Getting Started with Tapestry Crochet | Podcast Episode #115

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Take your skills up a notch with tapestry crochet

Have you ever seen a project with words magically incorporated into the stitches? Or maybe what looked like a photograph from a distance but was actually a crochet blanket? If so, you have seen the beauty of tapestry crochet.

Special Guest

In this episode of The BHooked Podcast, I’m joined by Amber, from the blog Divine Debris, an up-and-coming crochet designer and all-round tapestry crochet fanatic. You’ll learn the fundamentals of tapestry crochet and how you can incorporate it in your next project. You’ll even hear some tips for designing tapestry crochet patterns.

Episode Transcript

Brittany: 0:00
You’re listening to The BHooked Podcast, episode 115, with Brittany. Hello there and welcome to episode 115 of the B Hooked podcast. Thank you so much for joining me today. If you’re brand new to the show, my name is Brittany and I strive to be your guide to better crochet. And I get to do that by interviewing really amazing people who are very, very talented in crochet and knitting.

So my question for you today is when was the last time you saw writing on crochet? Now, I think it was just today I saw a pillow that had the words home spelled out on it. If you’ve ever seen that and you thought, man, I really wish I could do something like that, this is the episode for you.

Now I’m joined by Amber from the website Divine Debris. She is a designer and a real true advocate for tapestry crochet. And she’s sharing her wisdom about how you can get started with tapestry crochet.

Now we do take the conversation in two different directions. I want to speak to the designers out there who are just really interested in trying their first tapestry crochet design. So she speaks to that. She’s got a lot of experience with writing tapestry crochet patterns, but we do spend quite a bit of time on teaching somebody brand new who has never heard of tapestry crochet or never tried it before. She gives a lot of really actionable tips and strategies.

Tapestry is pretty basic and she does a great job of explaining exactly what it is, but there are lots of little quirks to this form of crochet that from the outside might look a little scary but once you get in it you find that those are the things that make it so much fun.

Before we get into my chat with Amber from Divine Debris, I want to let you know that the show notes page is available at behooked.com slash 115. Now that’s a really great place, of course, for you to listen to the episode. You can share the episode from that page, but it’s also your space for community and to ask questions, maybe connect with other people who are going through the same thing that you are.

Maybe they’re brand new to tapestry crochet and they’re looking for a little support. Well, that comment section is there for you, and I hope you’ll use it to connect with other listeners of the show.

All right, now, this is a good one, I promise. I really love episodes where we talk about different forms of crochet. So if you’ve heard of tapestry crochet before, you kind of already got an idea of what it is. There are still a—I mentioned Amber shares some of her tips about how she sort of works with the quirks of tapestry crochet rather than having them work against her in a design.

But if you have no clue what it is, this is the episode for you because you’ll hear exactly what goes into following a tapestry crochet pattern, some things that you might want to know beforehand.

So let’s just dive into it, shall we? Here we go with Amber from Divine Debris. Amber, hey there. Welcome to the show.

Amber: 4:01
Hi. I am excited to be here.

Brittany: 4:03
Well, I am equally as excited to talk to you, especially about a topic that we haven’t discussed here before. So you are the first, my friend, to talk about tapestry crochet here on the podcast.

Amber: 4:08
Wow, that’s so exciting. I’ve started seeing so many people do the technique like on Instagram and stuff. I’m a little surprised I’m the first.

Brittany: 4:08
I know. I know. It’s such a really versatile technique, form of crochet. You can do so much with it. I think the first time I saw tapestry crochet was actually a Yarnspirations pattern of like a, I think it was some sort of like cotton basket sort of like bag. And it had little triangles. I’ll link to it in the show notes in case anybody’s curious.

But that was the first time I saw what you could do with color and crochet. And my mind was just totally blown. And now there are so many creative people out there who are using it to write things, like actually create writing or text on their projects. And I’ve seen you do that, that you can create pictures. And I’m just so excited to dive into this because I think if somebody hasn’t tried this, they’ve got to try it at least once.

Amber: 5:03
Oh, yeah. I hope people try it at least once. It’s so much fun, in my opinion.

Brittany: 5:08
It is, and it’s a little bit addictive.

Amber: 5:11
Oh, it so is.

Brittany: 5:12
Totally. Well, before we get into all of that stuff, this is sort of my favorite part of this show. I love learning people’s backstory and how they learned how to crochet and maybe who taught them. So where did it all start for you?

Amber: 5:26
I started as a little kid. My mom taught me to crochet at like seven or eight and I actually can still remember the skein of yarn she bought me. It was Red Heart Super Saver. It was like white, purple, and green. Like a beautiful variegated skein of yarn and I don’t even think I got a quarter of the way through it before I got bored.

