How does the forward pass and return pass two-phase structure of Tunisian crochet work, and why does retaining all loops on the hook during the forward pass require a different hook than regular crochet?

Tunisian crochet is built on a two-phase row structure where no stitch is completed during the first phase and all stitches are resolved during the second. This is the foundational difference between Tunisian and regular crochet, and it is why the fabric builds differently, why the hook requirements are different, and why gauge in Tunisian fabric does not directly translate to gauge in regular crochet at the same yarn weight and hook size. In regular crochet, each stitch is completed in place: the hook enters the fabric, draws up a loop, and then works that loop off through one or more additional yarn-overs and pull-throughs, leaving only the working loop on the hook before the next stitch begins. At the end of any stitch in regular crochet, the hook holds exactly one loop — the working loop — regardless of how many stitches have been worked in the row. In Tunisian crochet, the forward pass works differently: the hook enters the fabric, draws up a loop, and then leaves that loop on the hook without resolving it. The hook moves to the next stitch position, draws up another loop, and leaves that loop on the hook too. This continues across the entire row. At the end of the forward pass, the hook holds a number of loops equal to the number of stitches in the row plus the one standing loop that was already on the hook when the forward pass began. For a row of twenty stitches, the hook holds twenty-one loops after the forward pass. All twenty-one loops are simultaneously on the hook, strung along its shaft from the tip to the back end. This physical requirement — holding a potentially large number of loops at once — is why Tunisian crochet uses a different hook than regular crochet. A standard Tunisian hook is a straight shaft six to eight inches long (much longer than a regular crochet hook) with a stopper at the non-hook end to prevent loops from sliding off the back. For narrower projects such as scarves and cowls, a straight Tunisian hook with sufficient length for the stitch count works adequately. For wider projects such as blankets or large shawls, even the longest straight Tunisian hook may not have enough shaft length to hold all the loops without crowding them, and the solution is a circular Tunisian hook: a crochet hook head attached to a long flexible cord, the same concept as circular knitting needles, where the loops accumulate on the flexible cord rather than the rigid shaft. The return pass resolves all the accumulated loops by working them off two at a time: yarn over and pull through two loops, leaving one loop on the hook, then yarn over and pull through the next two loops, and so on across the row from left to right until only one loop remains on the hook. This final single loop is the standing loop that begins the next forward pass. Each loop resolved during the return pass corresponds to one stitch from the forward pass, and the resolution sequence creates the stitch top — the horizontal bar visible at the top of each completed stitch row. The two-phase structure means that a row of Tunisian crochet is not complete until both the forward pass and the return pass have been worked. This is a practical concern for Patreon patterns that specify row counts: a pattern that says 'work forty rows' means forty complete forward-pass-plus-return-pass cycles, not forty forward passes alone. Patterns from print sources that describe Tunisian rows as just the forward pass, treating the return pass as a separate entity, produce a different stitch count than patterns that count each forward-return cycle as a single row.

Why is Tunisian crochet fabric structurally biased, and how does the asymmetry between the forward pass pickup direction and the return pass chain-off direction produce the lean?

