Tunisian crochet tutorial – Changing color at the beginning of the reverse pass

Color changes can get a little tricky and changing color at the beginning of a reverse pass was proving to be quite a challenge for me. No matter what I tried, the last stitch of the row didn’t seem to align with the rest of the stitches very well. After a lot of trial and error, and a lot of research, I found that the technique in this tutorial makes the cleanest last stitch. If you are aware of a better technique, please let me know.

The hook

There are a bunch of different Tunisian crochet hooks available for purchase. You can read about the hooks I use here. Because of the nature of Tunisian crochet stitches, I recommend using a hook that is at least 2 sizes larger than the recommended hook on the yarn.

Video Tutorials

I have right and left handed video tutorials on my Youtube channel. You can find all my Tunisian crochet video tutorials here.

Right handed

Left handed

Jessica Hamric from Tunisian Crochet Graphghan Boutique has a video tutorial for this. Her technique is slightly different than mine but it will work well. You can find her tutorial here.

Photo Tutorial

I have used the Tunisian Full Stitch in this tutorial but this technique will work with any stitch.
The tutorial walks through three Tunisian Full Stitch rows and all of them have a color change at the beginning of their reverse pass.

Forward Pass (Row 1)

Using teal yarn, complete the forward pass to make a Tunisian Full Stitch row. If you are not aware of this stitch, you can find a tutorial for it here.

Reverse Pass (Row 1)

Step 1: Attach yellow yarn as shown in the pictures below. Do not pull the teal strand to close the loop.

Step 2: Complete the reverse pass with yellow yarn. This is the same as the reverse pass in the Foundation Row: chain 1, yarn over and pull through two loops on the hook. Repeat this for all the loops on the hook until you have one loop on the hook.

Forward Pass (Row 2)

Using yellow yarn, complete the forward pass to make a Tunisian Full Stitch row – except for the last stitch.

The last stitch of the previous row has only vertical bar – Insert your hook into this vertical bar, yarn over and pull through into a loop to complete the forward pass.

Reverse Pass (Row 2)

Step 1: Join teal yarn as shown in the pictures below. Make sure that the strand of teal yarn is behind the yellow yarn while joining. Do not pull the yellow strand to close the loop.

Step 2: Complete the reverse pass with teal yarn. This is the same as the reverse pass in the Foundation Row: chain 1, yarn over and pull through two loops on the hook. Repeat this for all the loops on the hook until you have one loop on the hook.

Forward Pass (Row 3)

Using teal yarn, complete the forward pass to make a Tunisian Full Stitch row – except for the last stitch.

The last stitch of the previous row has two vertical bars – one yellow and one teal – Insert your hook into both these vertical bars, yarn over and pull through into a loop to complete the forward pass.

Reverse Pass (Row 3)

Step 1: Join yellow yarn as shown in the pictures below. Make sure that the strand of yellow yarn is behind the teal yarn while joining. Do not pull the teal strand to close the loop.

If you continue to change color at the beginning of the reverse pass of each row, the last stitch will consist of two vertical bars of different colors. I made a few more rows with the color change. You can see how the last stitch is aligned with the rest of the stitches of the row.