Make a Dish Cloth and Learn to Crochet the Tunisian Simple Stitch
I’m just in love with this stitch. It is so light, with lots of movement and yet warm and toasty. None of those annoying gaps at the beginning of a row. Don’t get me wrong – a good repeating DC stitch is very meditative and may remain my go to stitch. But a Tunisian! Just. Love. It. Bonus – it makes a really great dish cloth with built in scrubbies on the back!
I hear it’s a difficult stitch to learn but I found that it’s pretty easy. You probably will as well. Nay sayers be damned! So, here we go. Let me show you the Tunisian Simple Stitch (abbreviated TSS)
Supplies:
Sugar ‘n Cream – Potpourri Ombre (100% cotton 4 ply)
Sugar ‘n Cream – Rose Pink for the border (100% cotton 4 ply)
10 mm Tunisian/Afghan Hook
6.5mm standard hook for the border
I am making my dish cloth 18 stitches wide, because, well that’s my favorite size. You can make yours any width you like – just remember if you are using a 100% cotton yarn like I am, that baby is going to shrink.
Step 1: With 10mm hook and Potpourri Ombre -CH 18
Step 2: Forward Pass- Pull up loops
This is where we veer off the standard crocheting course. You’re not going to make a stitch and move on. You’re going to pull up all the loops onto your hook for all the stitches in the row. This step looks suspiciously like knitting. Huh, any how. When you are loading your stitches onto the hook it’s called the forward pass.
Skip the first CH as per usual, insert the hook into the second stitch, YO and pull up the loop. Leave it on the hook. Repeat, repeatedly, until you have 18 loops on your hook.
Step 3: Reverse Pass – Take off the loops
To begin the reverse pass YO and pull through 1 loop. Then YO and pull through 2 loops. YO and pull through 2 loops until you are back to the beginning of the row (1 loop left on hook) See? Super simple. Always under 1 loop for the first stitch, under 2 for all the rest.
Step 4: Forward Pass
This is the forward pass that you will be using from here on out. It’s basically like the beginning forward pass except you’re not hooking into the chain. Instead you are hooking under the front vertical bar. Always skip that first bar of the row. You will never turn your work with Tunisian! Let me show you –
Then you just continue on. Hook under the vertical bar, YO and pull up a loop, repeat 17 times. All the loops remain on the hook.
Now, what to do about that end stitch. You have options here. You can put your hook under 1 loop, 2 loops or 3. I choose to always hook under 2 loops for the end stitch. It gives a nice perfect edge that will look just like the top and bottom edges of your work. You can’t beat that when putting on a border! Or not putting on a border. I won’t judge.
Step 5: Reverse Pass
Reverse pass is the exact same as step 3. YO and pull through 1. YO and pull through 2. Repeat YO and pull through 2 until you have finished the row.
So, that’s it then. You just continue with the forward and reverse pass until your project is as long as you want it. I did 16 rows to make a square. Counting the rows is super easy. Just count the vertical bars.
Step 6: Binding off
Here we are at the end and there is an annoying row of gaps from the last row. Simple to deal with. All you are going to do is hook under the vertical bar, YO and pull through the vertical bar and the loop on hook. You’re really just slip stitching along the row. Repeat until you are at the end of the row. Tie off.
Border
For my border I switched to a 6.5 mm hook and Rose Pink yarn and did 2 rows.
Row 1: Join to the side. SC in the next 2 stitches, SC 2x in the same stitch. Repeat along the sides. For the corners, SC 3x in the same stitch. Slip stitch to join.
I’ve found that this lays down really well for me, if it doesn’t for you then feel free to change your ratio of stitches.
Row 2: CH 3, DC in each stitch along sides. 2 DC, CH 2, 2 DC in each of the corners. Slip stitch to join. Tie off.
Enjoy your dish cloth!
Sherry
