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Catching Floats in Tunisian Crochet Stranded Colourwork – Part 1


A note or two on this exercise:
1. Don’t be alarmed by the giant bull clip on the end of my fabric! It’s just there to counter this thick fabric’s tendency to curl.
2. The middle (Yellow) block of colour is where we will be catching floats.
3. I started with 15 chains and worked a few rows of 13 TSS before I got stuck into the stranded colourwork TKS section

In this example I have worked a few individual stitches before we get to the float-catching section of the exercise.
These are worked using alternating yarns like so:

A. Insert hook TKS-wise into 1st st, Yarn Over with Main Colour (MC) and pull loop through onto hook – 2 loops on hook.

snuggle hook under bar
push out to back of fabric
yarn over with Main Colour & pull yarn through fabric

B. Insert hook TKS-wise into 2nd st, Yarn Over with Contrast Colour (CC) and pull loop through onto hook – 3 loops on hook.

snuggle hook under bar
push out to back of fabric
yarn over with Contrast Colour (CC) & pull yarn through fabric

C. Insert hook TKS-wise into 3rd st, Yarn Over with MC and pull loop through onto hook – 4 loops on hook.

snuggle hook under bar
push out to back of fabric
Yarn Over with MC & pull yarn through fabric

Here’s the lay of the land right now:

Exercise 1 – Catching Contrast Colour Floats on the Forward Pass.

Are you ready?

We will be crocheting with MC and “catching” the CC yarn as a “float”.
The resulting stitch will be MC (yellow) but the back of the st will have the strand of CC (pink) running through it.

insert hook TKS-wise into next stitch
Yarn Over with CC
Yarn Over with MC
return CC to back of fabric
draw MC through fabric

The next MC st along can be completed as usual.

insert hook TKS-wise into next stitch
Yarn Over with MC
Draw Yarn Over through fabric

There is no need to catch a float with every single stitch.
Usually, I just catch every even-numbered stitch in a block of colour. You may choose to do it less frequently if you prefer, but if you are making mittens, I recommend you catch your floats pretty frequently so they don’t snag on wiggly fingers or chipped nails.

Once you’ve worked across the colour block, continue by working a TKS with CC, a TKS with MC and draw up a final loop in chain with MC.
Your hook will look like this:



Exercise 2 – Catching Main Colour Floats on the Return Pass.

To begin, work the following:
With MC, YO and draw yarn through 1 loop, YO and draw loop through 2 loops.
With CC, YO and draw yarn through 2 loops.
With MC, YO and draw yarn through 2 loops.

That’ll get us here:

Now, luckily, the Return Pass floats are caught with the exact same motions as the Forward Pass floats.
Let’s go through it visually:

Yarn over with CC
With CC still on hook,
Yarn Over with MC
return CC to back of fabric, and then draw CC through 2 loops

The next stitch is worked as normal:

Yarn Over hook
Draw Yarn Over through two loops

Again, as with the Forward Pass, you don’t need to do this every single stitch, but I recommend you at least do it every few stitches. I catch my return pass floats every second stitch when I’m working mittens.

From this point on, the rule is as follows: Yarn Over with the colour that is displayed SECOND from the hook.
In the case of the photo below, the next Yarn Over would be CC (Pink):

When complete, this is what the Right Side will look like:

As for the Wrong Side?
Aaah, look at all those lovely caught floats!


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4 thoughts on “Catching Floats in Tunisian Crochet Stranded Colourwork – Part 1

  1. Thank you for the excellent tutorial. I am keenly anticipating the mitten pattern.

    1. You are entirely welcome, Jerilyn. Thanks for giving the tutorial a go!

  2. This is just what I needed right now, thank you so much!

    1. You’re welcome!
      Happy Crocheting!

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