You can use yarn or a double strand of embroidery thread to weave through your project, creating simple, but beautiful designs.

Subscribe to My Crochet Channel or go to: YouTube.com TanisGalik

Video: Simple & Sensational™ – Decorate Afghan/Tunisian Crochet with Weaving

I’m using a tapestry needle but you can use a darning needle. A blunt nose needle is best since it doesn’t catch other yarns during the weaving process. To thread your needle, wrap the yarn around the needle base and hold the yarn tightly between your finger and thumb. When you pull the needle out, you have a little bunch of yarn which you can push through the needle’s eye. Pull the yarn through the needle’s eye.

I’m working with a basic Afghan or Tunisian Stitch which has very prominent vertical bars. Work under that vertical bar by taking your threaded needle, insert it under the vertical bar and pull it through, creating a running stitch.

You can also use the wrap-around stitch. Take your needle, go back through the same space and wrap it around that same vertical bar. Don’t pull it too tight or it will pucker. But at the same time you don’t want the yarn to hang too loosely. The most important thing is to be consistent with your wrapping. I wrapped the second stitch underneath the first stitch. If you wrap the second loop above the first stitch, make sure you continue to work in that way across the row.

But you’re not limited just to working over the basic Afghan or Tunisian Stitch. I also have a sample using the waffle stitch. (If you need to know how to make the waffle stitch, I have a video showing the waffle stitch. Video: Simple & Sensational™ – Afghan or Tunisian Crochet Waffle Stitch.)

What you’ll notice about the waffle stitch is it has two vertical bars. There’s a prominent forward bar and a not-so-prominent back bar. In this design I’m running the yarn under the prominent bar. My favorite is the zigzag design, using the running stitch in yarns of dark green, medium green and pink. Of course, you could add more and more rows or you could actually reverse the design, creating a diamond pattern.

Next I worked the wrap-around stitch, wrapping it around both loops for a different look. I wrapped the yarn around four stitches in one row. Then I moved up one row above and wrapped the yarn around two stitches in that row. I returned to the first row and repeated the design.

This weaving technique gives you lots of options and is a great addition to your how-to-decorate a-crochet-project repertoire.