Yeah absolutely gave up like I was super excited and then gave up but she taught me the basics like I had a good foundation on how to hold the hook how to like the tension chain so I picked it back up when I was in my 20s when I was working at a craft store and I fell in love again like it just I’ve been done ever since. I’ve been doing it for years now. I can’t even remember.

Brittany: 6:17
Well, you’ve been doing, I’ve seen you around for a while, so that’s pretty cool. I mean, you’ve been sort of in the space and sharing your work on Instagram and that sort of thing for a while. When did you start learning about tapestry or when did you try your first project?

Amber: 6:34
Just a few years ago. I came across, I think it was Just Be Happy crochet. Oh yeah. She, Alessandra, has beautiful tapestry designs and I think I came across a photo for like one of her beautiful blankets and I was just blown away by her color work and how she was able to just create this amazing piece and it was just single crochet. Like it blew me away so I tried it out. I started googling just tapestry crochet. I came across some really great videos by Mowgli, and I dove right in. I just started trying it out myself, and yeah, it was immediately love at first stitch, I suppose.

Brittany: 7:20
Totally. Well, did you find that it was success at first stitch? Because I feel like that’s the hiccup for a lot of people getting into something. They’re sort of afraid to do it because they don’t want to fail.

Amber: 7:30
Yes. Oh, man. That’s me as well. Through and through, afraid to fail, but… I already had a pretty good foundation as far as designing. This was only in 2015 when I started doing tapestry. I had a little bit of wiggle room and I just started small. I didn’t go for a big blanket straight out of the gate. I did a little cup koozie or something that had a little bit of color work to it. I have some pineapples. Like I have a cup cozy that has pineapples on it. Like it’s very simple. It’s only a couple of color changes in the row, like nothing really fancy. But it was enough that it was still fun without being stressful that I miscounted or anything.

Brittany: 8:16
Yeah. Yeah. Well, we’ve sort of alluded to this a little bit, but just right here at the start of What is tapestry crochet? If somebody has never heard of it, they’re having a hard time visualizing it, how would you describe it? Obviously, we’ll have some photos on the show notes page, and they can go to your Instagram account and see a lot of different ideas that you can use this technique for. But in simple words, what is tapestry crochet?

Amber: 8:41
It is color work. It’s basically changing colors in a row or within the pattern to create an interesting pattern, motif or repetition kind of style. And a lot of things actually exist. Like people, I know myself, I usually, probably a little bit of a faux pas, but I use some tapestry as a stand-in for a couple different techniques, like Fair Isle or Intarsia.

Intarsia? I think I may have said that—

Brittany: 9:12
one. Yeah, I say, I don’t know, honestly. I feel like everybody’s accent is a little bit different. I say Intarsia, but I don’t know that that’s right.

Amber: 9:20
It sounds good to me, so I will say intarsia. But they all do differ a little bit between tapestry, fair isle, and intarsia, as far as how you carry the yarn. In tapestry, you’re supposed to carry the yarn behind the stitch, whereas fair isle, you have your floats, and then intarsia, you use bobbins to be able to help separate the yarn out.

But overall, it’s all kind of just one method for color change. So that you can have just like beautiful designs within your overall piece.

Brittany: 9:55
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. So it’s a form of color work crochet. And basically what you do with that non-working strand is really what makes tapestry tapestry. Because like you said, you’re working over it.

Amber: 10:09
Yep, exactly. That’s the biggest difference. And I myself kind of use like… a mishmash of all of the techniques, depending upon what kind of effect I want to have in my finished piece.

Brittany: 10:21
Yeah.

Amber: 10:22
But I kind of still call it all tapestry.

Brittany: 10:24
Right, right. Now, I think there is one characteristic that tapestry has that some people see as a really cool aspect of it, but sometimes it’s not so great, too. And that’s because you’re working over the stitches. You can see that non-working strand off under it. Talk a little bit about that. Do you find that it’s like something you try to avoid or is it something you incorporate into the project as well?

Amber: 10:52
Well, that’s actually one of the fun things about tapestry is you can kind of go back and forth with that because your carried yarn can give a different dimension to your project if you do want to see it peek through.

A lot of times for me, I don’t. So I like to make sure that my hook and my yarn have a great, like the combination helps to create a really good tight fabric in my finished piece. And that’ll help to hide the carried yarn, like a little bit back behind the stitch rather than like on top of the stitch.

That’s a big difference is you want to make sure it’s behind the previous row as opposed to like carrying it along so it’s sitting on top of the previous row. And yeah, and if you’ve got a nice small, like I use a lot of really good worsted weight when I’m working, like the Yarnspirations, like a Karen one pound kind of yarn.