Tunisian crochet fabric has a structural bias — a consistent lean in one direction — that is not a tension error or a beginner mistake. It is a structural property of the stitch geometry that emerges from how the forward pass and return pass interact. Understanding the cause of the bias is important for Patreon pattern documentation because it determines when bias matters and when it does not, and it explains why blocking addresses the visible manifestation of bias without eliminating its structural cause. The forward pass works from right to left across the fabric, inserting the hook through each stitch position in sequence and drawing up a loop. The return pass works from left to right, chaining loops off two at a time. The two passes travel in opposite directions across the same row, which might seem to produce a neutral, balanced stitch structure. But the stitch body is not symmetric. Each stitch consists of a vertical bar system — the front vertical bar and the back vertical bar — connected at the top by the stitch head (the horizontal bar formed by the return pass chain-off). The chain-off in the return pass creates the stitch head through a specific mechanical sequence: yarn over drawn through two loops. This sequence creates a stitch head that crosses the two underlying loops in a specific directional orientation, pulling the stitch slightly to one side as it resolves. The cumulative effect of this directional pull across all stitches in a row, and across all rows in the fabric, is a systematic lean. In Tunisian simple stitch worked with standard right-hand technique (forward pass inserting from right to left, hook orientation standard), the fabric leans to the left when viewed from the right side — the columns of stitches angle left rather than running vertically up the fabric. The lean accumulates: a short swatch may show minimal visible bias, but as the fabric grows wider and taller, the accumulated lean becomes more apparent. In a large blanket, the bias can produce a parallelogram from a worked rectangle — the top and bottom edges remain parallel and straight, but the side edges lean rather than running perpendicular to them. Blocking reduces visible bias by stretching the fabric against the lean angle and drying it in the corrected position. On natural fibers (wool, alpaca, cotton), blocking sets the fiber position through the fibers' own tendency to relax into their stretched configuration, and a well-blocked piece will show minimal visible bias. But the structural cause — the directional chain-off orientation of the return pass — is not altered by blocking. When the blocked piece is washed and dried without re-blocking, the bias reasserts because the fibers return to the configuration that the stitch geometry naturally produces. For garment construction using Tunisian fabric, the bias has practical consequences: seams cut on the fabric's lean angle will behave differently than seams cut perpendicular to it, and joining two Tunisian fabric panels along their side edges will produce a seam line that leans rather than running straight up the garment. Some Tunisian patterns exploit bias deliberately: diagonal colorwork, intentional lean in scarves and wraps, or chevron patterns that use the bias as part of the design. Patterns that need straight perpendicular side edges in the finished piece must account for the bias either by blocking under tension and seaming while blocked, or by using a stitch or hook modification that reduces bias. Interlocking Tunisian (a technique that works two separate fabric layers simultaneously, with the hook inserting through alternating layers on the forward pass) produces a more balanced stitch structure with reduced bias because the two-layer construction introduces a counter-direction constraint that partially neutralizes the lean.

How does the foundation row in Tunisian simple stitch differ structurally from all subsequent rows, and why does the starting edge show chain links rather than stitch column bars?

The foundation row of Tunisian crochet is worked differently from every subsequent row, and the structural difference is visible in the finished fabric at the cast-on edge. Understanding what makes the foundation row different is important for Patreon pattern documentation because foundation row variants produce different edge characteristics — different elasticity, different visual texture, and different stitch behavior in the first complete row of pattern stitches. In standard Tunisian crochet worked from a starting chain, the foundation row forward pass inserts through the chain stitches of the starting chain, not through a system of vertical bars. The starting chain is made exactly as in regular crochet: a slip knot, then a sequence of yarn-over-pull-throughs producing a series of chain links. Each chain link has three components visible from the right side: a top loop (the forward-facing loop on the top of the chain), a bottom loop (the rearward-facing loop under the chain), and a back bump (the small raised bar sitting on the reverse side of the chain, behind the V formed by the top and bottom loops). The standard Tunisian foundation forward pass inserts through the back bump of each chain link, drawing up one loop per chain link and leaving it on the hook. Using the back bump rather than the top loop of the chain is a deliberate structural choice: inserting through the back bump picks up the loop from the rear of the chain strand, which positions the chain's top-and-bottom-loop V on the bottom edge of the emerging fabric, where it will show as the starting edge once the row is complete. The finished bottom edge of a Tunisian piece started with the standard back-bump foundation forward pass shows a row of chain links — the top-and-bottom V of each starting chain link is visible as a clean chain along the bottom of the fabric. This chain edge is recognizable as a cast-on edge and is structurally different from the top edge of a completed row, which shows a row of horizontal stitch-head bars. The chain bottom edge is slightly less elastic than the stitch column bars of subsequent rows because chain links do not have the same stretch as the stitch head bars created by the return pass chain-off. Subsequent rows after the foundation row do not insert through chain links. Once the foundation forward pass is complete and the foundation return pass has resolved all loops, the second forward pass inserts through the vertical bar system of the first completed row. In Tunisian simple stitch, this means inserting through the front vertical bar of each stitch in the row below — the forward-facing upright strand that is part of each stitch column. This front vertical bar insertion continues identically in every subsequent forward pass row. The structural consistency of the stitch body from row two onward means that the fabric has a uniform appearance across all rows except the first. The foundation row is visually distinct in the finished piece: the stitch body in the first row is formed over the chain pick-up, while the stitch body in all subsequent rows is formed over the vertical bar pick-up. The two structures are similar but not identical — the chain pick-up produces a slightly different stitch angle at the bottom of the first-row stitch compared to the vertical bar pick-up in all other rows. This visual difference is minimal in most yarns and projects, but in fine thread Tunisian crochet (worked in size 10 crochet thread for decorative textiles), the difference is visible under close inspection. An alternative starting method that produces a more elastic and visually consistent starting edge is the Tunisian foundation row, analogous to the foundation chain in regular crochet: instead of making a starting chain first and then working the foundation forward pass through it, the foundation row forward pass creates both the starting chain and the first forward pass loop simultaneously in one combined motion per stitch. The Tunisian foundation stitch creates a chain link and a forward pass loop at the same time, so the cast-on edge has the same structure as a return-pass stitch head bar rather than the V-link structure of a starting chain. The resulting starting edge is more elastic and slightly more visually consistent with the rest of the fabric.

