Tunisian crochet tutorial – Working in a round with 2 colors

This Tunisian crochet tutorial will explain how you can work with two colors in a round. For the purpose of this tutorial, I picked the Tunisian Rib Stitch in which the yarn from the reverse pass is visible in the front of the fabric. There are other stitches like the Tunisian Knit Stitch and Tunisian Full Stitch where the reverse pass yarn is not visible in the front of the fabric. The instructions will be the same for those stitches too.

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.

Working in a round requires a double ended hook. You can join two hooks with a cord to make it work like a double ended hook. I usually use a slightly smaller hook for my reverse pass because of two reasons:

I have the Denise Interchangeable Hook Kit* and I have only one hook of each size.
A bunch of experienced crocheters have told me that working the reverse pass with a slightly smaller hook helps with the tension and curling.

I will use the blue hook for the forward pass and the yellow hook for the reverse pass. I will refer to them as forward hook (blue) and reverse hook (yellow) in this tutorial.

While working in a round, you could be making a cowl / scarf with or without a twist. This tutorial contains instructions for both.

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

No twist

Step 1: Make a chain – my chain has 40 stitches.

Step 2: Make the foundation row stitches in the back loop of each chain. If you are unaware of how to make the foundation row, you can find a photo tutorial here.

After you have some foundation stitches on the hook, move all of them to the other side (from the forward hook to the reverse hook – see pictures below).

Note: If you have a large number of chains, it is not necessary to complete the forward pass for all the foundation row stitches before moving your stitches to the other hook. You can move them to the other hook whenever you would like to start casting off.

Step 3: Reverse your work (the wrong side is in front now) and start working with the reverse hook. Join the second color as shown in the pictures below.

Step 4: Start casting off just like you normally would: This is the same as the reverse pass in the Foundation Row.

When a handful of stitches remain on the hook, move them to the forward hook and turn your work around (the right side is in front now).

Repeat steps 2 to 4 until you reach the end of the foundation row.

Step 5: This is where the join with the first stitch will happen. To help with the join, I make a knot using the tails of the two colors – see picture below.

Step 6: Now, making sure that there is no twist in the foundation row, insert your hook into the first stitch of the first row, yarn over and pull through into a loop on the hook – effectively making a Tunisian Simple Stitch.

To see how to make a twist, scroll down to the ‘With a twist’ section.

Step 7: Continue making the forward pass as you would normally make it.

I continued making Rib Stitches until I had enough stitches on my hook and I was ready to start casting off.

Step 8: When you are ready to start casting off, move the stitches to the reverse hook and turn your work (wrong side is in front now).

Step 9: Start casting off just like you normally would: This is the same as the reverse pass in the Foundation Row.

When a handful of stitches remain on the hook, move them to the forward hook and turn your work (right side is in front now) .

Repeat steps 7 to 9 until you have the desired number of rounds.

Note: The picture below shows a close up of the join. You can untie the knot and weave in the ends whenever you are ready to weave in loose ends.

I continued working on this swatch and this is how it looked after a couple of rounds.

With a twist

If you want to make a twist in your scarf, you will have to twist your foundation row twice before joining (shown in the pictures below). This is to make sure that the right side of the row is in front when you start working on the next round.

Go back to Step 6 in the instructions above and continue working as explained there.

This is how it looks after a few rows – you can see the twist in the back.

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