So you’ve got that nice dense yarn to it. And then a G hook so that it just keeps it nice and tight. And for me, especially when I’m doing like home decor items, like a basket or something, that helps to make it even more stable. So you don’t even have to put anything in there to keep your basket from sagging on the sides.

Yeah, it’s nice and dense as far as like just how you’re finished fabric. But one of the best things, especially if you’re working in the back loop or in the round, back loop only will help hide the carried yarn as well. Like that’s one of those tips that a lot of people, because I do get questions about how do you keep it from peeking through or how do you make sure it’s clean.

And it’s stitch and yarn combo and then, or your yarn and hook combo and then making sure back loop only if you’re working in the round. It is totally game changer and then adds that nice little bit of extra texture that you get from working in the back loop only.

Brittany: 12:42
Yeah, those are really great tips and I like where this conversation is going. I feel like we can separate it into like two main categories. Those people who are interested in creating tapestry designs and those who are just like who have never heard of it before and want to get started with it.

So we’ve mentioned some tips for designers. Let’s kind of roll with that and then we’ll sort of transition into like what might be good projects for brand new beginners who just want to create a piece.

Now I’m thinking of some other questions that I have seen as far as tapestry crochet goes and designing and another big element to it is working off of a color chart. Do you have any tips or advice on creating a color chart? So we’re talking to the designers here. Is there a particular program or an app or do you just draw it out?

Amber: 13:36
Honestly, I do kind of a combination of all three because you can use just like your graph paper from high school type of thing and start coloring it in and kind of go from there. Or I actually use my… Google Docs. I just create a graph in there and kind of color it in and just play with the design that way.

Or you can use, there’s a website called Stitch Fiddle, and that you can make very, very big, very big graphs. And that’s for when you’re looking at a very large project. But all three of those are like, basically just start drawing. Start trying to create a design from that. And that’s where I start personally, is I start to play around with colors just in the little graph somewhere.

Brittany: 14:23
Yeah, I learned about Stitch Fiddle for the first time. It’s been less than a year ago. I spoke to Jess from Make and Do Crew about corner-to-corner crochet, and she mentioned Stitch Fiddle, and I had no idea what she was talking about. And to my surprise, it’s a completely free software to use. Now, there are upgrades that you can purchase, but you can create a really basic graph just for free. And save it and do all these things with it. It’s a really, really great software.

Amber: 14:53
Oh, yeah. And you can actually even upload photos, too. I know a lot of people, especially if you’re doing a large project, like the corner-to-corner, you can upload a photo and try to mess with the colors a little bit so that you can still see what it is, but maybe make it a little less complicated than the original photo has.

Yeah, I love Stitch Fiddle. I have quite a few graphs of mine saved on there. I have very large projects, some small little ones with just random little… I have a large graph with random little shapes and stuff trying to figure out sizing for things.

Brittany: 15:29
Uh-huh. Well, that’s really cool. Okay, so tips for designers… try using either Stitch Fiddle or Google Sheets or just graph paper and some colored pencils to sort of map out the designs. Where does it go from there? I would guess that you’re probably similar to myself. I usually go there first if I’m designing something in tapestry because I really need to see it, not necessarily on paper because I’m usually doing it online on Stitch Fiddle, but… I sort of need to see it before I start making it. So what’s the next step for you?

Amber: 16:04
I’m exactly the same way. I have to see it. I’ve got the image in my head. I need to put it on paper or on my computer. And then I go for it. I get my yarn. I have a pretty good base, like I was saying earlier, about having a worsted weight yarn and my G hook. And I start playing around with colors and seeing what works and try to… I can figure out the spacing because there is a little bit of a difference between what it looks like on the paper than it does in the actual finished project.

So I have to kind of, you know, go back and forth and figure out, oh, this row looks a little bit weird in the yarn, whereas it totally looked fine on the paper and just kind of adjust from there, like in real time as I’m working the design.

Brittany: 16:52
Yeah. So what are some of those differences that you’ve seen? in the project versus what you see in your graph?

Amber: 17:02
It looks smoother a lot of times on the graph. It’s almost weird to say, because I don’t know if the listeners will understand the old Mario video games, like that 8-bit style, and how it’s a little bit clunkier than if you’re doing a nice, pretty design.

It’s a little hard to… you have to like see it. I can see it in my head. I just can’t find the words to say, but it just kind of shifts from looking like an image to kind of just the stitches when they kind of get out of my shape or got of shape and like blocking will help that immensely.

