Tapestry Crochet

Not your grandmother's crochet!
I read an article in the Summer 2010 issue of Interweave Crochet magazine and it got me interested in some different types of crochet.  Although I learned to crochet before I learned to knit, I have always preferred the knitted fabric.  Crochet reminded me of 1970's hippie style bags and vests, or granny square afghans in awful colors.  I took a class on Irish Crochet lace at a lace day last year and that was fascinating, but very slow and exacting.  The article was about double-ended crochet, which is done with a double ended crochet hook and makes a fabric with two different sides.  I tried to duct tape two crochet hooks together to try the technique, but I wasn't successful. So I called my local yarn shop and ordered a double ended crochet hook and put crochet aside for awhile.
 The next weekend I was up in Asheville for the Southern Highlands Craft Guild show at the Convention Center.  The next one is in October - you should go - its always awesome - textiles, furniture, music, jewelry, demonstrations, blacksmiths, etc...  Right down the street is the Earth Guild, a shop that sells everything a fiber artist could want.  (Asheville is a great place to visit- I especially like Malaprops Books and the Chocolate Fetish).  At Earth Guild, they had some interesting caps hanging on the wall behind the counter, done in tapestry crochet.  There was a pattern explaining the technique that I bought, and I made this:   

I liked it so much, I made this:

 They were easy to make and each took two balls of Lily's Sugar and Cream cotton yarn that can be bought at Michael's for about $1.75 a ball. 

Tapestry crochet, also called mosaic crochet, is done with a single crochet stitch hooked over a core yarn.  You can do it in two colors, with the second color carried in the core.  It can be worked back and forth in rows, or round and round in a spiral.  There is an excellent introduction and pictures and free patterns on Carol Ventura's website.  She also has written books on the subject.  "More Tapestry Crochet" is still in print and available at many libraries and at amazon.com.

Because the stitches are essentially square, you can crochet any design you can graph.  I found an excellent website called  microrevolt.org.  They have a free program called KnitPro that will take a picture and turn it into a chart.  I took my Owl avatar

 and used KnitPro to turn it into a chart that you could use for cross stitch or crochet, very detailed, with each square in the appropriate color.  I would show you the results, but the software won't support showing the Pdf file on the blog.  Trust me - try out the program - its wonderful.  You can set the program for needlepoint, crochet or cross stitch (square graphs) or knit portrait or knit landscape (rectangular graphs).
Tapestry crochet fabric (especially 4 ply cotton) is thick, but not chunky looking, and would make good bags or placemats or table runners.
There is an article in the September/ October 1995 issue of Piecework magazine about Guatemalan tapestry crochet, also by Carol Ventura, with a small brightly colored circular purse to make. 
Flickr has some nice pictures of tapestry crochet.
Enjoy the rest of the summer - its going fast!