Rosalie Wrap, a Tunisian Entrelac Crochet Pattern

Tunisian entrelac crochet pattern reveal

Introducing one of my two latest patterns, Rosalie Wrap! This wrap is stitched in Tunisian crochet entrelac. I am very excited about this design for a couple of reasons. One of those is that this is my first ever design in Tunisian crochet, and therefore, my first published design in Tunisian crochet!

Find and favorite Rosalie Wrap on Ravelry here!

Get the Rosalie Wrap pattern from Interweave by clicking here!

Tunisian crochet entrelac is a technique that involves making each of those squares that you see one at a time, but there’s no joining of motifs, you connect the squares as you go. Each “tier” of squares is worked all in a row. Then you fasten off at the end of each tier, since you can’t turn the piece and work on the wrong side. Tunisian doesn’t get turned like traditional crochet, to work across the wrong side to go the other way. 

Sound like a lot of ends to weave in? There are quite a few, but once you get the hang of it, you can weave in the beginning ends as you stitch, so that you just have to weave in the fasten-off end for each tier. Actually, I was even able to weave in some of the fasten-off ends as I worked the tier above, once I was comfortable with the technique. This wrap is made in Crystal Palace Yarns Mini Mochi #327 Georgia Peach (6 skeins). The colors in this yarn are really lovely — subtle differences in shades of peach that make for a very beautiful wrap!

My award-winning Tunisian entrelac crochet design!

When I was first getting excited about this crochet entrelac design, I didn’t blog about it. I made this version of the wrap as my entry for the 2013 CGOA Design Competition, and won 2nd place in the Accessories category! I called it “Windowpane Wrap” and made it in Jojoland Melody.

Back story

In 2012 I went to the CGOA conference in Manchester, NH. I took a class, taught by Vashti Braha about how to incorporate holes, or negative space, into Tunisian crochet. Now, she didn’t teach us to make those holes the way I made them, she wasn’t even using Tunisian entrelac. She taught us another fascinating way to make holes in Tunisian crochet. But, as those ideas swam around through my head, I had a vision in mind of something I wanted to make. It looked a lot like this wrap, but I had planned on using Vashti’s method of creating the negative space. However, when I tried it that way, it didn’t look how I wanted it to look.

I continued tinkering with the idea until I came up with a very simple way to make empty squares in Tunisian entrelac so that you could have empty and filled squares a lot like filet crochet. I even made a chart for this design that looks a lot like a filet chart. The difference of course, is that the squares are all set on their points in this method, rather than on their sides, like in filet crochet.

Submitting the design for publication

After my wrap won a prize at the design competition, I sent some pictures of it to Interweave Crochet Editor, Marcy Smith and asked if she’d be interested in publishing the pattern. Fortunately, she was very happy to be offered the pattern! Now, it is available in the Summer issue of Interweave Crochet as “Rosalie Wrap”.

Interested in Tunisian Crochet? Here are some other posts about the technique:

Book Review: Fair Isle Tunisian Crochet

On Fire Wrap, another design using this technique!

Book Review: The New Tunisian Crochet

Learn the lovely Tunisian smock stitch!

Stay tuned for a post about my other design in this issue, Scamp Bandana!

Happy crocheting!

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