But sometimes like it just doesn’t quite look like the image you’re looking for. I was working on a coffee cup with like spilled coffee for one of my projects and it didn’t look like the coffee cup that I wanted. Like in the picture on my computer, totally looked like a coffee cup. But in the finished piece, it looked a little bit weird. Like it just didn’t, it looked like a very large bowl rather than a coffee cup.

So I had to go back and like frog a few rows and thin it out a little bit. So it looked more like a nice tall coffee cup instead of a large bowl with a handle, like a soup bowl or something.

Brittany: 18:18
Yeah. I like to explain it this way. When you’re doing straight rows, like straight up and down or straight side to side, like horizontal or vertical, it’s a pretty smooth process. ish line. It’s smoother, I would say.

But when you have like any sort of diagonal, that’s when you get like a step approach. It almost looks like a staircase.

Amber: 18:41
Yeah, that’s actually, that’s a perfect point. Yeah. Anytime you’re trying to do diagonals, one side will look clean, but the other will like look very much more pixelated, like the step approach. Like you said, perfect way to say that.

Brittany: 18:54
It’s almost, well, it really is the way the Stitches are sort of aligning with one another. And you notice a big difference too in working in the round. Have you experienced that where because you’re working in a spiral, you’re not joining. So as you’re working around and around, if you can visualize the jog that you have at any given moment, basically where the row that you’re working on or the stitch that you just made is a step higher than where your next stitch is, that sort of like creates a spiral effect.

And you don’t see it as much when you’re working with a single color, but when you’re working with multiple colors or you have changes within, then you can sort of see that spiraling effect and it almost has a lean to it.

Amber: 19:43
Yes, definitely. And that’s one of the reasons why I’m a big advocate of the back loop only when you are working in the round is it just slightly helps that lean just a little bit because you do it like the stitches don’t go straight up and down. So they’re just a little bit off to the side.

And that’s another kind of changing of the design on the fly as you’re working it up to try to limit how much that lean goes or go with it if that’s what you want your finished project to look like.

Brittany: 20:12
Yeah, I’ve never tried that before. I’ll have to give that a try and see. and just compare. I always like to do a side-by-side comparison to see the difference, and that’s an interesting tip.

So the last thing I want to touch on for designers before we sort of go in the other direction with it is about writing the pattern, like the written instructions. Is this something that you typically do? Is it something that’s typically required to follow a tapestry crochet pattern, or are you just working off of a chart?

Amber: 20:42
For me, when I’m doing it, I just work off of my graph, but I always write it out. It’s very simple, like shorthand. I tell what color it is and how many stitches you’re making, especially because most of my designs are in single crochet. So you already know what stitch you’re making. You just need to know how many of the color you’re doing.

And so I just do row one, three in color A, four in color B, and then so on and so forth. I know a lot of people kind of go back and forth. It’s almost like one of those preference things. If you like to work off graphs or if you would rather have it written out so that you don’t have to sit and count everyone, which is why I like to write it out.

I hate having to sit and count the little boxes to make sure that I got, especially when you’re doing a big project and you’ve got 27 little boxes you’ve got to count. Oh, yeah. So much easier than, so much easier just write 27 or to read 27.

Brittany: 21:40
Exactly. Now, I think that’s a really good segue into somebody who wants to try tapestry for the first time. I like that you write the instructions out too. Let’s say somebody is purchasing a book that has tapestry crochet patterns in it or a magazine or something like that. Are they going to see something similar or what can they expect to read a tapestry crochet pattern?

Amber: 22:05
Um as far as in books I think it’s pretty much it’s very similar like shorthand they probably also have the graph so that it depending upon your process you can work from either one I know within a lot of or from a lot of other designers it’s a very similar like they write it out I do know people that just have the graphs on their blogs it’s kind of, I don’t know if there’s quite a standard for it just yet.

I don’t know if enough designers are working in tapestry that we have like an overall industry standard for the way to write out your tapestry designs.

Brittany: 22:41
Gotcha. So definitely being comfortable reading color charts is really like your number one skill if you’re getting into tapestry for the first time. And that can scare a lot of people. There are so many people who just They hate graphs. They hate charts. They don’t get them. They much rather stick to words and reading and that sort of thing. But I feel like color charts get a bad rap because it’s not the same as a crochet diagram. So can you explain just how simple it is to read a color chart?

Amber: 23:16
You just start. You have your graph, whatever the designer put together. And then you have your key telling you what colors signify like color A, color B, so you can adjust from there.

And it really is as simple as just counting little squares. Like it’s so very, like I know a lot of crochet diagrams, like you’ve got the different stitches and you have to figure out how they work in together. Whereas with graphs, it’s really what you see is what you get. So it’s very much a lot easier. Exactly.

