3 Reasons to Try Tunisian Crochet!

By Caissa "Cami" McClinton – 11 Comments

Drop everything and grab a long crochet hook. Now! 🙂 I just learned the fabulous technique called Tunisian crochet and I want everyone to try it!

First you may want to know what Tunisian crochet is. Well, if you’ve ever seen the long crochet hooks or the shorter ones with long cords hanging off them, you’ve seen a Tunisian crochet hook. In order to start, you’d just need one of those and some yarn. The reason the hooks are longer is because when you work a forward pass in Tunisian crochet, all of the stitches stay on your hook. During the reverse pass, you work all of those live stitches off your hook. It’s fun. It’s like a cross between crochet and knitting. Here are the top three reasons I’m loving Tunisian crochet right now.

1. It’s the coolest thing ever: my crochet looks like knitting! Well, on the front side anyway. While working the Tunisian knit stitch, the front of your fabric looks just like knitting, but the back looks a little different. The resulting fabric is versatile and beautiful. Start with this scarf pattern to try the Tunisian knit stitch!

2. I can finally make all of those pretty Tunisian patterns I see everywhere, like this awesome purse! Like many of you, I constantly keep up with all of the new patterns coming out. In the past I’ve been bummed when I’ve seen a Tunisian pattern because I’d never worked in it at all. Well now I can give it a try without fear.

3. Working in color is natural in Tunisian crochet. While in traditional crochet, it can be a little daunting to wrangle multiple colors, in Tunisian it’s so easy to work three colors into the same fabric. Tricolor stripes that look incredibly labor intensive are actually easy! These wrist warmers are a perfect quick project to practice color work.

Lucky for us, Rachel has even more great Tunisian tutorials and patterns right here on Crochet Spot! Check out the Tunisian Simple Stitch tutorial and Neck Warmer pattern. I hope I’ve inspired you to grab a long hook and give it a try!

Are you curious about Tunisian crochet? Which projects have you tried? Please share your experiences and questions in the comments! I would love to know if you’d like to see more Tunisian crochet on Crochet Spot!

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11 Comments

  1. Mellie says:

    By sheer coincidence, I *just* started my first tunisian project a few days ago. I sat down with with my loooong afghan hook and plenty of patience, and – to my surprise – it turned out to be incredibly easy! Now I’m really having fun seeing the new kinds of fabric that crocheting a different style makes.

    Right now I’m working in single color, but I might just check out the tri-color, too! It’s really so much fun.

  2. Petra says:

    I also have recently fallen in love with Tunisian Crochet 😀 Tunisian Knit Stitch is next on my to list. When you say tricolour stripes, do you mean working a stripe in each of three colours or three strands together in different colours? I’ve tried working with more than one strand in different colours with normal crochet and now you have me wondering what it will look like with tunisian crochet! ooooo…..

  3. Wendy says:

    I have recently tried Tunisian crochet and really enjoyed working it. I made some dish cloths for practice. I’m having trouble with them curling. Am I doing something wrong?

  4. Ellen says:

    Have been doing tunisian for quite some time now. Would love to see more on this though! Thanks.

  5. Darlene says:

    Have done Tunisian or afghan stitch crochet in the past, but don’t care for it. Takes too long as every row has to be worked twice. Same as with cro-knit or double ended crochet. Anyone want some supplies cheap?

    • maria bond says:

      what do you have and how much please, I am practising on a normal crochet hook at the moment so would now like to try with proper size needles as im finding this really fun to do

      maria

    • Rochelle says:

      Darlene,

      I might be interested. What are the supplies and cost?

      Thanks,

  6. Deb says:

    How long of a hook does it have to be? Thanks!

    • Caissa says:

      Deb, the hooks vary in length but are available at craft stores. I will do a post about choosing a Tunisian Crochet hook in the future. 🙂

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