How do Tunisian simple stitch, Tunisian knit stitch, and Tunisian full stitch differ in their hook insertion mechanics, and why does the insertion point determine the stitch face visible on the right side of the fabric?

The three foundational Tunisian stitch constructions — Tunisian simple stitch (TSS), Tunisian knit stitch (TKS), and Tunisian full stitch (TFS) — all share the same two-phase row structure (forward pass accumulates loops, return pass chains them off), but they differ in where the hook enters the stitch during the forward pass. The insertion point determines what the stitch face looks like on the right side of the fabric, what the wrong side shows, how densely the fabric builds, and how the stitch interacts with the fabric's overall drape. In Tunisian simple stitch, the hook inserts through the front vertical bar of the stitch below. What is the front vertical bar? In any completed Tunisian stitch column, looking at the fabric face-up (right side toward you), each stitch shows a system of two vertical strands rising from the stitch head bar of the row below to the stitch head bar of the current row. The front vertical bar is the strand of the stitch column that faces directly toward you — the forward-facing component of the stitch column's V-shape. The back vertical bar is the rear-facing strand of the same column, sitting directly behind the front vertical bar. TSS inserts the hook through only the front vertical bar, sliding the hook tip between the front bar and the back bar, drawing up a loop, and leaving that loop on the hook. The back vertical bar is not picked up; it remains unworked, sitting on the back surface of the fabric. Over many rows of TSS, the accumulated unworked back vertical bars create a characteristic texture on the wrong side of the fabric: horizontal ridges running across the wrong side at the base of each stitch row, produced by the rows of unworked back bars lying across the fabric back. The right side of TSS shows a smooth-faced grid with clear stitch column bars and horizontal stitch head bars — a slightly tweedy surface texture that is the classic appearance of the Afghan stitch. In Tunisian knit stitch, the hook inserts between the front and back vertical bars — into the center of the stitch column from front to back, pushing through to the wrong side of the fabric. The hook enters the column from the right side, passes between the two vertical bars (rather than in front of the back bar as in TSS), and draws up a loop from the yarn on the wrong side of the fabric through the center of the stitch column. The resulting loop, when drawn from the wrong side through the center of the stitch column to the right side, produces a stitch face at the top of the column that looks like a knit stitch V — the characteristic inverted-V shape that appears on the knit face of stockinette in hand knitting. The V-shaped stitch face is not produced by a different yarn manipulation sequence; it is produced entirely by the insertion path. Inserting between the two vertical bars pulls the front bar forward and the back bar rearward as the drawn-up loop clears the column from back to front, which arranges the yarn into a V-arch at the stitch top rather than the straight horizontal bar that TSS produces. The Tunisian knit stitch fabric is often described as resembling stockinette knitting from the right side, and the resemblance is genuine: the V-shaped stitch faces arranged in columns and rows produce the same visual pattern as hand-knitted stockinette at comparable yarn sizes. TKS fabric is slightly stretchier in the horizontal direction than TSS fabric because the between-bar insertion releases more of the stitch column's tension into the drawn-up loop. In Tunisian full stitch, the hook inserts through both the front and back vertical bars simultaneously — the hook tip passes behind both bars, capturing both in a single pick-up motion. The result is a loop drawn through both vertical bars of the stitch column together. The full stitch pick-up uses more yarn per stitch than either TSS or TKS because the loop must travel around and through both bars rather than one, and the resulting stitch is thicker and more solid — the fabric built from TFS is denser, stiffer, and heavier than TSS or TKS fabric at the same yarn weight and hook size. TFS is used when dense fabric coverage is the goal: structured bags, thick pot holders, firm coasters. The wrong side of TFS fabric does not show the unworked back-bar ridges that TSS wrong sides show, because TFS picks up both bars, leaving no unworked bar to form a ridge on the wrong side. The choice among TSS, TKS, and TFS in a Patreon pattern must be stated explicitly rather than shown only in an illustration, because the three stitches look similar in non-close-up photographs and have different gauge properties. A pattern designed for TKS fabric will produce different dimensions if worked in TSS or TFS even at the stated gauge, because the insertion mechanics produce different fabric structure at the same stitch and row counts. Patterns should state the stitch name, describe the insertion point in words, and provide a gauge swatch measurement both before and after blocking, because Tunisian fabric's characteristic curl distorts unblocked gauge measurements — a blocked swatch will measure differently from an unblocked swatch of the same row and stitch count.