Brittany: 23:48
And one block equals one stitch. I like that approach too. Now, here’s the big question I see. What about lefties? Is there a difference in the color diagram? Should they start from a different side? Or how do you explain that to people who are following your patterns?

Amber: 24:06
I do say like a lot of times you can just go for it, especially with some of my simpler ones, like I said earlier, like pineapple. It’s completely symmetrical. If you work it left to right, right to left, it will still look the same. It’ll still be very easy to recognize a pineapple.

With words, it is a little bit harder. But if you’re working on a piece that’s supposed to be seen from both sides, you just flip it. Especially when you’re carrying with tapestry and you carry the yarn all the way across. If it’s supposed to be two-sided, as long as you keep your yarn clean on the side that… would be the wrong side for you if you were lefty, it’ll still look clean for you. If that makes sense. Like the way—you just flip it over. And it’ll still have a nice clean side.

Easy to recognize words. And that’s actually one of the benefits about tapestry versus like if you’re using floats for fair isle. It just, you don’t have that on the right side if you were working as a right-handed crocheter versus left, because the right side will be different, if that makes sense. I’m trying to visualize it and talk about it at the same time, and I’m making my brain confused.

Brittany: 25:23
Right, right. I know. I sort of fall into that trap, too, when I get questions from left-handed crocheters. You really do have to think about it. I admire left-handed crocheters, because just the thought of having to do everything in reverse, it makes my head spin a little bit. So yeah. Yeah.

Amber: 26:03
In my opinion, it should tell them which side will be your right side. If row two is going to be your right side, then you work it from right to left as you would or left to right. I’d like to think it would include that information. That would be the best, the optimal for me.

Brittany: 26:23
I agree. I agree. I’ve seen in some color charts where the rows are numbered. So you might see on the right side, and I’m speaking to right-handed crocheters just because that’s how my brain works. But on the right side, because that’s where you start, you’ll see one and then the next row will be blank. And then you’ll see three and the next row will be blank and you’ll see five. So it’s basically all odd numbers going up on the right side and all even numbers going up on the left side. And that’s because you’re flipping.

So when you start with row one on the right side for right-handed crocheters, you work to the end or to the left of that project, and then you flip the project, go up, and work that second row from left to right technically as you’re flipping the project. Is that something that you’ve seen before?

Amber: 27:14
Yes, definitely. I’m kind of a wordy designer, so I would spell it out in the notes to let people know that’s what that signifies. But yeah, as far as the numbering being on both sides of the graph to be able to help you follow along right to left usually. Again, I’m also a right-handed crocheter, so that’s just how my brain also goes.

Brittany: 27:37
I know, I know. I really wish that I could do both. And some people think that I can because of a little camera trick that I use when I create left-handed videos. And I have tried to crochet with my left hand, and I feel completely lost. It’s hysterical. And a funny story… My husband is left-handed and I tried to teach—well, he’s left-handed, but he plays sports right-handed, but writes left-handed. So he felt more natural to hold onto the hook with his left hand, but I could not teach him how to do it left-handed. I tried and tried, but it’s just so weird to do things in reverse.

And that’s why I have so much respect for left-handed crocheters, but not to get too off track with that. So diving into a pattern for the first time, we understand that charts are pretty important. There will be sort of that fallback of having written words. Let’s talk a little bit about the scope of it because there are so many things that you can do with tapestry crochet. I really just want to put that in perspective a little bit. So somebody who’s interested in possibly trying it for the first time, they don’t feel like they have to make a certain type of project. So what are some of the things that you’ve created with tapestry crochet?

Amber: 29:01
I have done… as much as I can. I was saying earlier, I love home decor for tapestry because you can have those beautiful triangles on your pillows. You could write fun words on things. I’ve done baskets because you carry that yarn. It creates that great dense fabric. And so it helps to give a lot of like… it just makes your basket very formidable. It’s just nice and tough. You can stuff it until it just won’t hold anything else. I love to do that. Personally, you don’t have to stuff your baskets, but I have done that.

I recently started trying to make garments and just some very simple color work where you have one color change in the row. Honestly, it is so much fun because you can just do so much with just one color change in a row. You don’t have to get super fancy, but you can pretty much do anything.

I was working with Love Across the USA recently. They make massive squares and then they secure them all together to create this beautiful image. For example, I know she’s done Nina Simone, but basically you can do massive public projects or even just small tiny coasters. There really is the scope of the technique is as big as you can imagine it.

