317-320::365 tunisian crochet squares

Pattern: These squares are swatches of two different Tunisian crochet stitches, simple stitch and knit stitch.

I've wanted to try Tunisian crochet since Elizabeth at Things Bright first blogged about different types of Tunisian stitches. She's been featuring all kinds of cool Tunisian crochet projects over there, too (like this one and that one)! When I saw her how-to feature in the latest issue of CraftSanity, I pulled out my thrifted size 8 afghan hook and learned Tunisian simple stitch (tss) in no time at all. Her super clear instructions were a great starting point! Each of the squares above were made with this stitch except for the green and purple one in the lower left that was made with knit stitch (tks). How crazy is it that it looks exactly like a knitted swatch? I used the video Elizabeth recommended to learn tks. These stitches are kept on the hook and worked back and forth (in a forward pass and a return pass), unlike regular crochet. Here is a closer look at the stitches:

This first square is made of tss in solid white. It had a lovely texture, but I hated the lack of color, so I cross stitched some little stars on it.

My largest square is made of rows of tss in different colors that I switched out after the return pass. I have big plans for this square and will be adding to it soon.

This square is the one made with ks. I can't wait to experiment more with this stitch! My color change was worked after the return pass.

This square was made with tss, and this time I worked the color changes in on the return pass each time. I love this one. It kind of looks woven!