Bespoke By Mike

My two hobbies are crochet and sewing, listed in the order I learned them. Do I have a favorite? Sort of. I like the sewing for the quick turnaround. I can sew a shirt in a day. I cannot crochet a sweater in a day. Nevertheless, I do like to hook. Sitting quietly, listening to music, or good audible can be enjoyable.

Mom’s birthday is coming up in a few weeks and her favorite color is light blue.

According to the Tunisian Crochet Dictionary this is a sparkle stitch. So called because the combination of the three colors can look like fireworks. Then the rows of purl stitches in between really set it off.

The tricky stitch here is the TSS3TOG (Tunisian simple stitch three together).

Next time I do this stitch, I will use yarn colors with more contrast. That said, you can see the blue loop on the right is where I was finishing the previous row. This row I am going to do the TSS3TOG. Insert the yarn through three stitches (the sort of greenish loops in the photo). Yarn over and pull through all three. Then yarn over again, insert into the same stitches, yarn over and pull through just those original three. You should now have three new loops on your hook.

The trick with this stitch is the middle one, that bit of blue at the end of the hook is the stitch that I want to work my purl stitch into.

Look closely here just below my thumb. You can see those three green threads coming from the same area fanning out. Looking across the whole piece, that bottom row is easier to see. Now focus up on what’s between my thumb and the end of the hook. Those are the three stitches where I want to put my three purl stitches. That middle one really likes to hide, so if you’re going to try this stitch start with high contrasting colors (can’t really go wrong with black and white). You don’t have to use different colors to do a Star Stitch (what it’s called not in three colors with intermittent purl stitches [I think]). But to start out do so, that will make seeing that stitch much easier, as it will be a different color from it’s background. Make sure to switch colors on the return pass. The other way, (forward pass) won’t give you the contrast that you want.

During the return pass, as you yarn over and pull through two repeatedly, be careful to not pull through more than one stitch in the clusters of three.

The only other thing to remember about the Star stitch in particular is to start with a multiple of three for your project.

Our living room windows face south and around 16:00 this time of year my crochet spot gets hit by direct sun, right in my face. So I made this post while it (the Sun) completed its “descent” behind Dinosaur Park.

Press. Price. Purvey.