Brittany: 30:25
Yeah. So anything you can do with like one color crochet, you can do with tapestry and incorporate some kind of photo or image or design or anything for that matter. Oh,

Amber: 30:37
Yeah, absolutely. Like I honestly, whatever you can imagine, as long as you have the time to sit down and do it, you can make it in tapestry. It is just very versatile.

Brittany: 30:48
Yeah. Now, one thing I want to cover because I feel like it could also be a sort of roadblock for somebody just starting with their first project is the fact that they’re using multiple colors. So do you find that it’s really difficult to work with, say, two or three colors of yarn as you’re doing tapestry? And what tips do you have to sort of let somebody know that it’s probably not quite as difficult as they would think, especially for tapestry versus those other methods we talked about like intarsia or what was the other—

Amber: 31:22
One? Fair isle. Fair isle, right. Tapestry, because you do carry the yarn, I am not a huge fan of doing like four or five different colors because then it gets really bulky. So I like, especially with a little more introductory projects, I like to keep it to one or two colors so it’s a little bit easier.

But it is very scary at first because you have these images of just yarn all over the place. It’s all mixed up and crisscrossed and you’re just, you know, stuck in this spider web of yarn. And honestly, it’s not nearly as scary. It’s more about having the space for the yarn as you’re working.

I know I like to work on the couch, but sometimes with bigger projects, I have to sit on the floor and have my yarn spaced out so I can clearly see as I’m working back and forth on rows or in the round what yarn I’m using. And that’s always what I tell people. I’m like, try to keep your yarn in one spot. And, like, change colors and try to keep the active yarn and the inactive yarn in the same position. That way you can kind of mitigate the tangling. It’s one of the, like, it’s hard to explain.

Brittany: 32:38
Yeah.

Amber: 32:39
I can visualize it. But once you start doing it, it makes a lot of sense. Like, you just kind of, sometimes you’ll get, like, a little twist in the back on your wrong side of your piece of your yarn. Like the inactive versus the active, a little bit of twist, but as long as you try to keep them separated, it will not get as tangled as that big scary project idea.

Brittany: 33:01
Right. Now, do you do anything different when you flip the project? Do you sort of rearrange those, or do you keep them in their same position all the time?

Amber: 33:11
It kind of depends on how far I went to the edge with the inactive versus active, and whether or not they did get tangles. Because sometimes, yeah, you have to get up and you have to untangle them. Unfortunately, that is just what happens sometimes.

But sometimes you do have to just untangle it. I try not to if it is a simple project. If I’m only working in a couple colors, I might be able to get away with just like a little extra twist at one point in the row when I’m working back across. Or again, if it’s small, I’ll deal with that twist until I can flip the piece back over.

Brittany: 33:50
And too, it’s probably a good idea to sort of learn how to untangle. And I’m using air quotes there again because I don’t think I’ve ever really had a project where it got like tangled in knots. It’s really just twisting because… When you have to put your project away, like let’s be honest, there’s a lot of times that we just can’t like sit down, start a project and finish it in one sitting. So we have to put it in a project bag and when you take it back out, most likely those project skeins maybe got twisted and you sort of have to untwist them as you start. So it’s really just about untwisting them, right? And trying to visualize what color you have in each position. That way you can get the yarn in that position every time you work. Is that sort of what you’re saying?

Amber: 34:39
Yes, definitely. Thank you. Much better than I said it, but I, yeah, you just, it isn’t even really untwisting. You just kind of like reposition the yarn so that they’re in the same, like, you know, color A, color B, what have you. Yeah. And especially after you pull it out of your project bag and you have to like remember which order you had it in before.

Brittany: 34:59
Yeah. And let’s be honest too, it’s not the end of the world if it’s not in the exact position, right? I feel like I don’t always have a great memory when it comes to that sort of thing. I’m thinking of a fair tapestry project that I made a couple months ago. I did an argyle hat and I was actually working with three colors there. So remembering what order those three were in all the time, realistically didn’t totally happen. But if there was one twist in like two strands that I was using, you can really hide that under the stitch. I didn’t really see an effect from having a single twist. Now, obviously it wasn’t, you know, twisted into one strand of yarn, but it wasn’t a big, huge deal for me. I didn’t feel like, is that something that you’ve experienced too?

Amber: 35:48
Oh, yeah. Because of the carried yarn and the active-inactive, you can hide some imperfections behind it on the wrong side very easily. It’s the kind of… I’m trying to give the advice for people trying to start out. You give the good advice, but when you’re doing your own project, sometimes you let things slide that you wouldn’t want other people to see.

Brittany: 36:11
Yeah.

