Hi, I'm Rosanne, guest blogger for Yupa Studio and the face behind the blog HappyYarnLife. In this blog I explain what Tunisian crochet is, what you need for it and I describe in 5 steps how to crochet the Tunisian simple stitch.
What is Tunisian crochet?
Tunisian crochet is a crochet technique you see coming by more and more often, and it's also known as Afghan crochet. It's a little bit of crochet and a little bit of knitting at the same time. That's not as difficult as it sounds. You work with a hook that can look like a knitting needle in length, but with a hook at the end.
That long hook means you can put lots of stitches on your hook at once. You only use 1 hook, so instead of moving the stitches to a second needle afterwards as you would in knitting, in this technique you work them back off the hook again. You work back and forth in rows, which means you never have to turn your work.
Tunisian crochet hooks: what do you need?
If you're making small projects you can do Tunisian crochet with your ordinary crochet hook. But if you want a slightly bigger project, that soon calls for a longer Tunisian crochet hook. You then have a choice of different shapes, sizes and materials.
1. Long straight hook
This is a long straight hook with a hook at the end. It looks like a knitting needle and has a stopper on the end, so your stitches don't fall off. You can get going with it straight away: a straight scarf, potholder, dishcloth, little bag. It's all possible. One drawback is that your room for stitches is limited to what fits on the hook. Personally I also find it fairly 'heavy' going to crochet with a lot of stitches on the hook.
2. Short hook with a fixed cable
A crochet hook like the ones you're used to, but with a cable attached to provide length. With a stopper on the end. This helps make the crocheting less heavy, but it keeps the drawback of a limited number of stitches: because you can't swap the cable, you can never add more stitches than the cable is long.
3. Short hook with an interchangeable cable
Again a crochet hook like the ones you're used to, but this one has a screw fitting at the end. This system works the same way as interchangeable knitting needles, where you screw the length and type of cable you want onto your needle. So you can adapt this hook to what your project needs by choosing a longer or shorter cable with a stopper at the end. It also has the advantage that you can turn it into a double-ended hook.
4. Double-ended Tunisian crochet hook
You use this one to:
- Crochet in the round
- Create color effects
- Make reversible crochet work (normally Tunisian crochet has a clear front and back).
5. Ordinary crochet hook
Let's come back to that ordinary crochet hook for a moment. With hooks that have a handle your number of stitches really is limited. But there are also straight hooks without a handle. With one of those you could make a mini version of a Tunisian hook by putting a (knitting needle) stopper on the end.
Yarn for Tunisian crochet
Before I explain how to get started, a short note about yarn. In Tunisian crochet it's completely normal to work with a hook that is 1 to 2 sizes larger than the yarn label suggests. That's because with this technique your work becomes dense, firm and thicker, and so it curls quickly. A larger hook helps to limit that.
On top of that, the combination of yarn and hook affects how supple or stiff your work turns out.
Wool and acrylic are lovely elastic materials to crochet with. Especially when you're still new to Tunisian crochet that can be helpful.
Cotton is a little stiffer to work with, which you notice mostly when setting up the foundation row, but in the end it drapes very beautifully and gives you a sturdy piece of crochet.
Tunisian crochet: the basic stitch / Tunisian simple stitch
I describe in 5 steps how to crochet the Tunisian simple stitch. From setting up the foundation row all the way to binding off.
Important to know: in Tunisian crochet you work in rows, going out (picking up stitches) and coming back (working the stitches off). You don't turn your work and you always look at the 'right' side of your work.
A small note if you crochet left-handed: the description below is written right-handed. If you're left-handed, you insert your hook the other way round from what's described, so from left to right instead of right to left.
Starting Tunisian crochet
1. Foundation chain
You begin with a chain, just as in ordinary crochet. For the Tunisian simple stitch I'm explaining, the number of chains doesn't matter. This is purely to practice, so just crochet 10 chains.
2. Setting up the foundation row
You use the chain to set up a foundation row. Your chain has a front (with little v shapes) and a back with little bumps.
Insert your hook into the second bump from your hook. You yarn over and pull it through the stitch. You leave the loop you've made on your hook. You now have 2 stitches on your hook.
Insert the hook into the next bump. Yarn over, pull through again and leave it on the hook. You now have 3 stitches on your hook.
You repeat this until you've worked all the chains. This is the forward pass, in which you pick up stitches.
3. Return pass
Now it's time for the return pass; working the stitches back off the hook. Yarn over and pull through 1 loop on the hook.
Yarn over again and now pull through 2 loops on the hook. You have now worked 2 stitches off the hook.
Repeat: yarn over and pull through 2 loops on the hook, until you have 1 loop left on your hook. This is the foundation row.
A row of what are essentially all upright loops with a horizontal loop in between. The upright loops are your stitches. In this case there are as many of them as there were chains in the chain you set up.
4. First row of Tunisian simple stitch
We now start on the first row of Tunisian simple stitches.
The forward pass: insert your hook from right to left under the front bar of the second stitch. You always skip the first bar, but the loop on your hook does count as the first stitch. The hook stays at the front of your work.
Yarn over and pull through. Leave the loop on the hook.
Repeat: hook from left to right under the front bar, yarn over, pull through and leave the loop on the hook. Up to the last stitch.
The last stitch of the forward pass goes a little differently, so that you get a neat edge. It's often called the (Tunisian) end stitch. You insert your hook through both the front and the back bar of the loop.
Yarn over, pull through and leave the loop on the hook. For the return pass you follow step 3 again (from the foundation row).
Keep repeating step 4 until you think your work is long enough.
5. Binding off When you think your work is long enough, it's time to close it off neatly (binding off). You do that as follows: insert and yarn over just as for the Tunisian simple stitch. But now you pull the yarn through both loops on the hook. So you don't leave a loop on the hook as you normally would. Repeat this and pull the last stitch through both bars again (just as with the Tunisian end stitch). Cut the yarn and pull the tail through the last loop.
Have fun with Tunisian crochet!
This blog was written by Rosanne, of HappyYarnLife: 'Hi! I'm Rosanne and I can't wait to inspire you with all my crochet and knitting projects, cool creative places and my own patterns. Let's make soft things together in a world that is sometimes hard and cold.'
