Tunisian Crochet has texture for daaays.
It’s one of the things I love the most about it. From that gorgeous stripe on Simple Stitch, to the squishy bounce of Knit Stitch, you can’t go wrong with a little TC. But sometimes, you wanna turn the volume up on that texture. That’s where Tunisian Crochet Relief stitches come in.
You can use it to add ribbing and cables to your crochet or a simple POP! to the edge of your fabric.
Read on to see what I mean.
Less Talky, More Show-y?
Click here for a small video demo
Make a Piece of Tunisian Simple Stitch
To begin, work a few rows of 13 TSS per row.
Let’s Get Set Up
Below you’ll see I’ve worked the first 5 TSS on the next row, and added 1 Yarn Over to my hook.
That gives me 7 loops on the hook in total.
Next, make a TSS3tog decrease.
To make a TSS3tog, slide hook into the next 3 lines, Yarn Over, and draw loop back through all three lines.
Once you have that done, add another Yarn Over to the hook, and complete the row as usual.
At the end of the Forward Pass, we use the same rule as always for the Return Pass.
That rule?
Yarn Over and draw through one loop, then *Yarn Over and draw through two loops* repeatedly until you are back to one loop on the hook.
(Psst! Treat each loop the same, whether it’s a Yarn Over, or a legit stitch.)
That’s the “Foundation Row” complete
And, this is what your row will look like after all those “YOs and pull throughs” are complete.
As you can see above, our decrease is now flanked by two lace eyelets made by those lovely Yarn Overs we added. Those eyelets will be used to anchor the beginning of our relief work.
One Last Thing, before we get to the Crochet Relief Stitches
Complete one more row of regular Tunisian like this:
Work TSS sts up to the first eyelet. Then press hook from front to back into eyelet.
Yarn Over Hook, and draw the Yarn Over back to the front of the fabric.
Press hook into next stitch (This will be the stitch coming out of the previous row’s TSS3tog)
Yarn Over Hook, and draw the Yarn Over through stitch.
Find the second eyelet, and press hook through it to the back of the fabric.
Yarn Over and draw the Yarn Over through eyelet to the front again.
Complete the Forward Pass of the row as usual…
And then work the Return Pass to complete the row.
Ready to make your first Tunisian Crochet Relief Stitch!
Everything is all set up, so we can now get to our Tunisian Crochet Relief Stitches!
First thing we need to do is work the first 6 TSS sts.
This will bring our hook up to (but not into!) the st directly over the TSS3tog.
Then, Yarn Over on your hook TWICE.
Push hook through first eyelet to the back of the fabric…
Then weave it back to the front of the fabric through the second eyelet.
Yarn Over, and draw that newest Yarn Over back along the path your hook hook.
i.e through the second eyelet to the back of your fabric, then forward to the front of your fabric through the first eyelet.
To complete your first Relief Stitch work the following:
*YO, draw through two loops* twice.
If you’d like to see your relief stitch a little clearer, fold the fabric in front of your hook back. Your Relief Stitch will stand out better.
Complete the rest of the Forward Pass as usual, starting with the stitch directly above the second eyelet.
(There is a stitch behind the Relief Stitch that should remain unsued)
These two photos below are what it looks like once you have the Forward Pass of the row complete.
When your Return Pass is all done and dusted, this is what it will look like.
As you can see in the second photo below, a nice big gap exists betwen the relief stitch and the body of the fabric. That gap will be used to attach the next row’s Relief Stitch to the first one.
Pro Tip.
If you have difficulty controlling the gap, pop a lockable stitch marker in there.
Second Relief Stitch
Start your second Relief Stitch by adding one Yarn Over to your hook.
Then press your hook into and through the gap we just checked out.
Yarn Over, and draw the Yarn Over back through the gap.
Yarn Over, and draw through two loops.
Work the Return Pass as per usual, folks.
On every relief row after this, work the same instructions you used for the second relief row.
After a few rows, it’ll start to look like this little piece of gorgeousness below.
Final Thoughts
Now, some of you may be asking “But, Aoibhe! Why did you use TWO Yarn Overs on the first one, and only ONE thereafter?”
And I’d answer that by complimenting your eagle eyes, and by telling you that for the first relief stitch, we had two rows to work over, so it needed to be a bit longer.
The rest of the relief stitches will only have one row to work over, so they get to be a little shorter.
Additionally, if I worked all the relief stitches with two Yarn Overs, they’d be saggy and loose, and would catch on ev-ery-thing when you wore it.
So, there you go!
Well done!