Amber: 36:13
You’re like, I’ll do that because I’m working on it, but… You want to explain to people the right way so it’s nice and clean, so they have optimal results. But if you’re at home and there’s a twist in there, it’s okay. You just cover it. Once you get your next row on there, you won’t even notice.

Brittany: 36:30
Yeah, yeah. I just like to sort of put that in there because that’s what we want to do. We want to do everything perfect and right. And at the end of the day, if it looks good… then it’s perfect and right. It doesn’t really matter how you got there. So I like to give people a little bit more flexibility so they don’t feel like, oh, I can’t do that because I’m not perfect.

Amber: 36:54
Oh, yeah. Heavens no. Yarn and crochet is all about making knots anyway. So have fun with it. Get messy. Just go for it. You try for perfection, but if you do something a little bit more interesting, better.

Brittany: 37:13
Yeah, and it might look even better than if you tried to do it perfect. So I think that’s the wonderful thing about our craft. But the other topic I wanted to touch on is with colors. Now, a lot of times for somebody following a pattern, it’s going to recommend some colors, but sometimes we want to do our own thing and we want our own color palette. Do you have any advice for how to change colors? Is there… guidelines to follow like do we need to think about contrast or complementary colors or is there is there anything that you sort of have as a rule of thumb when you’re pairing colors for tapestry crochet?

Amber: 37:54
Yeah, you want to make sure your piece is readable so you want—you don’t want things that are too close in shades or too close like that are hard to see when you’re looking at it, if that makes sense. Like I, I like to make sure the colors pop. So you get that nice, like crisp look to your piece. But again, it depends on what you want. So you can still do like all neutrals, all tans and still get a very gorgeous design. It just might not photograph very well, but in person it looks great.

I know there’s a lot of like color generators online. You can go and look up what complementary colors look like together. But honestly, nothing beats when you get sit down and you start working with your yarn and you see how the design works up with it.

Brittany: 38:40
Yeah. Do you have any advice for figuring out what it’s going to look like before you put a lot of effort into it? Or do you really just have to get in there and see as you go along?

Amber: 38:53
You could—I like to sit and like look at the yarn and kind of like open one eye versus the other and try to figure out how it looks next to each other or photograph it—like get out your cell phone and take a picture to see if they’re too close in like shade or in like hue or something so that you can see how it looks too.

Yeah. Honestly, I’m one of those learn from my mistakes type of people, so I go for it. I go straight in and start working. I have many frogged projects to prove. Is it always the best way to go for it? But that’s how I learn, honestly. I have to do it myself.

Brittany: 39:30
Yeah. As a designer, I do that too. I really just like to get in the trenches and see if it works first. But as a follower of a pattern, I feel like… I have to be honest, I don’t really follow a whole lot of patterns just because I spend my time creating them. That’s sort of where my happy place is. But I can see where somebody would find a great project that they want to work. Do you have any tips as far as that goes? Could they maybe work up a swatch first? Like would you sort of get the same effect? Like let’s say if you just worked a simple striped swatch where you had your two colors alternating just to kind of see how they lay next to one another when the stitches are worked up. Is that an option or is there maybe something else that somebody could try and like work something up?

Amber: 40:21
No, that’s perfect. Doing a small project and just do something small like a 10 by 10 square. Like you would do as if you were making your gauge swatch and just change the colors within the little swatch it would be perfect. Yeah, that’s much better than my technique of just going for it.

Brittany: 40:38
And mine too. I definitely have spent a lot of time frogging but sometimes it works and that’s the best-case scenario—it’s just not always what happens.

Amber: 40:48
Yes, yes.

Brittany: 40:49
Well now, are there any resources that you used when you were learning this technique that might be helpful for somebody who’s also trying to learn?

Amber: 40:58
Yeah, like I said earlier, Moogly—her videos are amazingly helpful because she does the like from your perspective look down at her hands and you can see how you’re supposed to change the color. She’s showing you how to carry the yarn behind the stitch and kind of like you have to learn how to hold your carried yarn in your offhand as well as like your active yarn.

Like there’s a lot of holding that goes on with your left hand if you’re a right-handed crocheter—that kind of you have to learn how to do when you’re working tapestry. And yeah, she does a really good job kind of showing you how to do that. And that’s what got me into it. Like I still refer to her videos all the time. I send people to them because that’s what worked for me. And honestly, I love being able to pause it to see what I’m doing versus what she’s doing so that I can figure out why mine is looking the way it is.

Brittany: 41:59
Well, I have to get the link from you on that one. Is it one specific video or does she have a collection?

Amber: 42:04
I think she has a couple—like doing it in the round versus working rows back and forth. And I definitely have a couple of those links. But that’s one of my favorite ones as far as like just very easy to follow for even the most beginner beginner. Like if you can do a single crochet, the videos will be absolutely easy for you to follow.

