Tunisian Crochet is a fantastic technique, which combines skills from both knitting and crochet! Unfortunately, it also comes with a major downside: the Tunisian Crochet Curl! But have no fear, I’m here with 7 fantastic tips to help you stop Tunisian Crochet Curling once and for all.
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Before we get into the tips, we first need to make sure you all know what Tunisian Crochet is. If you’re new to it and would like to have a go, you’re in the right place. I have a beginner guide on my blog, as well as a YouTube tutorial that might be of interest.
Tunisian Crochet, also sometimes called Afghan crochet, is a unique technique that combines elements of both crochet and knitting. Like crochet, you use a hook, but this is usually much longer with a stopper on the end. Like knitting, you work multiple loops onto the hook at once.
The resulting fabric is thicker and denser than regular crochet, with a less stretchy texture. There are a large variety of Tunisian stitches available, some resembling knit stitches and others offering unique textures. All of them are really beautiful, as you can see in the samples above!
Unfortunately, it is this beautiful thick, dense fabric, that is causing us all the issues!
If you’ve been worried that you’re doing something wrong, then don’t be! You’re not! Tunisian Crochet curls up, fact!
It’s all to do with the mechanics of how Tunisian Crochet is made.
Most of the yarn in a row of Tunisian Crochet is concentrated on the reverse of the fabric. This means that the back is pushing forwards and there’s not enough yarn at the front to push back. And so, the fabric curls forwards.
Because the curling is due to how the stitches are made, you’ll find that some stitches curl more than others! Tunisian Knit Stitch and Simple Stitch are particularly bad curlers, whilst Tunisian Purl Stitch doesn’t curl at all.
You might also find that you crochet more tightly in Tunisian Crochet than regular crochet, which can make those edges curl up even more.
So what can we do?
If you prefer to watch on YouTube, check out my video: How to Stop the Curl in Tunisian Crochet!
When doing Tunisian Crochet, I would always recommend using a hook that is 2 sizes larger than you would normally use for the yarn.
So for example, if you normally use a 4mm crochet hook with a DK / light weight yarn, I would recommend you use a 6mm crochet hook for Tunisian Crochet with DK yarn.
Some people recommend only going up 1 hook size, and this may work if you are fairly loose crocheter, but I find 2 hook sizes larger works better to reduce the curl.
Tunisian Crochet Hooks tend to be different in other ways too! For starters, they are longer. They need to be able to fit lots of stitches on them after all! They often come with a stopper on the end to stop the stitches falling off.
There are a few different types. You can get long, straight metal or wooden ones with stoppers. You can also get ones with a flexible cable on the end to store all those stitches on.
If you’re making a very small sample, you can get away with using a regular crochet hook, but otherwise you’ll want to invest in one.
Blocking is a great technique for evening out stitches and flattening fabrics in crochet as well as in Tunisian Crochet. It is one that I would always recommend, even though it can be a bit frustrating and boring.
For Tunisian Crochet, it is a must. It can really help smooth out the curl a lot!
For the full effect, I’d recommend wet blocking, however do pay attention to the type of yarn you are using and don’t do anything that is likely to ruin the yarn.
My favourite low risk blocking technique is to pin your fabric to size on a foam blocking board using stainless steel, rust-proof pins. Then spray liberally with cold water, and leave to dry completely. You’ll be amazed at the difference afterwards.
Here’s a great little tip! Try adding a border of regular crochet to your Tunisian Crochet piece. This will really help to reduce the curl and flatten out your project.
If you’re making a coaster, placemat or similar, then this is the perfect option to defeat the curl! Add a border of US single crochet all the way around and see the difference! You will be amazed.
A slip stitch border also works great here, but just be careful not to pull the stitches tight, as this could make the curl worse potentially!
When you start out with a foundation chain in any crochet project, it is so easy to crochet quite tightly. So much so that many designers actually encourage going up a hook size for the foundation chain.
Because Tunisian Crochet also has a tendency for a tight tension, starting with a tight chain is going to make matters so much worse.
So, as with regular crochet, consider going up (another) hook size for the foundation chain just to make sure it is nice and loose.
And really concentrate on keeping it loose too! It can be so easy to pull it tight as you go along, but it’s important to resist the urge here!!
A nice loose starting chain will help keep the rest of the project nice and loose, and therefore hopefully stop that Tunisian Crochet curl.
As I mentioned before, Tunisian Purl Stitch doesn’t tend to curl up, unlike Tunisian Simple Stitch and Knit Stitch! So we can use this to our advantage.
Try adding a couple of rows of Tunisian Purl Stitch at the beginning of your project. No one’s going to notice it right at the start, and it will definitely reduce the curl massively.
Or how about amending your stitch pattern slightly, by adding in some rows of Tunisian purl stitch throughout your project. It could add some interesting texture, as well as helping with your curling problem.
When you are doing Tunisian Crochet and you get into the swing of things, it is very easy to make your stitches really tight. If you don’t pull up each loop to the full height of the row, you are going to end up with a very tight stitch. And this will definitely make the fabric curl up!
This is especially true in Tunisian Knit Stitch. You need to make sure that you are pulling up each loop to the height of the row and the rest of the stitches.
This is also important if you are alternating knit and purl stitch. If you don’t pull up the knit stitches to their full height, they will end up a completely different tension (and therefore size) to the purl stitches.
This is definitely my favourite tip! And a bonus one, as I originally only did 6! Join your Tunisian Crochet piece to another item. What I mean by this is that you could join many small squares of Tunisian Crochet together. If you alternate the way you put them together so that one is at 90 degrees to the previous one, this will really stop the curling.
You could join larger pieces together, like I did in the Tunis Market Bag. Here I used 4 rectangles made with different Tunisian Crochet stitches, which I then joined together. You can see that they are not curling at all!
Another great idea of joining Tunisian crocheted pieces together, is to actually join it to itself, for example in an infinity scarf.
And lastly, have you heard of Tunisian Entrelac? This is where you create a large fabric made up of lots of tiny crocheted squares, which are all joined as you go.
So there we have it. 7 great tips to stop, or at least reduce, the Tunisian Crochet Curl! I hope you’ve found this useful.
If you’ve been put off Tunisian Crochet because of the curling problem, I hope I’ve managed to persuade you to give it another go. Tunisian Crochet is a fantastic technique with so many possibilities and now that we know how to stop Tunisian Crochet curling, there’ll be no stopping us, right?!
If you’re looking to have a go at Tunisian Crochet now, head to my Beginner’s Guide.
If you’re ready to tackle an entire project, then the Tunis Market Bag is just waiting for you.
I also have lots of Tunisian Crochet video Tutorials over on my YouTube channel, which you may find really helpful.
I really hope you’ve enjoyed reading all about how to stop Tunisian Crochet curling. I’d love to connect with you on social media too @concretegemscrochet
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