Tunisian Stitch

[Tinkpink]

Hallo everyone.

I started on an afghan with a tunisian stitch with rows of diamonds building off of one another. I have trouble understanding the instructions where I have to join two diamonds. English isn’t my first language so it seems to be even harder for me. Is someone familiar with tunisian stitches and can maybe help?

Thank you very much.

Edited April 7, 2023 by Tinkpink

[Lacycrochet]

Welcome to Crochetville, Tinkpink.

You picked a beautiful crochet art with the Tunisian.  Although I have experimented with it, I am not a pro.  We have lots of experts here who can help.  I just wanted to welcome you and I am sure the pros will follow with their helpful advise.

[Granny Square]

Hi TinkPink, welcome to the 'ville! (your 'name' makes me think of a sort of silly song from a 1950s musical "Funny Face" about fashion design, link if you are interested)

I'm not an expert on Tunisian either, I've done some entrelac--here is my guess: It sounds like you are going to be joining them in a 'join as you go' method, where you work back and forth on the return pass between the diamond you are finishing, and one you have already finished.  My guess is where it says 'next diamond' it means not the one you were just working on, but the one you need to attach the one you now completing to; and where it says 'next stitch of diamond' I think it means the one you are currently finishing.

This is really confusing for a native English speaker and I can't imagine how much more confusing it must be to someone to whom English is not their first language.  And like I said, I'm not completely certain my guess is correct.

 

 

 

[Tinkpink]

Hey. 
Thank you so much for your answer.  One thing that also confuses me is the difference between stitch and loop. 
 

As I go across with tss, I collect loops on my needle? Or are they called stitches on my needle? If they are called loops, where do I find the stitches?

Reading my question it sounds impossible to understand what I mean…

 

Thank you for recommending the song. I will be happy to listen to it.

 

 

[bgs]

The loops are just a part of the stitch.  The stitch itself  is completed on the return pass.

Are you working on something similar to this?

 

[Tinkpink]

Thank you so much for the video, which helped me with some other part 👍🏼. I send a picture of the part that I am not able to understand and the whole blanket. 
In the second picture you see, where the two diamonds are supposed to be joined according to the pattern from above. 
 

[bgs]

Did a search and this appears to be your pattern.  If you are not a Ravelry member its free to join.  I looked thru the project pages and someone noted the following which may help you.

The joining instructions for the last and first diamond of the first round have an error in I think, it should say to pick up a loop in first diamond and then yo and pull through 2 loops - so the picked up one and the next two for the return pass on the last diamond. I did this and it looks fine.

24/1/15
I’ve now started the second round, where the same joining technique is needed for each set of four diamonds, and it is correctly explained, it is as noted above. 

[Tinkpink]

Thank you so very much! I will try tomorrow as it is very late over here and I have to get to bed ☺️
I appreciate your help very much. 

[Tinkpink]

Hey. 
I‘ve tried it as written a knives and this is how it looks like. Is this maybe how it is supposed to look?

 

[Tinkpink]

…I meant to write:

 

…as written above… I didn’t mean to talk about knives, sorry. 

[Granny Square]

Hi, it looks good!      Your piece and the original both alternate how the 'seams' appear (the 2 seams that form a + look like each other, and the 2 that form a X look like each other, but all 8 are not identical), so your piece appears to be following what the pattern said. 

The only other thing I would do if this were my project is weave in the center yarn-end into the center stitches to gather and close the hole as much as you can.

 

 

[bgs]

I think its looking good.

Check out photos 8 and 9

https://www.ravelry.com/projects/RoseRed/starburst-entrelac-afghan

Edited April 9, 2023 by bgs

[Tinkpink]

Yes, I have to try to close the hole better. I will restart once more, since I want it to look as good as possible. Thank you for all of your advices, it’s so helpful! ☀️🤗

[Tinkpink]

Hey, 

I wasn’t able to visit the forum for quite a while. There were technical difficulties. 
I went on with my project and thanks to your help, it worked. But I am now facing the next problem. For whatever reason the blanket can’t flatten or straighten itself - if you know what I mean? It is like there are too many diamonds but there are not. 

Does anyone have an idea, why that is?

Thank you very much and I am happy to be back 🙂

[Granny Square]

Ugh!  That's not directed at your stitch-work, which looks great other than the not-flat part.

