Tunisian Crochet in the Round

It’s no secret that I love Tunisian crochet, and doing Tunisian crochet in the round adds a fun element with some of the colorwork options! In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to do Tunisian crochet in the round (the basic technique) using tunisian simple stitch.

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Supplies

If you’re following along in the Learn to crochet series and you plan on joining your sample squares together at the end of the project, I recommend using the same yarns throughout. You’re welcome to use whatever you’d like, but here’s what I used:

• Caron Simply Soft yarn or basic yarn of your choice. in two colors. I also recommend Knit Picks/ We Crochet Brava Worsted as a good inexpensive yarn with lots of fun colors.
• Double pointed Tunisian crochet hook size I or two Tunisian hooks connected with an extender cable (size I for forward pass, H for return pass)
• Yarn Needle for weaving in ends.

Tunisian in the Round Video Tutorial

How to do Tunisian Crochet in the Round

To do Tunisian crochet in the round, it’s easiest to work with two different balls of yarn, though I have sometimes used both ends of a single skein – you just have to be careful not to get things tangled as the yarn unwinds from the outside of the skein!

Choose one of your colors to start with and make a starting chain. It doesn’t really matter how large your chain is, but if you make it really small (like I did in the video), it will be a little harder to work in the round. Join your chain with a slip stitch, being careful not to twist the chain, if possible.

Now you’ll start picking up stitches along the chain as for a regular Tunisian crochet foundation row. Eventually your circle will get tight so you won’t be able to pick up more stitches.

At this point, you’ll push your loops to the other end of your hook and turn your hook around to start working the return pass. It seems a little weird at first to work the return pass from the back, but it works!

Adding the Return Pass/Contrast Color

To work the return pass, you’ll need your other ball of yarn. With the new strand, yarn over and pull through one loop to start, then yo and pull through two loops, continuing in this fashion just like for a regular Tunisian crochet return pass. Stop when you have 3-4 loops left on your hook.

Now push the loops back to the “front” of your hook so you can pick up more stitches! As your circle gets tight, push back to the other side for the return pass. When you get around one full circle, you’ll start picking up loops as for Tunisian simple stitch (or whichever Tunisian stitch you choose to do), continuing around in a circle.

You’ll keep going back and forth from the front of your hook to pick up loops to the back of your hook to work the loops off in the return pass until you’ve reached your desired length. It’s really that easy!

Binding Off Tunisian in the Round

To finish your project with a neat edge instead of the gappy last row of tss, work the return pass until you have two loops left on your hook. Switch back to the front of your hook and pull the last forward pass loop through the last return pass loop. You should have just one loop on your hook. Now continue in the forward direction by inserting your hook in the next stitch as for tss, yo, and pull the loop through both that stitch and the loop on your hook. Repeat around until you’ve worked all the way around the circle, then join with a ss, tie off, and weave in ends.

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