Tapestry Crochet - Harlequin Pattern Tutorial

Hello! 

So today I thought I'd chat a bit about the very cool crochet technique called tapestry crochet. 

 Tapestry crochet allows you to create a piece of crochet that plays with colour changes and flat patterns. 

You use two coloured pieces of yarn and crochet over the colour not in use, so you can alternate between two colour as the pattern requires.  

That is pretty much it in a nut shell, so if you know how to crochet, draw up a pattern on graph paper and give it a try!  

Tapestry crochet creates a nice thick fabric, and you can be very creative with the patterns.  I am thinking of lots of things I could make using this technique! More on that later!

A few people asked for a pattern, so if you want a bit more detail, I have done a little tutorial and step by step guide, I hope it doesn't get too confusing. 

So this is how I made my basic harlequin pattern:

Firstly, I used graph paper to draw up my pattern, as you can see it's very simple!  

Each square represents 1 sc stitch. 

My harlequin squares are 13 stitches wide, if you wanted a bigger square you could continue increasing by 2 stitches each row until you get the size you want ( i.e., 15, 17, 19, 21 stitches wide, etc)

This is a repeating pattern, so you can make your piece as wide as you like depending on the number of repeats you do.

I am doing 3 repeats, so the first row of my pattern is 6, 1, 13, 1, 13, 1, 6  = 41 chains to start.

So chain 41 in first colour (pink) then lay the second colour (blue) across the yarn (see above) and ch 1 in pink to trap the blue yarn in the st so it is ready to be carried along the top of the row.

Sc the first 6 st according to the pattern going over the blue yarn, when you get to the last pink st, change to blue to complete the st, so you are ready to use blue for the next st.

ready to do a blue st!

 .

(This is how you change colours throughout the pattern, the stitch before the changed colour, you finish off with the new colour and then proceed in the next stitch with the right colour.  I hope that makes sense, and I''m not too confusing!)

Then you continue on with 1 blue st and 13 pink st, and so on, changing colours as needed and crocheting over the unused colour.

....this is how the first row looks at the end.....

.....bring the unused colour across front of work and 1 ch in pink, then turn work and start the second row, reading the pattern from left to right for every wrong side (even numbered) row, and right to left for odd numbered front side rows.

You get a nice neat edge by trapping the unused yarn at each turn.

...you can see the pattern forming.....so just continue changing from pink to blue and blue to pink as needed.......

....at the last row with 13 blue st, change the colour from pink to blue in the last stitch of the previous row, then trap the pink wool and ch and turn,  so you are able to do blue stitches from the start of the row

......here is what it looks like half way through the pattern, now we just mirror the pattern that we have  done to form the top half of the squares.

At this point you can change the pink wool to a different colour if you want to have different colours for all you rows of squares, like I have done below, or you can continue on with the pink and blue to create a checkered effect.

This is just a very basic guide to tapestry crochet, but I hope you can see it's creative possibilities, I think it could be used for many lovely projects, I am planning a harlequin cot blanket and I think it would make great face washers and potholders in cotton, I will be trying out some different patterns for those I think. (Also cushions, bags, purses, hotwater bottle covers......I could go on and on!)

Anyway, that's it for now, if you do have a go at this and find problems with my instructions, please let me know and I will try and fix them up.  

Have a great weekend!

xxxxxx

Edited to add:  If you would like to have a go at a spotty pattern for tapestry crochet I have another post over here with a graph for spots.  xx