I mostly make center-out  doilies and have this problem all the time (sometimes they cup in the middle, but more often they ruffle like your blanket, and  I 'tweak' them all the time, or block the tarnation out of them to get them to lie flat).  This happens if I make stitches that are taller or shorter than the designers'.   However, they are not pieced like your blanket, are much smaller obviously and are made of easily block-able cotton.  But it stands to reason that ruffling might be possible here for the same reason.

What is your yarn made of, is it acrylic or natural fiber?  Natural fibers can be wet-blocked and stay blocked until they are washed and then need re-blocking, but acrylic needs to be steam-blocked which I personally don't care for (it makes the fabric limp and sort of 'crunchy').  To do this you'd have to pin it flat, to shape, to something that would not be affected by heat and hold a steam iron a few inches away from the fabric and 'shoot' steam at it.  You would want to use rust-proof pins, or at least remove the pins as soon as everything cools and dry them off.  There are lots of tutorials on the internet that show how to do this.  Note, if you do this, and don't like it, you can unravel it but the yarn likely won't be re-usable.

 

 

 

 

[bgs]

Please, please go to the link I posted above and go thru the different project pages.  Some have multiple photos showing this in various stages.  After looking at them I think yours is looking great. I think from things I have read Tunisian depending on the stitch just naturally curls.  Looks like one round straightens out when next round is added and final edge probably makes previous round lay flat.

[Granny Square]

You're right, this is curling not ruffling.

Knit stockinette curls, too, and the solution is to make a border that interrupts the stitch (stockinette is all knit sts, facing forward), in other words for knit you wouldn't add more stockinette for the border, you'd typically make ribbing (alternating knits and purls every 1 or 2 stitches), or seed stitch (alternating knits and purls every stitch or few in a more scattered design over 2 or more rows) or garter stitch (alternating rows of knits and purls).   The border has to be more than 1 row, tho, and would be something different than plain TSS.

Kim Guzman is a Tunisian technique guru, she has some hints on her blog https://crochetkim.com/tunisian-crochet-stop-the-curling/  Basically it's the same thing I said above, the edging has to be a stitch that interrupts the 'sameness' of the stitches in your blanket.

Edited April 18, 2023 by Granny Square

[Tinkpink]

Thank you for all of your help and advice. I was wondering if the hook I chose was too large and that as a result, the blanket was curling. I took yarn for a knitting needle 7-8 and somebody told me for tunisian stitch to take a much larger hook, so I took a hook 10. Can this maybe also add to the problem?

I used a all natural fiber. So when I am done, I will most certainly aske for more help :).

[Granny Square]

If anything, the curl would be worse if the hook was too small, and the stitches were pulled even tighter.  Think about it, imagine working with a hook twice as thick than you used with that same yarn which is ridiculously too big but just to illustrate--your fabric would be more like netting not be able to curl up....but it would also not look as nice; there must be some happy medium of slightly bigger hook that will produce a better fabric, but that means starting over.  Not sure what you mean by 'hook 10', where are you (US or UK?)  A US knitting needle size 10 is a J hook, 6mm in diameter which should work fine with US #4 medium weight yarn.

Good news on the natural fiber, so you can block it a little easier than acrylic.  Blocking for big items can sometimes be as simple as 'wet it, wring out excess water and lay flat and pat to shape to dry' which is a little easier with a sweater than a blanket, but hopefully you have a patch of waterproof flooring that you can cover with a sheet or something to give it a try.

 

 

 

 

[bgs]

Scroll thru the photos here especially photo 7 where it shows sides with curls and then part with border lays flat.  Looking thru the other photos you see all the curling going on.  I think this is a case where you have to trust the pattern.  As long as each round lays flat when you add the next round I think you will be ok.  Its going to take that border to make last round of curls to lay flat.

[Tinkpink]

Thank you very much for your answers. I understand what you explained about the smaller hook. I am obviously a complete newbe 🙂. But you are right, the smaller hook doesn't help the curling, but it makes the blanket a lot stiffer. So thank you, I truely appreciate your help.

Also I looked at the pictures and there I see, that the same problem occured so I am hopeful again. I don't mean the curling at the end of every diamond but the blanket itself. It doesn't flatten out completely, even after the next row of diamonds is completed.

Anyway, I will go on - or maybe start over since the stitches became much neater with every time I undid it 😄 - and see what happends. You both have been so very helpful. Thank you!

About the needles. I am neither from the US or UK, I am from Germany. Therefore all the numbers and sizes might differ. I have used a hook saying 6mm/US size 10.

Have a great day

Katinka 🤗