Friday, October 7, 2011

Crochet Tunisian Entralac. Success of Failure?


My Tunisian Entralac journey began with some practice and more practice. I wanted to understand how it worked and why I needed the stitch count that was used. 
You need a vertical and horizontal stitch count, plus 1, for each square you begin with, you will count the last loop on the hook for the last square made as the plus 1.

Elizabeth Ham made a fantastic video tutorial that I first followed, I also watched some other video tutorials that came in handy.
So I had done my research, bought my yarn and began on my first project.

My first project was a couple of covers for the head part of my recliner lounge chairs.

The squares a 5x5.
These did take much longer to make than I thought they would. I was using a 4.00 mm, US G/6 hook and 8 ply, US 4 ply yarn.
Now because my hubby lives in his recliner, I made him some arm covers, but this time I used 2 strands of the yarn, a larger hook and I had a much larger working piece in no time.

Next it was onto a throw for the couch, I had cracked the stitch and understood it so much more, so I decided to make the throw with bigger squares, 16 ply, US 8 ply and an 8 mm US L/11hook. I'm still making this throw and need to stock up on more yarn for completion.

The squares are 10 x 10.

Now upon surfing crochet as I like to do at times, I came across a slipper pattern made with granny squares and the placement guide was this picture
which came from this site.

Well why not ? Was my very first thought!
That could be made with the Tunisian Entralac method.
I used what I thought would be a close st count for my size slipper, 12 x 12 squares and the same ply yarn and hook as the throw.
This is what it looked liked once I finished the squares.
The next step was to sew it together.
Top view
Bottom view
I could see I had made these too big for myself
But what the heck? I had tried and almost succeeded, back to the drawing board for measurements.
Waste not want not, they are now on display as a pot plant cover in my sun room.
I'm very pleased that I did try this method for the slipper, I can see myself trying this with other items too.
Thanks for reading my post and just maybe you have learned a lesson along with me.