by time. Kaila brought up a great point, she thought that changing tension isn’t due solely to the change in stitches, but to the change in mindset. Working on one project straight through from start to finish there isn’t time for tension to change, but when you introduce time as a variable, it’s a different story.

I completely agree and it wasn’t something I’d ever thought about until she said it. As I tend to only have an hour or so to crochet a day (sometimes only an hour a week when I commute to work), my projects are often worked over weeks to months by necessity. At first this caused issues with my tension because of the time that would elapse between sessions. Over the years, I have become better at reading the fabric and maintaining tension across sessions, but it is interesting that we both found this to be true on our crochet journeys!

Our goals for next week (only one sample this time!) remain the same. Try to make a square and maintain tension. I’m also looking forward to learning how to block! Which will be necessary when we put all these pieces together…

If you haven’t already, go check out Knitter Knotter’s website and join the CAL!

Give us a like and follow us on Instagram (@springintofalldesigns) for more crochet projects and to stay tuned for future blog posts about our Tunisian crochet journey and all things yarn! We are seriously obsessed.

All the crochet love,

Nessa