Tunisian crochet vs regular crochet
Tunisian crochet holds a whole row of loops on a long hook and makes a denser fabric. How it differs from the crochet these patterns use, and what it is good for.
Tunisian crochet is worked on a long hook with a stopper at the far end, and every row takes two passes. On the forward pass you draw up a loop in each stitch and leave it on the hook, until the whole row is sitting there. On the return pass you work back across without turning, clearing the loops one and then two at a time until a single loop is left, and that loop opens the next row. Because the work never turns, one face is toward you throughout, and the fabric comes out dense and close to knitted — the standard stitch, Tunisian simple stitch, reads as a grid of upright bars. Regular crochet keeps one loop live, finishes each stitch as it goes, and turns at the end of every row. It is faster, lighter and works in the round; Tunisian is slower, thicker, falls better and curls at the edges until it is blocked.
How the two passes work
Two passes make one row, and the work is never turned. Begin as you would for any flat piece: a chain the width you want.
The forward pass
The forward pass runs right to left. Insert the hook, yarn over, draw up a loop — and stop there. The loop stays on the hook. Repeat into every stitch across, and at the end the hook is carrying one loop for every stitch in the row, which is why it has to be long and why it has a stopper on the end.
The return pass, and what names the stitch
The return pass runs left to right and you do not turn the work. Yarn over, draw through one loop. Then yarn over and draw through two, and again, and again, all the way back, until a single loop remains. That last loop is the first stitch of the next forward pass. Two passes, one row, and the front of the fabric has faced you the whole time.
What the forward pass hooks into is what names the stitch. Under the vertical bar gives Tunisian simple stitch and its grid of upright bars. Between the bars, front to back, gives Tunisian knit stitch, which comes out close enough to stocking stitch to be mistaken for it. The same insertion as simple stitch, but with the working yarn held in front of the hook, gives Tunisian purl stitch. The return pass is the same every time.
| In practice | Tunisian | Regular crochet |
|---|---|---|
| Hook | Long, with a stopper | Short, no stopper |
| Live stitches | A whole row | One |
| Passes per row | Two — forward and return | One |
| Turning | Never | Every row |
| Face toward you | Always the same one | Alternates |
| Fabric | Dense, close to knitted | Lighter, more open |
| Edges | Curl until blocked | Lie flat |
| Worked in the round | Only on a double-ended hook | Freely |
| Used for | Blankets, wraps, garments with fall | Creatures, squares, motifs, edgings |
| Learn it after | Single and double crochet | — |
Curling, and what to do about it
Tunisian fabric curls, and it curls hard. The forward pass puts more yarn into the front face than the return pass puts into the back, and the imbalance pulls the top edge forward and the sides inward. A first swatch usually rolls itself into a tube and looks like a failure. It is not one.
Wet blocking flattens it, and the flattening holds. Pin the piece out damp, let it dry, and it stays where it was pinned. Cotton and wool take this well; acrylic takes it less permanently, so an acrylic piece is better dealt with in the design.
Designing it out means a border that pulls the other way: two or three columns of Tunisian knit stitch at each side, and a foundation row worked a little loosely, take most of it out before blocking has to. A pattern that names a border at the edges of a Tunisian piece is doing this, not decorating.
What Tunisian is worth learning for
Fall, chiefly. Tunisian fabric is thicker than regular crochet and softer than it, and it hangs the way a shawl or a wrap wants without asking the maker to hunt for a special stitch. If what you like about knitted fabric is how it moves, and what you like about crochet is the single hook and the recoverable mistake, this is where the two meet.
Colourwork is the other reason. Because the return pass runs the full width of the row, a second colour can be carried along it without being cut, and blocks of colour in Tunisian simple stitch line up on a clean grid — the upright bars sit like graph paper, so a charted design comes out square rather than sheared.
What it is not for: anything stuffed, anything worked in the round on an ordinary hook, and anything you want finished quickly. Two passes per row is two passes per row. Creatures, squares and motifs stay with the short hook.
Before the long hook is bought
What exactly is being done differently in Tunisian?
Crochet worked on a long hook that holds a whole row of loops at once, in two passes per row, without turning the work. The fabric comes out denser than regular crochet and reads as close to knitting.
Is the two-pass rhythm hard to pick up?
Harder for an hour, then not. The two-pass rhythm is the only new idea and it settles quickly. It does assume you are already comfortable with single and double crochet.
Will an ordinary hook do?
No. An ordinary hook is too short to hold a row of live loops and has no stopper to keep them on. Tunisian hooks run about 8 to 14 inches, and corded ones go wider still for blankets.
Where should a first Tunisian swatch start?
Tunisian simple stitch. It is the plainest of them, it makes the grid of upright bars that everything else is described against, and it is what charts assume.
My swatch curls at the edge — have I done something wrong?
Nothing is wrong: that is what Tunisian does. The forward and return passes put different amounts of yarn into the two faces, and the edge rolls forward. Block it, or work a few knit-stitch columns at each side to hold it flat.
Is there a way to work Tunisian in the round?
Only on a double-ended hook, which lets the work be turned over so the return pass can be made from the other end. On a single-ended hook it is flat work.