 Hey guys Tasha here from start of school crochet this week stitch explorer tutorial is going to be a Tunisian crochet stitch and It's called the alternating cross stitch. It's really awesome. It has a nice Fabric on both the backside and the front side. It's really cool. It's a thick fabric So you can probably use it for a scarf or a hat Anything you want basically so grab your hook in your yarn. I'm using I love this cotton and a 5.5 millimeter hook We're going to start by working an even number of chains and Go ahead and make your slipknot and then chain any even number of chains You're going to want to add two at the end The two the two extra is for your edge stitches So that's really important if you're going to work a pattern with the stitch So once you get all your chains, we're going to start working back into the chain So Tunisian crochet forward pass you insert your hook into the chain Yarn over and pull up a loop and You do that across the entire chain So if you are going to work a long chain you might need to go buy a Tunisian hook But right now I'm just using a regular old crochet hook So once you do that Complete your stitches. Make sure you have the right number of bars on your hook and Then to do your reverse pass you yarn over pull through one loop Which is kind of like a chain then you're going to yarn over and Pull through two loops at a time until you get back to the beginning and you only have one loop left on your hook And you just keep doing that until you get back to the beginning Tensions are really important when you're doing Tunisian crochet Also just to mention that because it can get very loose at in spots So you just have one loop now We're going to work the first row or the second row of our alternating stitches. Those are our edge stitches So the very first one is an edge stitch, but for this first row We're going to skip that first bar and we're going to work into the second bar first So you insert it into the bar yarn over and pull up a loop then we're going to go back into the skipped bar And we're going to do the same thing insert your hook around that bar Yarn over and pull up a loop so they will have three loops on our hook Two bars plus the edge stitch and you work that across this entire row And that's going to be the first set of crossed stitches that we're working So skip one bar and then work into the next Hold it with your thumb the loop on your hook. It's a lot easier that way Can you pull it up? So there we have our stitches coming out Keep skip one and then go back and Work into the skipped stitch and hold it with your thumb because it makes it a whole lot easier So it doesn't slip forward It also helps you keep your tension a little bit better Sometimes the skipped bars will get lost too. So keep an eye on that bar on where it is So we work this pattern all the way to the end and Then we have our edge stitch. So we're going to just do a normal edge stitch an Edge stitch is worked By going into the two bars on the side or the two Two bars of the chain on the side and then we're going to do a reverse pass just like normal And count your stitches make sure you have as many bars on your hook as possible that I mean that you started with There we're going to do our reverse pass by chaining one Yarning over and pulling through two loops at a time until we get back to the beginning and Tunisian crochet you don't normally flip your work So here we're back at the beginning and for row three. We're going to alternate these So we're going to go straight in to the first bar and work a regular Tunisian simple stitch So go into that first bar yarn over and pull up a loop. Then we're going to start our cross stitches We're going to skip one and work into the next Yarning over and pulling up then going back to the skipped bar and working through that And you do that all the way to the end See how the bar got a little it hides a little bit. So it depends on the yarn you use I suppose Okay, so keep working that all the way across when we get to the end We're going to do one simple stitch through the last bar before the edge stitch and then we're going to do a normal edge stitch by working through two Two loops of that last Edging you want to make sure you have two on there and our reverse passes as normal chaining one and Then yarning over and pulling through two at a time until we reach the beginning again almost there And I'm just kind of working through this with you so you can see how it's done Since it's Tunisian and not regular crochet. So there we have our Complete repeats we're going to repeat row two and row three Alternating the stitches so for the next one you're going to to go back to your regular and start skipping the first stitch and working into the second and Then repeating that across and then when you do row three again you're going to do a simple stitch for the first stitch and then then start your cross pattern and Keep working that all the way up until you reach your desired height. So here I have my finished swatch and I'm going to show you how to bind off since Tunisian has a funny way So go through the first bar and the top bar of the center between the two stitches and do a slip stitch So you're going to go through that bar and then also the front horizontal bar and Just slip back through When you do it like this it kind of creates a Finished look to the top of it and it also is Very good to block these pieces when you're finished because Tunisian crochet does have a tendency to curl I'd recommend going up one hook size from the recommended yarn hook size on the yarn because Tensions really important and if you don't want you do kind of want to You kind of want to crochet loose for these for sure and I'm just going to work through these also Just to show you kind of what it looks like and gives you a nice edge So we're at the end you're going to work a normal edge stitch Go through yarn over pull up and then slip it on through and that's it. It's super easy and Hopefully this introduced you to a new technique for crochet if you get bored with those single crochets and double crochets leave a comment below or Subscribe to my channel and hit the little bell button You can get notified of all my stitch tutorials and all my free patterns that I like to release. So Have a great weekend you guys. Happy crocheting. Take care