I haven’t even shown pictures of my Christmas haul, but one of my favorite gifts was a Tunisian crochet hook, personalized with my name burned into the side. I didn’t even know how to do Tunisian crochet, but it looked interesting and I love to learn new stuff.

It turns out that Tunisian crochet is very easy, fun AND looks great when you mix random yarns together. Which makes it a perfect stashbuster for all those little quarter-skeins of leftover yarn that tend to pile up over time.

After a few practice swatches using cheap acrylic, I gathered up some of my favorite leftovers in the purple family and tried my hand with three-color Tunisian. Basically, you alternate three different yarns and it creates a variagated effect very easily. Most of my yarn was already multicolor, so I was a little afraid I’d end up with a monstrosity. What do you think? I love it.

In fact, I was sad to finish. My mind wandered to the ever-present Lion Homespun prayer shawl project. I’ve made three prayer shawls for my (new thought/new age) church to donate to people in need of support, but I can’t say any of them were all that fun to make. For one thing, Homespun is a pain to work with – it’s very splitty. It’s our yarn of choice because it’s: (1) inexpensive, (2) readily available, (3) looks nice worked up, (4) very easy to care for. My two Homespun traditionally-crocheted shawls were slightly wonky because it was hard for me to keep track of where the loops were. I’m also not the best at keeping the sides straight. I knitted my latest one because I’m faster and more skilled with knitting than with crochet. Except it was so slow and boring that it took me at least twice as long to finish.

I decided to rip out the few inches I’d completed on shawl #4, which was languishing in a plastic bag. Then I started working it in Tunisian. And look! It’s only been about a week, and I’m more than a fourth of the way finished. It’s so addicting that I keep picking it up even though I have socks to work on. What’s especially impressive to me is that the shawl is my at-home-only project, so I’ve made progress without car passenger time or waiting in line time.

Today’s another busy day in a long line of busy days, but I had to take the time to tell you about my latest obsession. And so it goes.