Tunisian Knit Stitch Crochet Tutorial

Create the appearance of knitted stockinette stitch in crochet, with the Tunisian knit stitch! Once you’ve learned the Tunisian simple stitch, the knit stitch is easy to learn. It’s simply a variation in where you place your hook.

Foundation Row

In a previous tutorial, I showed a basic, Tunisian crochet foundation row. For this tutorial, I’m working from a swatch already in progress, with 10 stitches across. To follow along, first work a foundation row of 10 stitches as follows:

Chain 10

Forward Pass: Insert hook into 2nd chain from hook, yarn over and pull up a loop, repeat for remaining chains. (10 loops on hook)

Return Pass: Chain 1, (yarn over and pull through 2 loops on hook) 9 times. (10 sts)

If you need help making this foundation row, please see the Tunisian foundation row tutorial first.

Choosing a Hook

For this tutorial, we are only working with a small number of stitches, so you don’t need to use a Tunisian hook. As long as you can fit 10 loops on your hook before you get to the thumb grip, a regular hook is fine.

I’m using a hook that I received from Brittany Hooks some time ago for a product review. It has a straight shaft without a thumb grip, so it’s perfect for small sections of Tunisian crochet. I used this same hook to make the entrelac cowl pictured here.

Tunisian Knit Stitch (tks) Forward Pass

Each stitch of the foundation row has a vertical bar in the front and one at the back, plus a top section that looks like a chain.

When you pick up loops for your forward pass, insert your hook under the front vertical bar and under the top of the stitch. You can also look at this as sticking the hook from front to back, between the two vertical bars.

Yarn over, and pull up a loop. Repeat this in each stitch across to the very last stitch. For the last stitch, insert your hook under the front bar and the little bump just behind it, and pull up a loop.

You should now have 10 loops on your hook.

Tunisian Knit Stitch Return Pass

The return pass is worked exactly the same way as it was on the foundation row.

Start with a chain (yarn over and pull through only the first loop on your hook).

Now, yarn over and pull through two loops on your hook. Continue doing this until there is only one loop left on your hook.

Binding Off

There are several methods for binding off. The simplest is to use a slip stitch bind off just like we did for the Tunisian simple stitch.

Slip Stitch Bind off

Starting with the 2nd stitch, insert your hook and pull up a loop as before, but this time also pull that loop through the loop on your hook. this makes a slip stitch.

Repeat this in every stitch across. This bind off creates a raised chain across the front of the work, which is pretty for some applications but may not be what you want all the time.

Single crochet bind off

Instead of binding off with slip stitches, we can bind off with single crochet. Insert your hook into the 2nd stitch and pull up a loop as before. Now yarn over and pull through both loops on your hook, as for a single crochet.

For a clean edge, work the last stitch as a slip stitch. Insert your hook and pull up a loop as normal, then pull that loop through the other loop on your hook.

The single crochet bind off leaves you with a smoother edge, and I prefer it for Tunisian knit stitch.

Tunisian Knit Stitch (tks) – Video Tutorial

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