Annie's Attic - Tunisian Joining: Taking seams from bulky to beautiful

Tunisian Joining: Taking seams from bulky to beautiful

Joan Davis

Here are a few questions, which may let you know you need to learn a better way to finish your crochet work:
• Does your whipstitch looked whipped?
• Do your crochet joins add so much bulk that your garment is bursting at the seams?
• Do you struggle to join your crochet pieces one to another, and when your hard work is completed your joins cause your crochet work to appear as though it is a botched, homemade garment?
• Have you ever snagged your beautiful crochet stitches and tangled your sewing thread while trying to sew two crochet pieces together with a needle?
• You never learned to join your crochet with a crochet hook?

If you answered “Yes” to even one of the questions, chances are you are looking for a better and faster way to join two pieces of crochet. Your crochet seams and joinings need to look as though they fit together like a couple who has been married a lot of years.

One of the key reasons most crocheters avoid some projects that have a lot of pieces to join, or avoid creating certain complicated fashions, is that the crocheter is not satisfied with the way her projects look after they have been joined.

I discovered the Tunisian join in a foreign book on the subject of Tunisian crochet. After studying the photos, the graphics, and the international crochet stitches, I took out my hooks and yarn, then began to play. The more I played with the methods, the more I liked the way the joining and seaming made my fashions appear.

Tunisian join is created over 2 rows just like regular Tunisian crochet. It is best to work on a cro-hook/afghan hook, which is one or two sizes smaller than the crochet hook used for the project. After a while, the only method I used to join fashions at the seams, or to join motifs, was the Tunisian join.

Let us begin.

This is a workshop. Find three different colors of yarns so that you can easily follow along while you learn.

You need the following materials for this exercise:
• Crochet hook size H/8/5mm or size of hook appropriate to yarn
• Cro-hook/afghan hook in size G/6/4mm or size appropriate to yarn
• Crochet hook size E/4/3.5mm or size F/5/3.75mm for weaving ends
• 3 colors of yarn in the same weight and/or class
• Several safety pins or other type of markers to hold pieces together.
• Bring your Creative Spirit. Open your intuition.

INSTRUCTIONS
With a size H hook, crochet 2 samples, 1 in color A and 1 in color B, in the following manner:

Step 1: Ch 26. Step 1

NOTE: The back side of the chain has a horizontal “bump.” The reason you crochet into the back side of chain is because your pieces will fit together and join better.

Step 2: Turn foundation ch to the back; sk 1 ch, and work sc into each ch on the back of the bump, turn. (25 sc)
Step 2

Step 3: Ch 1, sc into each st across row, turn.

Rep Step 2 for 10 more rows for a total of 12 rows.

Mark front side of each sample with a safety pin.

Step 4: After creating 2 test samples, you are now ready to practice joining the samples.
Step 4

Step 5: Pin both front sides of samples tog. With joining yarn, make a slip knot onto the cro-hook (afghan hook). Working with the first group of sts from both swatches, insert the cro-hook (afghan hook) into the first front lp on the sample closest to you AND under the first back lp of the sample farthest from you. Yo, pull through both lps.

Outbound Row

Step 6: *Insert the cro-hook into next front lp on the sample nearest you AND under the next back lp of the sample farthest from you. Yo, pull through both lps.* Rep from * to * until all lps are on the cro-hook.
Step 6

Return Row
Step 7: After all lps are on the hook, you will create the return Tunisian row: Yo, pull through 1 lp, then *yo and pull through 2 lps.* Rep from * to * to end of row. There will be 1 lp on hook. Cut working yarn with approximately 5-inch-long tail. Pull up lp, [insert hook into lp, yo, pull through] once.
Step 7

After your work is completed turn crochet work to the RS.

Step 8: Weave in ends with smaller hook.
Step 8 Front

Step 8 Back

The Tunisian join will make your work look much smoother. You can use this method to join motifs, fashion crochet pieces or any two items you need to join.

Be creative and remain intuitive!