Tunisian entrelac is such a versatile form of crochet. What I so enjoy about it, is that one does not have to have a Tunisian hook on hand, you can just use an ordinary old crochet hook. In fact, it is, in my opinion, easier to just use a regular hook.
Sunny Daze before squaring off - see the regular crochet hook
How is it possible to do Tunisian with just an ordinary hook? Well, with entrelac you are working with small amounts of stitches on your hook and, therefore, you do not need a long hook on which to fit all the stitches in. Obviously some of the modern hooks only have a short, active, working space (due to the handle that has been added to make the hook ergonomic or even just to make it look pretty) and are, therefore, not as suitable as the old-fashioned hooks.
I first learnt to do entrelac when I decided to present an entrelac class! One of the best ways to learn something is to teach it and, this retired 2nd language educator of 33 years, certainly has had lots of experience with this concept.
Fortunately nowadays, there are so many resources available to us via the internet and I was able to learn how to do it and, teach others. However, as with any skill, unless you use it on a regular basis, it does get a bit rusty, but fortunately, once done and, more importantly, understood(that is why teaching it helps so much - you have to understand it to teach it well), it soon falls into place again.
So, on to the Sunny Daze CAL, a pattern designed by Laura Pavy and hosted on the Hooked on Tunisian Crochet FB site. The pattern was discounted on Ravelry for a while, so I quickly jumped in before that expired (with our weak rand I have to think twice before buying a pattern) and started on my blanket about 2 weeks after the CAL had started. I'm glad I did start later than many others as I benefitted from changes that were made to the pattern whilst people were working on it. Laura came up with a different way to start and also, a different way to square up the blanket.
The hardest part about doing this blanket was choosing colours. I often suffer from colour paralysis as I can be quite finicky with regards colour combinations. When I did mine, the colouring sheet was not available and, this blanket, really benefits from a colouring sheet on which to plot your colours. Versions posted on the FB group by those who had started before me, certainly helped me to see what I liked and didn't like.
I decided to use a quilt that I inherited from my father-in-law as my colour inspiration. The colours are not an exact match (the quilt is far more muted), and one cannot always find the colours you want in a particular yarn range. I chose to use a local, cheap, DK/#3 weight yarn by Elle (Saprotex) called Charity which does not break the bank. I used 7 different colours in my blanket (in the order they appear in the blanket):
2 neutrals - stone and gravel,
3 greens - soft lime, olive, sedge green (a multicolour),
2 browns - rust and cognac
I am very pleased with the way it turned out and, being able to do it with just a regular hook, was an added bonus.
