The term “tapestry crochet” was popularized by Dr. Carol Ventura, who has written several books about the technique. Her tapestry crochet website is also a valuable source of information. Other names you might see include “mosaic crochet,” “fair isle crochet,” and “cameo crochet.” Tapestry crochet is often used when crocheting in the round because it is nice to be able to work all your color changes from the same side of the work. However, there is no need to limit yourself to only working in the round with this technique. You can also use it when crocheting ordinary flat rows that are turned at the end of each row. See the process of crocheting a checkerboard pattern worked in rows using this technique.
Checkerboard pattern crochet chart Blue yarn White yarn Crochet hook
You use a checkerboard chart to guide your pattern. This chart has a mind-boggling variety of different possible uses. If you’ve never worked from a chart before, it might seem a little cryptic. It’s actually pretty simple once you understand what to look for. Typically, when you do a tapestry crochet design, you’ll be working in single crochet stitch. Each square on your checkerboard chart represents one stitch. You’ll notice that there are some blue squares and some white squares on the chart. This demonstration uses blue baby yarn to crochet the stitches represented on the free crochet chart by blue squares, and white baby yarn to crochet the stitches that are shown as white squares. If you’re right-handed, start reading the chart from the bottom up, starting at the right-hand side; this is because you’ll crochet across your foundation chain starting on the right-hand side and working your way across to the left-hand side. If you’re left-handed, reverse this; you’ll start at the lower left-hand side of the chart and crochet your way across to the right-hand side. Since this chart is symmetrical, the results will be the same for both left-handed and right-handed crocheters. There are crocheters who approach it differently; they will not begin carrying their second color until they absolutely need to, which is several stitches before the actual color change takes place. That approach is fine too; it saves a little bit of yarn to do it that way. However, depending on your pattern, it might give you an inconsistent look, and you might also end up with differences in gauge between the places where you carried yarns and the places where you didn’t. Hold the white yarn parallel to your starting chain. The goal is to work single crochet stitches in blue yarn while sandwiching the white yarn inside of the blue stitches. This will allow you to keep the white yarn easily accessible when you want to switch colors and begin crocheting with it, and the white yarn will also not be making a mess across the back of the work. If you look at that blue yarn which is being manipulated with the left hand, you can imagine what will happen to it when you grab it with the crochet hook, and then pull it through the two active loops on the hook. If you take another glance at the chart, you’ll see that there are five blue single crochet stitches you need to complete before you need to change colors. You have done two of them so far. The next two are going to be exactly like the first two. When you get to the fifth single crochet stitch, it’s going to be almost the same as well, but there will be one significant difference—you will have to stop short of completing the last step, and that’s when you are going to change colors to white. When you’re doing tapestry crochet, your yarns may get twisted up. That’s normal; don’t worry if it happens to you. You’ll have to stop periodically and un-twist the yarns.
