Tunisian Crochet

So I was looking at a blog one day on making crocodile stitches for a hat and/or scarf (I have made both for 2 different people now, and they went over really well!).  While browsing the lady's other posts, I saw one mentioning Tunisian Crochet.  It was the first time I'd ever heard of it, and I was bumfuzzled.  I knew about knitting, and I knew about crochet.  Now, I am not naive enough to think those are the only 2 things you can do with yarn (weaving, anyone?), but I had certainly never heard of this kind of crossbreed knichet (my own word).  It's like knitting, but with a crochet hook.  You use a double-ended hook, or a hook with a stopper at the end to keep the yarn loops from sliding off.  There is even a specially-made set that can be used for regular or Tunisian crochet (made by Denise, available on amazon.com).  I really liked the look of the project made using this form (here's the post!), but with Christmas looming and gifts to make for 5 people in a month's time, exploring this new-found method took a back burner.
I finally decided last night to check around and see what I could sniff out about it.  I didn't go to sleep until 8:30 this morning.  I found a "starter collection" of Tunisian Crochet stitches on youtube.  Apparently there are well over 100 stitch types just for Tunisian crocheting.  Idk how many there are for regular crocheting (an awful lot!), but this is an entirely different ballpark.  There's the simple stitch, knit stitch, purl stitch, gobelin stitch (no, that's not supposed to be goblin, which was my first thought and made me chortle to myself... it's apparently French)... arrowhead stitch, honeycomb stitch, and so on.  You can even crochet using two different colors separately so that when you look at it from one side, it's primarily one color, but when you look at it from the other side, the second color is more prominent.
I'm really glad I finally decided to check it out, but now I am very anxious to get myself a set of those interchangeable hooks and go to town.  I'm trying really hard to wait until the end of the month because I'll be getting $20 in gift cards to amazon from SwagBucks.com (which I love!! free money!!).  The amazon price is $40, and I'll have saved up $30 in gift cards, so... $10 for this set is a REALLY good deal.
Anyway, I have tried my hand at a few of the stitches, and they look amazing.  It's really hard to do them with the hooks I have though, because the shaft widens in the middle, whereas ideally the entire hook is straight.  I even already have a first project in mind- a two-color tote (pattern courtesy of Lion Brand yarn).  Very eager and excited to try this out!