Well, I may not know for sure the actual day, but I DO know that I'm working hard!  I am very close to finishing five projects which are due by February 7 or 9, can't remember right now.  But, in any event, they are almost finished and I should have no problem getting them into the publisher on time.

For lack of blog content, I shall be sharing some of my recent emails to different email groups.  If you are a member of the specific email groups, you will have seen them.  However, if you're not, why miss out on my lengthy prose? 

Kim's Thoughts on Pattern Skill Levels

As far as pattern skill levels, I've never been a big fan of them.  It seems like some patterns may scare people into not trying them.  And, I myself was originally scared by some patterns.

Let's take pineapple designs.  For me, these are really easy, but marked as advanced.  Usually, it's just a simple matter of making a lot of single crochets directly into a chain space.  Easy.  But, a lot of people are scared of them because of the advanced skill level notation.  They are incredibly time-consuming and difficult to DESIGN.  (Trust me.  We shall not get into the number of times I stitched up the Pineapple Tree Skirt before I could get it to lie flat.)  But, for me, stitching them is quite easy.

At the other end of the spectrum are big single crochet, color changing afghans.  These are usually marked beginner.  But, I find this technique more difficult to master.  It's marked beginner because it's all single crochet.  But, having to read the graph, deal with the bobbins, etc. can be so difficult, confusing and frustrating, especially for a beginner.

Now, here is what I've been toying with.  Skill levels written like this:

Beginner:  This pattern can be worked while a toddler is running around, watching your Soaps, cutting up vegetables for dinner during breaks and checking your email.  We are nothing if not multi-taskers, right??!!

Intermediate:  This pattern can be worked while that toddler is taking a nap, you've got a pot roast cooking in the crock pot and you're all set with a good movie, checking your email only occasionally but not really answering anything until later.

Advanced:  For this pattern, you better have another adult watching that toddler, you should call out for pizza, turn off the television, make a big pot of coffee and get settled in because you'll want to seriously concentrate without distractions.  If you must have noise in the background for concentration, better make it a movie you've already seen a couple of times before.

Tunisian, Afghan Stitch, Crochenit, Cro-Hook, MoEZ?  What's the difference?

Tunisian crochet is the term for any crochet in which you use a long-ish hook. You open the stitches on one "pass", then you close them up on the second "pass." It's very similar to knitting, although thicker since it takes two passes in order to complete the row.

If you can do a single crochet, then you can do Tunisian crochet. Imagine a single crochet. You insert your hook and pull up a loop. Then, you pull through two loops on your hook. For basic Tunisian crochet, all you are doing is a single crochet in assembly-line fashion. You insert your hook and pull up a loop, but you do that all the way across. Then, you yarn over and pull through the loops, closing each stitch, one at a time.

Tunisian Crochet encompasses hundreds of stitch variations and combinations that make it a very versatile technique.  What most people call "afghan stitch" is actually only one of many Tunisian stitches. 

The Tunisian hook, also called afghan hook looks like a knitting needle with the "knob" on one end, but a crochet hook on the other instead of a point. You can also get the same thing with a hook on each end, a double-ended afghan hook.

Now, for the hooks. Boye and Susan Bates both make them. There are regular afghan hooks and there are those with the extender cable. There are regular double-ended hooks and there are those with the cable.

In the 70s, Mary Middleton introduced "Crochenit" which is double-ended Tunisian using only a size M hook. At the same time, Boye and Susan Bates were using their double-ended hooks and the technique was called cro-hook or cro-knit, depending on who the manufacturer/publisher was.

Twenty-five or so years' later, Mary joined with Annie's Attic for a short while and several leaflets were published as well as new manufacture of her special Crochenit hook, with red and green point protectors included for easy start and stop.  I am very fortunate in that I have some of Mary's original Crochenit hooks from the 70s.  I was able to get them on eBay as well as some of her original publications before she started publishing through Annie's Attic.

In the 90s, crochet with the double-ended hook became widely known as Crochet on the Double when many new patterns were introduced by Annie's Attic in this technique.  Darla Fanton designed a tremendous amount of items and had several leaflets published as she basically reintroduced the technique, almost by herself.  There were others (including me LOL).  But, Darla's numerous designs sort of "heralded" the reintroduction.

MoEZ is the name given the hooks made by Monte Grimm. They are both regular Tunisian hooks as well as double-ended hooks. Instead of a knob on the end of the Tunisian hooks, I believe he has dipped them in some type of rubber, color coding the rubber for the size of the hook. They make larger Tunisian hooks from about a size L and up.

Carolyn Christmas introduced her larger Tunisian hooks in the late 90s or early 00s. They are Tunisian hooks in sizes L, M, N and P, I believe. These are called Easy Tunisian hooks.

For regular Tunisian, you work with one hook and you don't turn your work. For double-ended Tunisian (cro-hook, cro-knit, crochet on the double), you turn your work and you use two separate balls of yarn, one for each hook.

Kim, I got a kick out of your skill level descriptions. Your are right on, but I would add one more thing to the beginner: being able to sit in a meeting or class and rarely having to count stitches or check the pattern and being able to take notes.:)

Phyllis! Do you mean to tell me that I am not the only one who crochets and takes notes in school? And here I thought I was a genius! ;)

This is the first website I've found that explains the difference between Crochenit and Crochet on the Double: there IS no difference other than the name and who made it 'famous'. THANKS!:):)

Thanks so much for that great explanation of crochetnit, tunisian etc. It really helped!:)

This the best explantion i've read and could understand, thank you so much for ur time to do this. Charlotte

so am i to understand that the circular crochet is just a double pointed hook with a flexible center?