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Tunisian crochet tutorial – Reverse Stitch (trs)

Here is another Tunisian crochet stitch that I have started using recently. It is a non-curling stitch and can be combined with other stitches to make some very beautiful patterns!

Here is the front and back of a Tunisian Reverse Stitch swatch.

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.

Curling

The fabric built with this stitch should not curl.

Video Tutorials

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

Right handed

Left handed

Photo Tutorial

The most important thing in making this stitch is to figure out where you would insert your hook. Every Tunisian stitch usually has 2 vertical bars. In the picture below, the blue pin indicates the front vertical bar and the pink pin indicates the back vertical bar. To make the Reverse Stitch, the hook is inserted from behind the project in the vertical bar indicated by the pink pin.

Let’s get started with the tutorial!

Forward pass

Step 1: The first stitch of the forward pass is the one that is on your hook. You do not have to do anything to make the first stitch.

Step 2: Identify the back vertical bar of the next stitch. Insert the hook into that vertical bar, yarn over and pull through into a loop on the hook.

Step 3: Identify the back vertical bars all the way to the end of the row. Do this for all the stitches except for the last one: Insert the hook into the back vertical bar, yarn over and pull through into a loop on the hook.

Step 4: To make the last stitch, find the two vertical bars of the last stitch of the previous row (indicated by the pink pin in the picture below): the ones in the front and the back. Insert hook into both those bars, yarn over and pull through both the vertical bars on the hook. You can see a detailed explanation of this step in the Tunisian Simple Stitch tutorial.

Reverse Pass

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.

In Tunisian crochet, the stitches on any given row are defined by how you crochet the next row. The row that was just made defined the one before it as a Tunisian Reverse Stitch row.

Pin it!

More Tunisian Crochet tutorials:

Please leave me a message or send me an email if you have any questions about this technique.

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Happy crocheting!

~Arunima

Darlene

Tuesday 22nd of June 2021

Hi Arunima and others, I really love the look and feel of this stitch, but at first found it very difficult to find and get the hook into the back vertical loop from behind. So instead I tried doing the Reverse Tunisian Stitch, and it seems to be a more sure and hassle free way of doing it (although still a bit slow!) a)[With the front of your work always facing you, and with yarn in back,and lying to the right of your hook] Insert hook, from behind, into first space (between sets of vertical bars) b)Press the back of the hook against the back vertical bar of the next pair of vertical bars, and, at same time c)push the hook all the way through to the back of the work, and between the two vertical bars [as if to begin Tunisian Knit Stitch] d) [In back of your work] Yarn around hook, bring up loop

Repeat steps a) to d) across, up to last two vertical bars, hook into those bars (from front), draw up loop.

Hope this helps.

Arunima

Tuesday 29th of June 2021

@Darlene, Thank you for leaving a comment with what worked for you. It is always helpful to see other ways of doing the same thing :) I am sure, this will help others too!

Arunima

Darlene

Tuesday 22nd of June 2021

@Darlene, Hi, correction: First paragraph should end with "so I tried doing the Reverse Tunisian Stitch using this method that I improvised, and it seemed to work"...

Ari

Thursday 7th of January 2021

Minor correction: I think you copied-and-pasted from your Full Stitch tutorial. The last line says: "The row that was just made defined the one before it as a Tunisian Full Stitch row."

Arunima

Friday 8th of January 2021

Hello Ari, thank you so much for pointing this out. You are right, it was a copy-paste error from the Full Stitch tutorial. I really appreciate you leaving me a note about it!

Jeremy

Tuesday 29th of December 2020

I have been gradually working on this project but am finding it very difficult to distinguish between my square for the reverse stitch and my square in purl stitch. Is there some way of telling them apart?

Arunima

Wednesday 30th of December 2020

Could you share a picture of both with me - knitterknotter@gmail.com.

Carol Davis

Wednesday 1st of July 2020

How do I keep my pieces from rolling or curling?

Arunima

Friday 8th of January 2021

Hello Carol, I am so sorry I missed reading your comment. You may have already found your answer!

I am guessing this question is about other stitches and not the Tunisian Reverse Stitch because this one is a non-curling stitch. If this stitch is curling for you, the only one thing I can think of is going up a hook size.

Some other Tunisian stitches are very dense and curl a lot - using a larger hook helps usually and so does blocking.