Cute Hat.....

The thing about this cute hat is that it ISN'T a hat or cap at all.  I'm making an elephant....that's right....an elephant! ;o) Won't she be cute!  This is the body and I will be sewing the bottom together near the middle to make way for the trunk on one end and the feet on the other!

This is a pattern by Reneegurumi, Irina Antonyuk, better known as Irene Strange.  The pattern was gifted to me last year on Ravelry and I am just now getting around to making it.  I think her patterns are sooooooooooooooooooo darling!

Check her out at Reneegurumi - http://www.irenestrange.co.uk/reeneegurumi.html - and check out the elephants! ;o)

Now We Purl ... TPS

This is another quick and dirty tutorial on a Tunisian stitch...this one is the Purl stitch, and is a little more work than the knit.  You will be putting your hook under the first (actually second, as we all know) vertical bar in front of the fabric - while the yarn is on the front, too.

I generally pull the yarn down in front using my hook to make it loop under the vertical bar.  Then put the hook through the bar, and then draw up the yarn to the back.  You are actually "hanging" the hook  -  cheesy but true!  You then YO and pull the loop through the vertical bar.  It leaves that tell tell bump that you normally see in knitting (but the back does NOT look like the knit stitch as you would see if you were actually knitting.

Let's see if the photos help.....

Yarn is on front of fabric, put hook through the vertical bar....

Pull yarn to back around hook....

Get it behind the hook so you can do a YO....

I generally hold the yarn at the bottom and pinch it (like in the color change) so pulling the yarn through the loop doesn't make it tighten up too much.....

YO

After you pull it thorough you will start on the next stitch....

Pull yarn down to front  here I use my hook to do it...

Hold the yarn down and you will move it back behind the hook...

See how it looks......

Now do a YO and pull it through the vertical bar so you have three loops on the hook...

Ta da!

Just keep doing it ... pretty soon you will get a rhythm in throwing the yarn to the front...

See how the stitches look something like the Purl stitches in knit.....

Now you can see the bottom two rows of the TSS, the next two rows of the TKS, and know the last two rows I completed of the TPS.

Easy Peasy as my BFF says!

Tunisian Knit Stitch (TKS)

Now lets 'knit'! Put hook in the middle of the stitch behind the vertical bar of the row below & below return row. 

Make sure it goes behind the stitch to the back of the fabric.

YO and pull through a loop.

You can see I pulled the yarn through and it makes the previous stitch look similar to a knit stitch.

Continue by inserting hook through the next stitch and pulling through a loop which you leave on the hook as in TSS.

Five stitches finished...red isn't a great color to see the stitches, but look carefully! The two rows below the TKS row are TSS stitches and you can see the vertical bars.

You can't see the knit row very well above the TSS stitches as we approach the end, but they are there!

Now you will go through the side stitches just as you do in TSS so that the side will have a nice crochet look to it....

YO and pull up the last loop.....

Now you will start the return row after finishing all the TKS stitches.

Return row the same as before.

When you finish a bunch of rows, what do you get????   Very curly!

In Tunisian, the very first row is generally going to be the "simple stitch" (TSS) with the return, and then the next row is what determines if this is a "knit" (TKS) or "purl" (TPS) or another TSS. 

 In the TKS, after completing a row of TSS, you will have your first loop on the hook. You will be drawing up a loop through the stitch below, not the vertical bar as before. You neet to go behind the vertical bar through the fabric and actually under the return row, YO, and draw up a loop. Each time you do this, once you draw up a loop, the stitch in the row below looks quite like the knit stitch you would recognize in knitting. One thing about it, though, is this is a heavy fabric if you are using a worsted weight yarn, so it won't be the thin fabric that knitting is known for....not even if you have an H hook....however, with in #2 to lace weight it does give a more dramatic, lacy look.

Also, if I didn't mention it before, if you are making a square, to end it off you after you have finished the last return pass, you can go back across using a regular crochet hook of the same side, or one size smaller, and slip stitch across the top to finish.  However, in the TKS stitch, I like to go back across and make a TKS in each stitch, but pull it through the last loop instead of leaving it on the hook. That finishes the fabric into the knit stitch rather than the last row looking like a TSS.  

Remember, in Tunisian, even though you are on the row above you are generally finishing the look to the row below.