If you follow me on TikTok (@emmbeetee) you may have seen a clip of my latest visit to The Scrap Exchange in Durham, NC. It is a wonderful place and you never know what you might find there, My favorite treasure from this last trip is a pair of Needlework magazines – May and August of 1924.
I love old books and magazines, especially ones about crafts, so I was super excited to page through them. One of the other things I love is Tunisian crochet – and lo and behold, as soon as I open this issue there is a layette set that combines Tunisian and traditional crochet! Of course they were calling it afghan stitch, but I knew immediately I was going to have to make this.
So I am making the blanket. I will show you the part I have tested out, then do a Part Two later when I am ready to move on to the assembly.
I am using Bernat Bundle Up because A) I had some in the house and B) I have been using this a lot lately and I love it. It’s a chainette base for durability but is super soft with some halo, and machine washable.
The blanket is started by making three strips of Tunisian crochet, alternating Tunisian Simple Stitch and an interesting cluster that I have never seen before. Here are the directions for the strips.
I used a K/10.5/6.50mm crochet hook. Because the Tunisian strips are only 11 stitches wide I didn’t need to bother with a Tunisian hook.
Note: All rows are written out forward pass only, the return pass for all rows is the Standard Return of Ch 1 (or yo, draw through 1 loop on hook depending on how you were taught), *yo, draw through 2 loops on hook. Rep from * until only 1 loop remains on hook.
Strip:
Ch 11.
Row 1 Forward: Insert hook in 2nd ch from hook, yo, draw up a loop, leave on hook. Rep in each ch across. 11 loops on hook
Row 1 Return: Standard Return (see Note)
Rows 2 – 4: Tss.
Row 5: Tss 4, yo, insert hook in 4th vertical bar of row below (in the first case its Row 3), yo, draw up a loop, yo, draw through 2 loops on hook. Rep this action (yo, insert hook in next vertical bar, yo, draw up a loop, yo, draw through 2 loops on hook), in each of the 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th vertical bars of the row below, then yo, and draw through 5 loops on hook. You will have 6 loops on your hook. Work 5 more Tss on the top row (not the row below), 1 each in the 7th – 11th vertical bars. You will have 11 loops on your hook. Work the standard return.
Moving on, work 4 rows of Tss, then rep Row 5, the cluster row. Continue on until work measures 34”, ending with a cluster Row.
Slip st through vertical bars of last row to close. End off.
Once these three strips are made we are going to work crochet edgings along the sides – I will come back and do a Part 2 once my three strips are made!
Also apparently Cream of Wheat will make you a man – or at least so it was thought in 1924!
