You might have noticed that I quite like working in the round. I'm not a huge fan of seaming (although I'm starting to warm to the idea in some applications).
I've experimented with a few different ways of working in the round. I started off by learning how to work in a spiral with a double ended hook. This is a wonderful method for making beanies and cowls. It's not so good if you are working in stripes, mosaic or a stitch pattern that will look weird in a spiral.
This is where a cabled hook comes in. There are quite a few ways of using that cable to work in the round. You may have come across tutorials on the 'magic loop method' - this is the first way I learned and if I'm honest, I can't remember how to do it. It's kinda clunky!
More recently, I've used a method pioneered by my friend Rachel Henri. She invented a connecting stitch that works really well and I've used it to make one of her amazing jumper patterns. This method leaves a little jog that just wasn't working for me on Tunisian Crochet mosaic.
It was actually one of my pattern testers that told me about Ben Burchall. A bit of googling and I found a video where he demonstrates it. For a while I've been pointing to that video in my patterns. It's time for me to show you myself.
You still work in rows with a forward and return pass. You even pick up the edge stitch. Once you've picked up all the loops in the round, you bring the start of the round up to the hook tip using the cable to help you do it. The below image is a completed forward pass including working the edge stitch.
Next, insert the hook into the first two loops of the round with the hook exiting the back of the work (below).
Yarn over and draw the yarn through those two loops.
Then finish off the return pass like normal - yarn over pull through two loops until one loop remains.
Simple as that! You can see the join on a finished piece - the two vertical bars will be a little closer together and slightly more pronounced than the other loops in the round. But this visibility is so slight that it doesn't bother me in the slightest.
I do recommend this method for working tunisian mosaic - give it a try and let me know if it works as well for you as it does for me.
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