Yesterday I gave a class on Tunisian crochet at Atelier 53, a charming boutique in Namur (Belgium), that sells ecological fabrics and yarns. I recommend that you pay them a visit if you happen to be in Belgium or nearby. It’s a very nice place, where you can find environment-friendly materials. In this spirit, at the end of this article, I’ll tell you about an unexpected fibre that I found in the shop. But first, about the class.

A class to teach the basics of Tunisian crochet

Not a single participant had tried Tunisian crochet before. Which is good, since the class was meant to discover the basics of Tunisian crochet. So together we covered the main principles and we put theory into practice by making the most common stitches.

The concept

In plain English, Knitting Along, Crochet Along and Tunisian crochet along are events during which a group of people knit or crochet together. A bit like in a knitting or crochet club, but with some digital dimension nowadays. Knitters and crocheters don’t have to gather in one specific geographical place to exchange and discuss about their yarn craft projects.

My first TCAL

I must confess, even if I have known the concept of KAL/CAL/TCAL for some time now, I have never been tempted to give it a try. Because there are always so many other things to do. Crochet has a wide range of possible activities.

But then a few weeks ago, Lori (Aklori designs) announced she wanted to organize a TCAL on the theme Skill Building. I liked her idea from the start. Tunisian crochet and the possibility to choose a pattern with a specific technique we have never tried before, that’s an interesting combination. Open to all, no matter what the skill level of the participants is. No restriction on the selection of a pattern to make the project within this TCAL. Actually, the only condition is to select something we want to learn.

Today I published one full page on modified Tunisian stitches. I had published about these stitches in my previous blog but individually, in different posts. To be consistent in the creation of my personal classification system on this website, I have gathered them on one page.

In the menu, under tab Tunisian crochet, I have added a sub-menu called “Variations on basic stitches“. This page is meant to list different types of stitches that are nothing else but basic stitches worked slightly differently. This page is still under construction and will be updated in the coming weeks.

March is National Crochet Month. I think it comes from the CGOA (Crochet Guild of America). But wherever it comes from, it’s a very good idea to celebrate crochet throughout March.

Last year I participated to the Instagram challenge organized by Francrochet. The challenge was to post one photo every day in relation to a given word and… crochet, obviously. It was fun. I really liked it.

This year I would like a new challenge. To celebrate crochet in March. But what kind of challenge could it be? To have a better view on my plans for next month, I made a list of all the things ongoing or scheduled: give a Tunisian crochet workshop at Atelier 53, participate to the TCAL 2019 organized by Lori (from Aklori designs), write new patterns and crochet the prototypes, go to Edinburgh to attend the EdinYarnFest, keep on working on different projects, one of which is to shift from my old blog to my new blog.

My first blog was on Blogger. The objective of this blog was to document Tunisian crochet techniques. And I met this objective. But the truth is that Blogger has limitations. It is easy to use and appealing for those new to blogging. But at some point, when you want to go into more details, you feel it’s limited.

So I’m starting a new blog with WordPress. The idea is to have more freedom to build and organize the content. But more freedom means new challenges. And I will try to tackle them, one by one, in the course of the following weeks.