Tunisian Crochet Tutorial

Tunisian crochet has the specialty of having a combination of crochet with knitting.

Tunisian crochet produces strong, thick, warm fabrics perfectly suitable for winter sportswear.

Tunisian crochet begins with a chain, as it does in conventional crochet, but then one loop from each stitch is lifted on to the hook as you work from left to right along the length.

A second row completes the pattern, this is done while working left to right. Don’t turn the work round and reduce the number of loops until only one is left.

Tunisian crochet is great to make shawls, sweaters, balaclavas, hats, stoles, slippers and socks. Tunisian crochet comes in a variety of stitches; stitches that can make your world of crochet seem more intricate and more beautifully adorned.

Tunisian crochet is also called as Afghan stitch, Tricot Crochet, Shepherd's Knitting, Hook Knitting, and Railroad Knitting.

And the stitches it include are classic Tunisian stitch, cheek stitch, cluster stitch, crossed stitch, cross over stitch, fence stitch, knot stitch, mahogany stitch, rib stitch, diagonal rib stitch, star stitch, stocking stitch, treble stitch, eyelet stitch, fan stitch, four sided stitch and braid stitch.

With more than dozen of stitches it will be a bit difficult for me to teach you these entire in one article. Why don’t we just start with the classic Tunisian stitch?

CLASSIC TUNISIAN STITCH:

1. Make a chain consisting of even number of stitches.

2. Foundation stitch: Insert hook into 2nd chain, put yarn around hook and draw one loop through chain, yarn around hook and draw through one loop, repeat till end. Number of loop now will be the same as that of the number of chains we started as.

3. 2nd row: Do not turn, yarn around hook and draw loop through the first loop on hook, repeat until only one loop remains. Now you are working from left to right hand of the chain.

4. 3rd row: From 1st chain, insert hook from right to left through first upright thread of previous row, yarn around hook and then draw through one loop, repeat from 1st into every upright thread working along the row to the left. Once again, number of loops on the hook should be as that of number of chains at the beginning.

5. 4th row: Just like the 2nd. 3rd and 4th rows are repeated as par the requirement. For neater finish you can finish of with double crochet in the last row.

You might find some difficulty in making Tunisian crochet as it tends to twist a bit while working but it gets fine when pressed after completion of the project.

One special tip from my side…try to keep the pressure of your hands at one pace otherwise the stitches will appear irregular in size and shape.