Tunisian Stitch
The Tunisian crochet stitch is known by several names: The Afghan stitch, Railroad Knitting, Hook, knitting, tricot crochet, shepherd's knitting. Follow this step by step tutorial to learn the famous Tunisian crochet stitch.
Unless you have a traditional Tunisian crochet hook, which is a very long handled crochet hook, then Tunisian crochet is really only practical for making smaller items, such as wallets, headbands, belts, and other small items which don't require more than a dozen stitches across the row. That's because all the stitches stay on the hook, and any more than that, they will fall off the back end of the hook!
- To begin Tunisian crochet, first chain as many stitches as your project requires.
- Then work back down the chain, as though making the first half of a single crochet, but keeping that loop on the hook as you progress down the row.
- At the end of the row, you will have as many loops on your hook as your chain (minus 1 to accommodate the turn.) So if you had a chain of 13 stitches, you will have 12 loops on the hook.
- Do not turn the work,
- * yarn over, and pull through 2 loops.
- Repeat from * all across the row, until you have only one loop remaining on the hook.
- Now, you proceed back down the row again, picking up a loop at each stitch. (Pass the hook through the stitch that looks like a knitting stitch, and pass right through to the other side. (2nd photo above.).
- Yarn over, and pull through to the front, keeping the loop on the hook.
- Count the number of loops on the hook to maintain the correct number of stitches in each row. (It's easy to miss the last stitch if you are not counting!)
- Continue down the row.
- 4 rows of Tunisian stitch completed.