No-roll Tunisian crochet TSS

28/09/2014 by UKMA 12 Comments

I first tried Tunisian crochet probably 20 years ago – or close to it as it was when DS was a baby and he’s coming up for 22 .  It drove me crazy, the roll.  I read about it a LOT. tried so many things to make it NOT roll and in the end I just gave up on it.  When I was decluttering I found two Tunisian crochet hooks mixed in with my knitting needles.  Times have moved on a lot, and nowadays it is pretty easy to get to grips with a new craft by watching You Tube videos and reading online tutorials.  The one things I kept seeing was that picking up the foundation loops thru the “bump” would minimize the roll. It does, a bit, but not enough for me.  I watched a LOT of videos.  To be fair, they tended to be after midnight and after a LONG day of cleaning, but still…

Let me just show a few samples. This is the standard Tunisian Simple Stitch – please try to ignore my crappy left edge.  I just cannot seem to get the hook in the right place to make it looks just right.  It’s my next thing to tackle. Anyway, you can see the bottom edge, and the side of the base chain, inserting the hook into the middle of the chain.

The roll is perhaps the most pronounced with this basic method.  Ever wonder why a lot of the TSS photos include, as mine does, fingers holding the edge down?  Cause when you let go, this is what happens:

DOH!

Method two is to insert the hook into the “back bump” of the chain.  This page has as good a tutorial as any so have a look – and note the fingers…

That is what I did for this small sample:

I really like the edge, with the knit-like stitch on show. While this is mean to decrease the roll, when I let go….

It could be in part me and my tension – the right side does roll more than the left and the left is pretty flat but it still isn’t totally flat. Plus I find keeping the chain in position and inserting thru the back bump every time hard.  Old eyes and all that…

OK now this is the technique I discovered – first look at the three samples, all done with different colours of the same yarn brand (also probably 20 years old, and a cotton) all on the same hook.

I’ve lifted the hook up (Look Ma! no finger death grip!) and as you can see the middle-of-the-chain insert version rolls (pink, left) and the back-bump insert version rolls (pale blue, right) but what’s this??  the middle one is flat and hands free? But how?

I’ll do a zoom in on the photo but although I bought new rechargeable batteries for my camera they aren’t actually charged up yet, so the zoom on the above photo isn’t as good as a macro shot of just the middle swatch would have been had my camera not died. Sorry about that.

But I think you get the point. I wish the batteries had held out for a few more shots but I hope these will be enough for you.

The trick is to start not with a chain, but with one of the no-chain single crochet foundations, on a slightly smaller hook like so:

Switch to your regular hook size and insert BETWEEN the two “rows” of stitches – like so:

I wish that were a better shot – you want the full V-shape along the bottom edge, so it looks like this at the end:

It will look very much like the back-bump front edge.  But the roll is going to be minimal – not NO roll, but very very little.

I think how loose or tight you hook will matter at least a bit, so try it and see – play around – you may not need to go to a smaller hook, or maybe a BIGGER hook will be better.  What I do know is that, at least for me, doing the no-chain SC base then switching to the TSS works a treat – it’s easy to do and looks good.

There is another technique which is very good – see it from Mikey at The Crochet Crowd.  The Getting Started video shows the back-bump forward/normal reverse/TPS (PURL) forward on the second row.  It does work pretty well to even out the tug of war between the rows that causes the roll  but I just found it really annoying to do.  Even Mikey stops the video so he can complete the row off camera.

I am to the point where I am doing cleaning that needs doing but I hate (like washing curtains and washing summer duvets, ready to store) and this isn’t something I’ll come back to for a while, I fear, so this post is as much for me as anyone else…lest in a month, when our guests leave, I forget everything I learned

{wink}