Brittany: 42:26
Perfect. Okay, I will link to that in the show notes as well. Now, lastly, what about a pattern? Is there a good beginner pattern that you like to recommend?

Amber: 42:35
This is where I will plug my patterns on my blog. I have a few different ones that are actually very simple depending upon what you want to dig into. I’ve got things like a coffee cup coaster that’s only a couple stitches across or even like a wine glass coaster. And they’re just very simple, couple colors in the row, like two, maybe three tops in the row, like not a lot of color change.

Or I have my Afghan square project that I’ve been working on last year, and then I’ve got a new one this year. And those are only like 30 stitches across, and it’s very simple to dive into. And I started doing this to try to get people interested in tapestry, where you have, like, instead of a very large project, you just have one square 30 stitches across, 28 rows high.

And it’s a very easy project. You can work on it over the course of a day, a couple days, whatever. And it’ll just get you used to the technique of holding the yarn, of carrying the yarn, of your tension, keeping that consistent throughout your project. And if you are out… the time it takes and you find you don’t like, you know, your square, it wasn’t a massive undertaking. Like it wasn’t a lot of work.

Brittany: 43:59
Yeah. You didn’t spend a lot of time or yarn invested in that. So awesome. Well, I will have that linked in the show notes as well. I really want people to have a good place to go, a good found, you know, they’ve got the foundation here. Now they sort of need to know where to go to get started. So yeah, I will link to the beginner-friendly patterns as well as Tamara’s videos on how to get started.

Now, as we wrap up, I would just love to give people the opportunity to connect with you online, especially to see your work. I mean, you’ve got a lot of great, amazing patterns. So where is the best place for someone to come and find you online?

Amber: 44:36
Well, I have my own website. It’s divinedebris.com. But you can also find me on Instagram at Divine Debris or on Facebook on Divine Debris Designs.

Brittany: 44:47
Gotcha. Okay. Now, where’s your favorite place to hang out? Is it Instagram?

Amber: 44:52
Yes. I’m on there all the time—probably too much. I don’t like that little that they can tell you how much time you’ve spent on Instagram thing—I don’t like that so much—but I’m on there all the time.

Brittany: 45:02
I haven’t visited that and I probably shouldn’t. I spend a lot of time on there as well. I really do enjoy it. But, well, it has been such a joy chatting with you and I’m so happy that I had somebody who is as knowledgeable on tapestry as you are to be able to, you know, maybe spark a new passion for somebody or help somebody who is a designer and they’re really looking to do something different and be a little bit creative. I feel like tapestry is the perfect outlet for both of those, so thank you.

Amber: 45:32
Yeah, no thank you for having me. I really hope people are interested in this technique. It is so much fun. There’s so much you can do with it and the images you can create. I like to call it like painting with yarn because you can just make these amazing projects out of just a few colors and a single crochet. It’s amazing.

Brittany: 45:53
Well, there you have it. That is such a beautiful image there. Tapestry crochet is just like painting with yarn. If you are a really creative person, your mind is probably exploding right now with different possibilities. And if you’re looking to incorporate more creativity into your projects, tapestry is a really great option to try.

So once again, I will have those resources she mentioned in the show notes page, those two videos from Tamara from Moogly and her YouTube channel, as well as some of those beginner-friendly patterns that Amber has available on her website for completely free, by the way. So head over to the show notes page for all of that information, behooked.com slash 115.

Also, let’s just say a big thanks to Amber for sharing this topic today, for shedding some light on a really great crochet technique. You can find her on Instagram at Divine Debris or of course over on her website at divinedebris.com.

Alright, now that’ll wrap up another episode of the Be Hooked podcast. Thank you so much for joining me today. I just hope that you are inspired to try tapestry crochet. It’s not something I do all the time, but it’s definitely something I come back to when I want to do something a little bit different and a lot unique.

So check out the show notes page, bhooked.com/115 for all of those resources on how you can get started as a true beginner or as a beginner tapestry designer.

Now, one last thing before you go, if you haven’t subscribed to the show already, I would be so grateful if you would do that. Just go ahead and hit the subscribe button on whatever podcast player you’re listening to. That way we can hang out week after week and you can continue hearing from amazing guests of the show.

By the way, if you have a suggestion for a topic or a guest, you can always email that to me. My email address is Brittany at BHookedCrochet.com and I am all ears. My job is to serve you. So if you have an idea, send it my way, my friend. I would love to try and get that on the schedule for you.

Okay, now have a wonderful weekend. I’ll see you next week. Bye-bye.