Tunisian Crochet & Curling Problems
I recently came out with a tutorial on how to convert any and all of my overlay mosaic crochet patterns into tunisian mosaic crochet.
One of the first questions people had after I came out with my tutorial on how to convert my overlay mosaic crochet patterns into tunisian mosaic crochet was “is it normal for this to be curling like this?”
And, for the most part, the answer is, “yes”.
Why?
Tunisian Crochet curls because the stitches are most often being put into the front bar and this causes the front of the piece to be shorter than the back of the piece.
Click to watch my YouTube tutorial on converting overlay mosaic to tunisian mosaic crochet using TSS (Tunisian Simple Stitch) and FPTDC (Front Post Tunisian Double Crochet).
Now What?
There are a few ways we can combat the curling problem. I’ve created a tutorial showing my favorite method and how it works with tunisian mosaic crochet.
There are plenty of time stamps so you can focus in on what you’re interested in.
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Three Options
When you use a lot of TSS (Tunisian Simple Stitch) in a project, you will inevitably get some curling at the top and bottom of your project. There are a few ways to fix this:
- Use a hook 2 or 3 sizes larger than you’d normally use
- Add a border
- Blocking
My Favorite Method
My favorite method is to create a honeycomb border WHILE crocheting the project so that I don’t need to add anything on at the end.
The hardest part of this method is keeping your yarn from getting too tangled. I like to use one of the colors used in the mosaic section as the border but it is easier to keep track of the border versus design stitches if you use a color that is different from the two colors used in the mosaic section.
The Tunisian Honeycomb design is beautiful on its own too – not just as a border!
Two Stitches
There are 2 stitches to know when doing tunisian honeycomb: TSS (Tunisian Simple Stitch) and TPS (Tunisian Purl Stitch).
To see each stitch in action use the time stamps found in the description of my YouTube video (https://youtu.be/OiksLFuYK8I). In the embedded video above I don’t know if you have access to the description where the time stamps are – you may need to use the actual YouTube website.
You alternate between TSS and TPS along the row and your return pass is the same as it always is.
On the next row you alternate between TPS and TSS. They alternate side-to-side and up-and-down.
If you’d like a symmetrical project make sure you start with an odd number of stitches. That way each row will start and end with the same stitch.
Please know that this is not an exhaustive list of stitches or borders or ways to stop the curl! This is only a shortlist of my favorite method!
Did you learn something new? Let me know if this has been helpful!
