Tunisian Crochet – Foundation Row (FR)

Tunisian Crochet – working the ‘Foundation Row’

As with normal crochet, Tunisian Crochet also starts with making a row of chains depending on how many the pattern requires.

For this tutorial, I have chained 14 in total.

In order to complete the foundation row, we have to do a ‘forward pass‘ by working into the chains from right to left.

This can be done two ways. You can either go into the chain itself or turn the chains over and go into the back bumps. The latter is my preference as it can help to reduce curling when certain stitches are worked.

We miss the first bump as this is the chain already on the hook and we go into the second bump.

Next, bring the working yarn over the hook.

We now have to pull the yarn through this loop on the hook.


You should now have two loops on the hook. The first being the chain where we did not work into the back bump and then the next loop which is the chain where we have just worked into the back bump.


Continue working into the remaining bumps until all the loops are on the hook. Using this example, I worked into 13 bumps and have 14 loops on my hook as a result of the very first bump not being worked.

We now have to work a ‘return pass‘ which is one of many terms used in Tunisian crochet. Sometimes the return pass can vary in the way it is worked depending on the stitch being used but this method is always used to complete the ‘foundation row‘.

To begin with, bring the working yarn over the hook.


We now pull it through the first loop on the hook, just like you would a slip stitch.

The loops on your hook should now look like this with a slight space between the first and second loop.


We continue in the same way working loops off the hook but we now bring the working yarn over the hook and through two loops.

Continue bringing the yarn over the hook and pulling through two loops until you have one loop left on the hook.

You have now completed a Foundation Row in Tunisian Crochet.