Craft Book Review: Tunisian Crochet Workshop

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Have you tried Tunisian Crochet? It’s an interesting craft that I’ve always wanted to learn, but never had the opportunity or resource available, until now.

I was delighted to hear that Michelle Robinson of Poppy and Bliss, and former crochet contributor to My Poppet, has written a new book – Tunisian Crochet Workshop.

Tunisian Crochet has some technique similarities to both regular crochet and knitting, but is actually quite different to both. The fabric it creates is quite dense, and the textures and patterns you can create are interesting and varied.

Michelle really knows her stuff when it comes to crochet, and with this book she’s created an amazing resource for beginners right through to those with good knowledge of Tunisian Crochet techniques.

Geometric Wall Hanging from Tunisian Crochet Workshop

The book is broken up into 3 main sections: Essentials and the Basics, Stitches and Technique, and Projects.

Essentials covers all the stuff you’ll need to get you started like tools required, yarn choices, how to read a pattern and gauge. I especially appreciated that the book contains patterns in both written nomenclature as well as diagram charts (which I prefer as I’m a visual learner).

The next section is a fantastic reference as it has a huge glossary of stitch patterns as well as explaining more advances techniques like colourwork and shaping. It’s information that I’ll be referring back to regularly and  really is a good grounding for developing your own patterns and projects down the track.

Simple scarf from Tunisian Crochet Workshop

Then there are 12 projects which all showcase a variety of stitches and techniques taught at the start of the book. There’s something for every skill level and style including plenty of homewares, some bags and pouches, and a couple of scarves too.

All the project’s patterns have detailed written and charted instructions so they are really easy to follow.

You can take a peek inside the book here.

I always like to make a project out of any craft book I review (if I have time) and this was the perfect opportunity to learn Tunisian Crochet. It took me a while to get the hang of it, and the clear explanations with lots of pictures in the book really helped.

If you are a crocheter already, you’ll find Tunisian Crochet somewhat easier to learn than if you haven’t picked up a hook at all, but it will still take some adjustment.

I found it uncomfortable initially because the hook is held in a totally different way to my usual style, and my tension was way too tight. I made a few sample swatches to get the feel for how different yarns worked up, and to get familiar with the anatomy of the stitches.

Each stitch is worked twice, once on the forward pass and once on return. But in reality, you work back into the same stitch for the next row, so you’re really working each stitch 3 times. It can feel like you’re getting nowhere initially, but now I’m really enjoying it, although it takes longer than regular crochet.

Because I’m always overly ambitious I chose to make the Sampler Blanket. It’s the biggest project in the book, but I was drawn to it because I’ll get to learn lots of different stitch patterns by the end of it, and it looks pretty amazing too.

I’ve already made lots of mistakes, hopefully none are too noticeable, but the beauty of this project is that you can go a little ‘off piste’ and it won’t matter too much. I’ve already changed up my stitch order and designs in some of the rows. (And I seem to have dropped some stitches along the way too – annoying!)

Hopeful it won’t take me too long to complete, as it’s earmarked for my niece/nephew arriving in December.

I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in learning Tunisian crochet and also for more experienced crocheters as reference guide to Tunisian crochet stitches and techniques.

The projects are well written and designed, practical, and beautifully styled and executed. To me they are an added bonus because even without them the book is worthy of a place in any crafters library.

Available in both printed and ebook form

You can purchase the Paperback version here and the ebook here

Also available from Amazon (affiliate link)