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"Queen of spades" cropped cardigan in Tunisian Crochet

THE MAKING OF A LOVELY CARDIGAN IN TUNISIAN CROCHET In the last little while, as you may have noticed, I have been working on an ambitious project: the creation of a Tunisian crochet garment, using a leaf motif (or "spades", as I preferred to call it) already seen in some wonderful knitting projects. First, I thought about replicating the spade pattern in Tunisian crochet, which was not difficult, as I have created similar patterns before - you can find them, for example, in these projects of mine: Leaf it On Shawl , Leaf it On Scarf , Leaf it On Cowl .  Leaf it On Scarf Next, I thought it best to make a garment that had a simple workmanship, i.e. worked flat, and not in the round, to avoid, at least initially, over-complicating the design. A cardigan, therefore, was the best choice. Next, I chose a yarn that I liked and opted for a fine multicoloured yarn. This was the result: "QUEEN OF SPADES" - THE CAL! I liked the finished garment very much, and so did you, whic

Tunisian Crochet: BINDING OFF

I know, I have been a bit late with my Tunisian crochet lessons, and already I was thinking: “Now my students know how to start working in Tunisian crochet with a Foundation Row, they have learned the most basic of all Tunisian stitches – the Tunisian Simple Stitch -, so now they must be busy crocheting on and on and on…because they don’t know how to close the work with a bind off!”

BINDING OFF

Tunisian crochet bind off
Tunisian crochet bind off

Just like in knitting and unlike crochet, binding off stitches at the end of a project is very important in Tunisian Crochet. At the end of a project, with the last Return Pass in the final row, the row is completed, so you could basically cut off the yarn and fasten off. The thing with Tunisian crochet is that at the end of a row the texture still looks “unfinished”, somehow: there are big eyelets and, most of all, there is no real border. This is why we need to “bind off” stitches.

Tunisian crochet bind off
"Finished" project without Bind off


STANDARD BIND OFF METHOD


Tunisian Bind Off is usually done with Slip Stitches (that’s what I call a “Standard Bind Off”): we need to insert the hook under the first Vertical Bar, as in Tunisian Simple Stitch, yarn over and pull the loop up and through the loop on the hook. This will be repeated for each stitch until the end of the row, going from the right side of the work to the left. Once we have done this, we have created a nice border across the edge (similar to the one created by the initial chain at the beginning) and we can finally fasten off.

Tunisian crochet bind off


BIND OFF VARIATIONS

There is more than just one way of binding off in Tunisian crochet.

Variation 1: insert the hook under the first Vertical Bar and through the Horizontal Bar (remember where this is? If not, go back to my “Tunisian stitch analysis CHEAT SHEET” to locate it), yarn over and pull the loop up and through the loop on the hook. Repeat to the end and fasten off.

Variation 2 “Single Crochet Bind Off”: insert the hook under the first Vertical Bar, yarn over and pull up a loop, then yarn over again and perform a Single Crochet. Repeat to the end, then fasten off.



And this is not all, because you can actually bind off using different stitches, like the Tunisian Double Crochet (in case you have started your project using this stitch), and other Tunisian stitches you will learn further on, following my Tunisian crochet lessons.

Depending on the bind off variation you choose, your border will look slightly different: either positioned on the front or towards the top of the edge. I have released a video showing the different types of bind off




Stay tuned for further lessons on Tunisian crochet! For example, do you know how to change colour in Tunisian crochet? Check my lesson here: COLOUR CHANGE IN TUNISIAN CROCHET.

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