Beginning Tunisian Crochet with Me

I decided to try something new; Tunisian crochet. For those of you who are not familiar with this technique, it is basically as if knitting and crochet met one day, fell madly in love, got married, & had a beautiful baby. That baby would be Tunisian crochet. Tunisian crochet, also known as Afghan crochet, is a combination of knitting and crochet. In Tunisian, one uses a long crochet hook to make stitches that are similar to stitches found in knitting.
Now, for your information, I have not yet attempted this lovely art. I have merely purchased some materials in hopes of learning the craft & I plan on posting about what I have learned in the future. I discovered Tunisian crochet about two years ago on-line and thought that the stitches were so beautiful that I wrote a short post with some photos of Tunisian crochet swatches I liked. That is now my most viewed post on my blog. I have wanted to learn Tunisian for years now and realized that there are many people on the web wanting to learn the same. So I thought I should write about what I learn as I learn it  in hopes of teaching anyone interested about my new skills (well, that is my hope :-/). I plan on posting every Tuesday for the next few weeks about my Tunisian crochet shenanigans (Tunisian Tuesdays!).
 Last Friday I headed to my local Hobby Lobby & picked up a few things.

Hobby Lobby's I Love This Yarn in the colors glacier & antique white. & a 5 mm double-end crochet hook
by Susan Bates

Molly had to check out my stash 

Now, I have see that most people do use a afghan hook (a long crochet hook with a stopper on the end) apposed to the double ended hook I purchased. I don't know why I purchased the double ended hook instead of the afghan hook. When I was shopping at Hobby Lobby, I heard over the intercom that the store was closing in 15 minutes, so I panicked and went with the double end. I know that I heard that you can use this for Tunisian crochet. But I did realize on Saturday morning after watching a Youtube video about Tunisian, that instead of going back and forth with your stitches like in "traditional" crochet, one works only on one side without turning your work. An afghan hook would have a stopper on the one end and would help me know which is the right side to work on. (First Tunisian fail). But if need be, I will use a stitch marker to help me know which is the the beginning of my work. Another thing I learned AFTER I went shopping was that some people recommend using a larger Tunisian crochet hook for your yarn than that is recommend on the packaging for a "regular" crochet hook. Example if the yarn instructions call for a 5 mm crochet hook, you should go up 3 mm in a Tunisian crochet hook. I didn't do this (second fail, maybe). What was said is that smaller hooks can cause major rolling in your Tunisian crochet work. I am going to try a project first with my 5 mm hook and see how I do before I go pick up a new hook. *sigh* Learning experience, people; it builds character.  
Any who, I will let you know how my first attempted at Tunisian goes next Tuesday!
Are there any readers that have experience with Tunisian crochet? I would live to hear any of your advice & or tips.
God bless!
hannaH