Tutorial Thursday - Tunisian Simple Stitch (TSS)

For today's Tips, Tricks and Tutorial Thursday we are going to talk about the Tunisian Simple Stitch. Tunisian crocheting is a different type of crocheting that uses the basic crocheting skills and works somewhat like knitting would.

To do Tunisian crochet you need a special hook. These hooks come in different sizes and styles. Some are just really long crochet hooks with a tapered end so the stitches don't fall off, others look like normal crochet hooks with long wires at the end. Either one should work the same as the other.

The first project I did using this stitch was a wash cloth. With a washcloth, I only used 26 stitches so it was small enough to use just a regular crochet hook (they were a little cramped but it worked fine for me).Like regular crochet sometimes it is hard to find the last stitch, so it is very important to keep count and remember to work all the way to the end of that stitch. It is sometimes hard to work into the last chain. Keep in mind the last "loop" will be doubled and it would look like part of the "chain".

Also, something to remember with TSS, is that there is no turning your work, you have to work one way and back to count as one row. (To help me learn how to do this style of crochet I watched this youtube video).

Starting a Tunisian Project:

Any Tunisian project starts the same way a normal crochet project starts, with the chain. For this washcloth, the starting chain was 26. As with regular crochet for the TSS, you want to skip the first stitch and work into the second from the hook. Next, you will start the same way as you would a normal single crochet, but do not finish it. Once you have pulled a loop onto your hook, go to the next stitch and repeat.

Once you have all the stitches on your hook, you will have to pull through them to get back to the end you started at. (You always start at the same end, and never chain before starting.) To pull through you want to yarn over and pull through the first stitch. This is the only time you will pull through one stitch on your hook. The rest of the stitches you will yarn over and pull through two, all the way to the end.

This is what one row should look like when you are done. As you can see this process results in "ribs" or bars running across the row. This is the stitches, and where you will work into. Make sure to skip the first stitch (you can see the hook is touching the stitch to skip in this photo), and work the rest. Continue this until you have the length you desire. (Usually, I stitch to 26 by 26 but 28 x 28 is a good size also.)

Finishing a Tunisian Project: To finish a TSS project, you will work into the stitches the same way you did before. This time however you will slip stitch and always keep ONLY one stitch on the hook. At the end of the row, once you have done the last slip stitch you pull the end through the way you would a normal crochet project.

This is what a finished dish cloth will look like one side it will have the "ribs" the other side will have a knitted look.

(You may notice the ends rolling up, you can place them under a heavy book to help stop this, you can "block" them or you can try doing a row of single crochet before starting the Tunisian Simple Stitch part of the project.)

The video below shows Claudette Crochet demonstrating