It's January 2022! Welcome to issue 104. 

I have to get this out of the way now! I'm teaching an online class and registration for it closes tomorrow. Topic: Extending Tunisian Forward and Return Stitches. This three-hour class meets twice for 1.5 hours each time: Feb. 1 & 2 (next Tues and Wed) from 1:00–2:30pm CST.

About Those Green Stitches Above

They are 100% Tunisian Crochet. Two of the rows are missing most of their return pass stitches. (An intact return pass, or "RetP", shows along the top edge.) 

It is super stretchy widthwise, unlike typical Tunisian Crochet with its inelastic RetP.

I removed the RetP by snipping a stitch loop and then just "unzipping" the RetP chains. This swatch is the same stitch pattern with none of the RetP removed. Quite a difference!

Pretty neat, right? Isn't it fascinating that some Tunisian Crochet fabrics work without return passes?

Does the Green Swatch Count as "Knooking"?

Depends. (I call it "afterthought knooking".) 

Does it matter whether the FwdP stitches are held on a knook cord versus held by RetP stitches that are removed later?

To me the biggest difference in the final fabric is whether you turn or not. In the blue swatch above, you can see the horizontal ridges typical of turning to begin each row. There is no turning in the green swatch; all stitches face the front.

The Return Pass Paradox

The RetP often has a supporting role to the action of the FwdP. I've heard it called the "reward row" after the FwdP's "heavy lifting". And yet, the RetP defines so much of a fabric's behavior and character. 

Even though the RetP is nonessential in the sense that it can be eliminated, the resulting fabric is so changed—generic, or denatured, even—that sometimes I've missed the RetP.

I've been stalking RetP in the wild for quite a while. Can it be the only thing that puts the crochet in Tunisian Crochet? Remove the RetP and you're knitting with a hook? I don't think so, and it's mainly due to the effect of extending on Tunisian stitches. Does the blue swatch look knitted?

(I'm actually still mulling issue #103, What IS Crochet, Really?)

This old pink swatch gave me the idea of "afterthought knooking". Back when I was exploring steeking (cutting open a hole), I discovered with this swatch that it's the forward pass stitches that need to be removed if you want a clean steeked hole. 

The Ipponbari Connection

I think there's been a rush to conclude (or market) knooking as closer to knitting than it necessarily is. Just because you can use knooking to produce knits doesn't mean that's all it does, or all it's for, or that Tunisian is a kind of knitting, or that knooking is not Tunisian. 

Knooking was inspired by an earlier Japanese method called ipponbari, and "miracle needle" ("amazing needle" in the US). 

I have three ipponbari books on their way from Japan right now, I can't wait! I love the way crochet, Tunisian Crochet, and knit textures creatively coexist in ipponbari stitch patterns.

The biggest news is that my husband and I have moved from Florida to the magnificent mountains outside of Asheville, North Carolina. This event dominated all of 2021, after a big salt water flood of November 2020. 

We're all safe and happy and healthy, and cozy. I'm wearing Aelfthryth over a turtleneck top as I write this. It was too hot in FL to wear it.

My crocheting has been spectacularly interrupted (not to mention the newsletter!). I've posted some crochet to Instagram occasionally. 

Thank you to everyone for just being there, you know? I'm looking forward to reconnecting.

Pssst CGOA members: you might like what I've been doing with CGOA's Pinterest boards!