Tunisian Crochet Beginner – An Intro To Tunisian Crochet

Beginner Tunisian Crochet Guide

If you’re a Tunisian Crochet Beginner, this is the page for you!

Hello, Tunisian Crochet Beginner!
I bet you’ve seen some really lovely Tunisian Crochet pieces on line, and now you’re dying to make something special of your very own, right?
You’ve come to the right place!

Well, let’s get right into it.

What is Tunisian Crochet?

At its core, Tunisian Crochet is a happy blend of knitting techniques (like Picking Up Stitches, Yarn Overs, Decreases and Casting Off) and crochet stitches (like Chain Stitches, Single Crochet).
Because you use a hook to make it, it’s classed as a type of crochet.

What sort of hook should I use?

A lot of people assume you need a long, “Tunisian” or “Afghan” hook to get started, but you don’t.
Hooks like that come in handy if you want to make a broad piece of fabric, say, for a blanket or a sweater, but a regular-length hook is simpler to learn on for many.

If you have knit or crocheted before, you may find the hook/yarn weight requirements for Tunisian a bit odd at first.
For instance, a 4 mm knitting needle or crochet is recommended for Double Knit Yarn in general.
But for Tunisian, a 5.5mm or 6 mm hook will work better for Double Knit.

This is because Tunisian Crochet creates a thicker, denser fabric, so using a bigger hook ensures the fabric you make will have drape in it.

But remember, everyone is a little different, so the right hook for your personal tension may take some experimentation. If you find you first project stands up like a cardboard box you likely need to make looser stitches.
An easy way to solve that problem is to choose a bigger hook next time!

I’m a Beginner! Where do I start?

The easiest stitch to learn in Tunisian is called the “Tunisian Simple Stitch”, and it is perfectly named.

To make this stitch, first make a Slip Knot and pop the loop on your hook.

Then, make a few crochet chain stitches.
Let’s say… 12 stitches in total.
That’ll give us 10 Tunisian Simple Stitches (abbreviated to “TSS” or “tss” in patterns) in our row.

Tunisian Simple Stitch

Then, we identify the chain closest to the hook… and promptly ignore it. The second chain, though, that’s the one we are going to work our hook into.

Make a Yarn Over, and draw your Yarn Over back through the chain to make a loop.
You now have two loops on your hook.

The loop you just added is your first TSS stitch! Bravo!

We do the same thing with the next chain along, and the next chain along, and on and on until we reach the far end of our chain row, and we have twelve loops on our hook.
The video below shows you how to do this:

Remember, the first loop on your hook doesn’t count as a stitch, and neither does the last.
I like to look on those two loops as the row’s “Body Guards” that help keep all your celebrity stitches safe.

What we’ve just completed is call the “Forward Pass” of our first row.
The “Forward Pass” means we’ve picked up stitches and collected them on our hook.

Now we embark on what’s called the “Return Pass”.

The Return Pass

The Return Pass is where we start to reduce the number of loops on our hook until we are back to one.
Here’s how we do that:

Yarn Over, and draw the yarn over through ONE loop on your hook.
Then, Yarn Over again, and draw the yarn over through TWO loops on your hook.

We carry on Yarning Over, and drawing through TWO loops for the rest of the Return Pass.
When you are back to one loop, your row is complete!

Here’s a wee video showing you how that looks in practice:

That’s Row One complete. To work the next row, read on!

Crocheting The Next Row

To work every row from this point on, we do pretty much the same thing as above with the Forward Pass, but instead of picking up loops in the chains (which are now too far down to reach), we use the lovely vertical lines of the previous row instead.
Here’s how:

Once you have all 12 loops on your hook, the Forward Pass of Row 2 is complete.

Luckily, the Return Pass is exactly the same as with Row 1. All you have to do is:

Yarn Over, draw through 1 loop, then Yarn Over and draw through two loops repeatedly until you are back to one loop.
Watch the video below to see what that looks like:

From this point on, you’re on your way!
Just work a Forward Pass and a Return Pass for each row and your fabric will grow beneath your fingers in no time.

Working a few rows of Tunisian Simple Stitch will give you a good feel of how Tunisian Crochet fabric works up and I’m sure in no time at all, you’ll fall in love.

“Hooked” on Tunisian Crochet Already?

Below, you’ll find a selection of all Aoibhe Ni’s Beginner-friendly Tutorials

Some are stand-alone photo guides, and some are presented specifically to help you through an Aoibhe Ni-designed pattern. No matter what you choose, you’ll learn something exciting and new, so dive right in!