Stitchboard Admin message #331
Re: Tunisian gauge
March 4, 2014 at 8:30:04 PM
 
Sherry,

Ick, it doesn't sound like much fun to do Tunisian their way with a double-ended hook! 

Unfortunately, you have to buy the Camel Crochet books.    There are no free tutorials...I've looked!    They also have them as Kindle books...but...though I've seen one or two of the Kindle books for free once in a great while, they've never given away the very first book for free since I've been looking, and the first book is the key to the entire thing.    Isn't that frustrating?! 

Isn't it great to get something accomplished while watching TV?    I feel so...lost...when I don't have some craft project going while watching TV.  It's especially great for the commercials, when I'm especially bored! 

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Stitchboard Admin message #333
Re: Tunisian gauge
March 5, 2014 at 7:30:51 PM  (in response to BetwixtTheStitch message #2)
 
Sherry,

Oooh, there's a video?  I didn't know that.  I'll have to look!

Let me know what you think after you see it all the way through. 

Wow, under the bar of the stitch...yeah, that's what it sounds like to me, that the loops would all be on one side.  Definitely, I'd be cautious about gauge.    Unfortunately, I think for the most part that if you want something to look knitted, it needs to be knitted, or crocheted if you want it to look crocheted!  (Even though there technically are knit stitches that resemble crochet.)

No way...me too!    I get totally bored "just" watching TV without doing something else.  It's so much nicer to be getting something accomplished while watching a great show!

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Stitchboard Admin message #335
Re: Tunisian gauge
March 6, 2014 at 4:43:40 PM  (in response to BetwixtTheStitch message #4)
 
Sherry,

I'm looking forward to hearing your findings!    Any stitch or technique is worth learning, IMO, even if one will never use it again. 

Oh, yeah, it's not at all hard to figure out what's going on while watching TV and working!    It enhances both the work and the show.

I've got a few shows on tonight, woo hoo, so more experimenting.  Got about 6 1/2 rows in on my latest experiment last night and was two stitches short, sigh, so had to frog it all and start again.    That was after frogging what I had attempted to do with the taped-up broken needle and frogging again because I forgot to switch needles after casting on (I always use a needle two sizes larger to cast on, then immediately switch to a smaller needle, but if I forget, it all has to be torn out.  )

Ugh, it would be nice not to have to frog again! 

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Stitchboard Admin message #337
Re: Tunisian gauge
March 7, 2014 at 9:30:27 PM  (in response to BetwixtTheStitch message #6)
 
Sherry,

Oh, so true...isn't frogging essential for experimenting/creating?!    Sigh.

I agree...I'm not sure I'll like it, either, but I must try it! 

Tonight I did some experimenting with crochet, particularly the other set of hooks I just purchased.  Curiously, the larger the hook, the easier the other hook design is to work with, whereas the smaller the hook, that other design does not work for me at all (e.g., the steel hooks, mostly)!

The only caveat to the larger hook thing is working TKS (and other Tunisian stitches, I assume).  Then the brand I've been using is fine.  I think the small steel hooks are trouble for me because the shape of the hook greatly affects the stitching with those.

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Stitchboard Admin message #339
Re: Tunisian gauge
March 8, 2014 at 9:22:24 PM  (in response to BetwixtTheStitch message #8)
 
Sherry,

Super...so how do they measure with the calipers in contrast to the other hooks? 

As for the steel hooks, I can still see well enough to use them, but always had problems with the design of those particular ones...they often led to stitches dropping off the needle. 

I'm curious to know if you also find these hooks a bit easier to use for regular crochet, as I do.    I'm not sure I'd trust this design with TKS/other Tunisian, but for regular crochet, they're easier to use, IMO. 

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Stitchboard Admin message #341
Re: Tunisian gauge
March 9, 2014 at 5:51:22 PM  (in response to BetwixtTheStitch message #10)
 
Sherry,

I'm so curious to know how they work out when measured...and then is it that you're going to do a swatch with the same yarn in the same size of each to compare?    In theory, they should be exactly the same, but I just don't see how that can be!

I also need to do the same at some point.

What was with the cable design?    Sigh, I wish the manufacturers would all go for decent materials for cables.  And for cables that stay on.  

I seem to recall the afghan hooks I had in that brand were all the other design, not the Boye design.

Oooh, cricket time!    Best day of the week! 

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Stitchboard Admin message #343
Re: Tunisian gauge
March 10, 2014 at 4:31:56 PM  (in response to BetwixtTheStitch message #12)
 
Sherry,

Ugh, thank you...now I remember that about the cable...what a pain!    Just a thought...can you loosen up the cable by immersing it in some boiling water for 15 seconds?  I love the idea of those cables, but they're just not well made! 

LOL...great minds again, because I feel exactly the same way about working swatches!    IMO, they can't possibly work out exactly the same.  And this is why, if I misplace one, I won't switch to the other, because I'm not confident it will be the same gauge...would be nice to know, now, hmm?    Someone (LOL, one of us, and not you!) had better get around to comparing to get a definitive answer! 

I spent two hours last night in front of the TV, crocheting and frogging - mostly frogging.    I was trying to do a crochet version of my knitting pattern.  It's probably going to be very different, at least more different from the knitted item than I'd like, but those are the joys of crochet, huh?    Waiting on the purchase of a new iron to block the knitted piece, so unless it proves impossible, the crocheted one should be done and waiting for the iron soon, too. 

Do you find one hook design easier to crochet with than another?  Does it also vary for you depending on the stitch (e.g., Tunisian compared to regular crochet)?

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Stitchboard Admin message #345
Re: Tunisian gauge
March 11, 2014 at 8:48:44 PM  (in response to BetwixtTheStitch message #14)
 
Sherry,

I completely understand why you got tired of fighting with the cable.    I was getting annoyed while working with the new circular needle, as that cable is so unwieldy and inflexible, but have not as of yet used the boiling trick. 

Oooh, sounds like cricket time! 

It doesn't seem like the two so vastly different hooks would work up the same, does it?  It just looks like one would be larger than the other.

I worked with mostly SB hooks...my "collection" started back when I worked in Manhattan, and my resource was Woolworth (isn't that a blast from the past?).  So apparently, they sold SB exclusively.  I didn't know anything about Boye until I read about the Needlemaster knitting needle set...and then I had to get one.  It was $125, ouch, very expensive, but I saved for months and bought it from a Manhattan yarn shop (probably paid a premium on that, as well as higher sales taxes!).  I really liked the kit (and was glad to see the price come down, at least, buying it from big box stores now, like Michaels).  But I still bought hooks and straight knitting needles from Woolworth, because their price was undoubtedly lower than the yarn shop.  (And it was closer...across from where I worked, where the yarn shop was a 15 minute walk if I really hustled.  15 minutes there, 15 minutes back, 15 minutes in the shop.)

Awww, thanks.    I'm hoping I can get it worked out to where I like it, though it's definitely going to be different, because I see no other way to accomplish what's in my mind (and what's already been knit).

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