Making crochet look like knitting

I could not have been more excited when I saw the Deramores blog competition – and not just because of the scrummy yarn-y prizes! With the choice of six trends to blog about, I knew straight away which trend I had to look at first – crochet that looks like knitting. Within five minutes I had a design sketched out and I had put in my yarn order.

I am a little bit obsessed with Tunisian crochet. Often described as a cross between crochet and knitting, I don’t think that gives the craft enough credit. Worked with a longer hook than normal crochet, Tunisian crochet still feels natural to a hardened crocheter like me, but it does incorporate a few elements borrowed from knitting – like keeping all of your stitches on the hook whilst you work a row.

Tunisian crochet is fantastic for colour work, which is a huge part of its appeal for me. The grid-like nature of the fabric it creates means that working to a chart is really easy to do, allowing you to create fair-isle style works, or simply to translate writing into fabric. I’ve used this characteristic to make quite a few Tunisian simple stitch cushions for friends and family now – some of which I’ve featured here before.

One of the most basic Tunisian crochet stitches is Tunisian knit stitch – so called because the resulting fabric looks a lot like knitted stockinette stitch, despite being worked in a very different way.

Tunisian knit stitch was one of the main reasons I decided to try Tunisian crochet in the first place – I absolutely love the aesthetic of knitted stockinette stitch, but I am too impatient to be a prolific hand knitter. When it took me over a year to make my first hand knitted jumper, I knew I had to find another way to achieve the look I loved, and it clicked for me when I first tried Tunisian crochet.

This all fell into place the second I saw the “crochet that looks like knitting” trend category in the blog competition, and I instantly knew what I would make for this post – a cushion using Tunisian knit stitch instead of the simple stitch I had used previously for cushion projects. I got to work.

At this stage I was delighted with how the piece was turning out and buoyed with enthusiasm, I knocked up the back of the cushion in no time at all, using the three colour Tunisian technique.

Ready for the finished product? Ta-dah!

I chose the phrase “Actually, it’s crochet” to appear on the cushion because, as I’m sure any crocheter knows, one of the most common questions we hookers are asked is “What are you knitting?” – so these three little words come out of my mouth fairly often!

I also thought it was apt for a cushion which, to all intents and purposes, looks knitted. Although when I proudly asked Mr Elsie Pop “It really does look like knitting, doesn’t it?”, he looked at me baffled and said “Does it? I can’t tell the difference.”. So maybe the meaning of this will be lost on non-crafty types!

Nevertheless, I LOVE my happy little cushion! The Debbie Bliss Cotton DK I used has produced a fabulously dense yet soft fabric which holds its shape well. And the colours! I can’t get enough of this trio of bright cottons – I will be using this combination again as soon as I can find the project for it.

Oh, and it’s not just popular with the me and the cats… someone else wouldn’t leave me alone while I was taking my photos!

My mini cushion will be put to work providing the lumbar support on my crafting chair – and making me smile every time I see it. 🙂

Thanks for stopping by,

Elsie Pop xx