Basic Tunisian Crochet – Leg Warmer

Tunisian crochet is a fun new method of crocheting. It is kinda like a mix of crochet and knit: You pick up all the stitches/loops in the forward pass. Then on the return pass you work the loops off the hook (more in the tutorial below).

The hook: All you need is a long crochet hook. There are also some special tunisian crochet hooks like mine that have a string in the end, some are just reeeally long and have a stopper at the end. If you use a normal crochet hook just take care the body is not too thick and that you don’t loose your stitches at the end.

I prefer to use a bigger hook size for tunisian crochet as I would normally do to prevent the work from being too stiff. For the yarn I used I would normally use a 3,5mm or 4mm crochet hook – here I used a 5,5mm tunisian crochet hook.

In the following tutorial we will be making a very simple but pretty leg warmer. I’ll show you the basic tunisian crochet stitch but with a twist: making it look woven!

**BASE** To start with the leg warmer measure around the biggest part of your lower leg and crochet a chain of this length.

**STEP 1** Push through the second ch from hook, yarn over and pull through the ch. You now have two loops on your hook.

**STEP 2** *(Row 1)* Push hook through next ch, yarn over and pull through ch. You now have three loops on your hook.

**STEP 3** *(Row 1)* Repeat this forward pass until the end of the row. Each loop on your hook is one (uncomplete) stitch.

**STEP 4** *(Row 1)* For the woven-effect change colour. Now working off the loops on the return pass: Yarn over and pull through the first loop on your hook. First stitch is complete now.

**STEP 5** *(Row 1)* Yarn over and pull through 2 loops to complete the second stitch.

**STEP 6** *(Row 1)* Repeat step 5 until the end of the row until only 1 loop is left. You completed the first row! You see: To finish one row you have to go back and forth – pick up all stitches and then close all stitches.

**STEP 7a** *(Row 2)* Now for the basic tunisian crochet stitch: Pull hook through the second vertical bar from your hook (the first loop you still have on the hook is the first stitch already).

**STEP 7b** *(Row 2)* Yarn over and pull through the vertical bar. You now have two loops on your hook.

**STEP 8** *(Row 2)* Push hook through next vertical bar. Yarn over and pull through the vertical bar. You now have three loops on your hook.

**STEP 9** *(Row 2)* Repeat step 8 until end. The last stitch looks a bit less obvious:

You can recognize it because it’s two strings: the last vertical bar plus one more at the very end (here it’s the tail of the new colour).

**STEP 10** *(Row 2)* Change back to the first colour for the woven effect. Yarn over and pull through one loop. First stitch is complete now.

**STEP 11** *(Row 2)* Yarn over, pull through two loops. Repeat until end until one loop is left on the hook.

Repeat the steps 7-11 until you have the length you want. I made it as long as from my ankle to my knee, this way it scrunches nicely around my lower leg.

At the end you finish off and sew together the long sides (start and end of the rows). Take care to align the stripes in colour. Optional: finish the upper part with a round of hdc.

I would also love to receive feedback about this tutorial – lets me know in the comments <3 Also if you find any grammar or wording mistakes, feel free to comment about them or send me a mail Lena@LumenMandala.de so I can correct it 🙂