Steps

Week 1 Nov 11 - 17
1 Tunisian in the Round Nov 23
2 Honeycomb Stitch Nov 12
3 Knit Mesh Stitch Nov 16
4 SNOW Square Nov 27
Week 2 Nov 18 - 24
5 Bobble Square Nov 28
6 Bias Square Nov 29
7 Zippered Puffy Stitch / Tri-color TSS Nov 30
8 Lacy Shells Square / Tunisian Mosaic Dec 5
Week 3 Nov 25 - Dec 1
9 Snowflake Square
10 Knit Stitch
11 Mitered Square Dec 24
12 Smock Stitch Jan 3, 2025
Week 4 Dec 2 - 8
13 Bamboo Stitch / Circle in a Square Jan 7, 2025
14 Entrelac Square Jan 9, 2025
15 Arrowhead Stitch Jan 10, 2025
16 Block Stitch Jan 11, 2025
Week 5 Dec 9 - 15
17 Wave Stitch Jan 12, 2025
18 Chill Stitch Jan 13, 2025
19 Basketweave Stitch Jan 15, 2025
20 Rib Stitch Jan 16, 2025
Week 6 Dec 16 -22
Join Jan 18, 2025
Border Jan 18, 2025

November 24, 2024

I’m using the metal Tunisian interchangeable set I bought on Temu, that I learned about from Toni’s YouTube channel. They are amazing! I started with the gold colored ones but the tips were just too pointy. The nickel-plated ones are slightly less sharp. I like them even better than my (much more expensive) ChiaoGoo set that I bought at the end of 2023.

This is a stash buster project, so my yarns are mostly partial skeins and left over full balls, primarily of Stylecraft Special DK which is my goto yarn for blankets, plus one random Brava Sport. The Brava fits in fairly well weight-wise and I’m using it because the color is very similar to the SSDK Cloud Blue that I only have a little of. This means my blanket will be smaller than Toni’s, but that’s not a problem. Because this is DK yarn, I’m using a 6.0 mm hook instead of the pattern’s recommended 6.5 mm.

As I took a picture of my Knit Mesh Stitch square, I noticed several mistakes on the early rows. Maybe I’ll go back and redo that square in the future.

I’m starting the SNOW square today and will block the first 4 squares (Week 1) when I finish it.

November 27, 2024

Instead of Bamboo Stitch square, perhaps Pinwheel Square from the Holiday Sampler CAL? That one looks fun. I’ve done that technique many years ago for a dishcloth I really enjoyed making, and I like the idea of squaring it up.

December 5, 2024

I’m behind -- I just finished square 8 which means I’m done with week 2 while technically the CAL is in week 4, but I’m not trying to keep up with the CAL release schedule. I have Xmas gifts to finish up and they take precedence.

I did end up substituting two squares in place of the Zippered Puffy Stitch (which I knew I wouldn’t enjoy) and the Lacy Shells Square (which I thought was too open and didn’t fit with the other squares). For the first, I took inspiration from Toni’s Tri-Color Linen Stitch square from the Amour (traditional crochet) Sampler and did the same concept with Tunisian Simple Stitch. (In hindsight, I wish I had done the Full Stitch for which I just learned Toni even has a tutorial for doing that with 3 colors. Then, for the second, I noticed Toni did not include any Tunisian Mosaic, so I made up a pattern based on a design by Abbey Made. I made my own chart which I’ve attached to this project if anyone is interested. Abbey uses the stitch design in a Tunisian sweater that looks super cute and I’ve added to my queue.

December 7, 2024

I blocked the first 8 squares and the 9th TSS square that is the base for the cross stitch Snowflake Square to make it (hopefully) easier to cross stitch on.

January 5, 2025

The cross stitch square ended up being a real struggle for me. The white yarn is extra thin and wasn’t showing up well against the light blue, so I double stranded it. It looks messy and took a really long time, but it’s good enough. (Did not enjoy.)

I’ve also finished squares 10 (Knit), 11 (Mitered), and 12 (Smock) so I’m done through week 3. The Knit was easy and a good one to do after the cross stitch. The Mitered square was super fun, and the Smock stitch is very pretty but I found it very slow going and too similar to the Honeycomb which I also did in Silver (oops).

January 17, 2025

The last squares are on the blocking mats. While blocking I’ve noticed a few mistakes here and there. These definitely are not my best work.

It’s funny that I said Toni didn’t include any Tunisian mosaic squares, but that’s actually what the Block Stitch is, I just didn’t realize it until I did the pattern!

January 19, 2025

Well, I guess I’m calling this done.

I should have laid it out after joining the squares, preferably just the first few rows and it would have been apparent that, in spite of going up a hook size when joining so the slip stitches wouldn’t be tight, the fact that the squares are different sizes was causing the seams to pucker. I was pretty done with the project so I just moved right on to the border and weaving in all my joining ends (very securely), so my fault.

I could have tried to add borders to some squares to get them more alike in size (since steam blocking wasn’t enough). Or maybe if I had joined with the slip stitch on the right side (as Toni did) instead of the wrong side it would look less odd. Even better, I should have adjusted my hook size square by square. I will definitely block the completed blanket to try to minimize it. But, as I said, I am pretty done with this project, so not today.

It’s funny, one of the very first crochet projects I ever did (way back in 2016) was a Tunisian stitch sampler that I abandoned after making all the squares because they were all such different sizes. You’d think I’d learn.

Don’t get me wrong, I decided to do the CAL because I’m a process crafter. I knew that in the process of doing this sampler I would have a way to try many Tunisian techniques on a small-scale commitment of just one square. And several of them were new to me. So, no regrets on that front, or as the saying goes these days, I’m not mad.

Still, I wish I had a product I’d be proud to gift or donate after all that time and effort.