How does the Apple Tax affect Tunisian crochet and fiber arts creator Patreons, and what are the iOS percentages for crochet audiences on YouTube, Instagram, and Pinterest?

Tunisian crochet has a concentrated creator community primarily on YouTube (long-form stitch technique tutorials and project construction videos), Instagram (close-up stitch photography and colorwork pattern documentation), and Pinterest (stitch reference boards and pattern discovery). Tunisian crochet as a distinct technique specialty sits within the broader fiber arts and crochet creator economy, and its audience characteristics closely track the broader crochet audience on each platform: predominantly female, adult, using mobile devices, with a strong iOS skew. YouTube is the primary tutorial platform for Tunisian crochet because the technique's two-phase row structure is best understood through motion video — still photographs can show the end result of a forward pass (all loops on hook) or the beginning of a return pass, but the transition between them requires watching the hand motion in real time. Tunisian colorwork patterns — which involve carrying multiple yarn colors across the forward pass and managing color changes during the return pass — are particularly suited to video instruction because the yarn management sequence for multiple simultaneous colors requires following the exact order of operations in each phase. Instagram hosts stitch close-up photography and colorwork pattern documentation; the Tunisian crochet community on Instagram is smaller than the regular crochet community but is consistent and engaged, with creators sharing stitch library posts (one post per named stitch variant, showing the insertion mechanics and finished stitch face) that function as searchable reference material for their audience. Pinterest drives pattern discovery and project inspiration for Tunisian crochet in the same way it does for other craft categories: image search returns stitch swatches, finished blankets with colorwork patterns, and project collections that lead discovery audiences to specific creators' Patreon or paid pattern pages. The mobile device distribution across these platforms for crochet and fiber arts content is consistently iOS-heavy. The iOS proportions for platforms where Tunisian crochet and fiber arts creators concentrate their audiences: YouTube crochet and fiber arts tutorial channels: 68 to 80 percent iOS. Instagram fiber arts stitch detail and colorwork pattern accounts: 72 to 84 percent iOS. Pinterest crochet pattern and project inspiration boards: 74 to 86 percent iOS. Facebook fiber arts and crochet technique groups: 63 to 75 percent iOS. From November 1, 2026, Patreon passes Apple's 30 percent App Store commission directly to creators rather than absorbing it as a platform cost. The commission applies to every patron subscription processed through the Patreon iOS app using Apple's in-app purchase system. For a Tunisian crochet creator whose patrons are 74 percent iOS subscribers who subscribed through the Patreon app on their iPhone, 74 percent of their gross monthly revenue is subject to a 30 percent pass-through to Apple before the creator receives any payment. Three representative monthly revenue calculations for Tunisian crochet and fiber arts Patreon creators: at $100 per month with 70 percent iOS — $100 times 0.70 times 0.30 equals $21.00 per month, which amounts to $252.00 per year permanently redirected from creator revenue to Apple beginning November 2026; at $200 per month with 74 percent iOS — $200 times 0.74 times 0.30 equals $44.40 per month, which amounts to $532.80 per year; at $400 per month with 78 percent iOS — $400 times 0.78 times 0.30 equals $93.60 per month, which amounts to $1,123.20 per year. The mechanism that allows the Apple Tax to be avoided is web-only checkout. Apple's in-app purchase requirement and commission apply only to subscriptions processed through a native iOS app using Apple's payment infrastructure. A patron who opens a web browser on their iPhone and subscribes through a web payment form is using Stripe's payment infrastructure directly, and the Stripe transaction carries no Apple commission regardless of the device used. KeepTier provides a hosted web-only membership page that routes all subscriptions through Stripe in a web browser regardless of the patron's device, and the November 1, 2026 deadline is public, fixed, and announced by Patreon.

Explainers

Patreon for Tunisian crochet creators: how the forward pass retains all loops on the hook and the return pass chains them off as a two-phase row construction (no row completes until both passes are done), why Tunisian fabric has a structural bias produced by the asymmetry between forward pickup direction and return chain-off direction, how Tunisian simple stitch (front vertical bar insertion) differs from Tunisian knit stitch (between-bar insertion) and Tunisian full stitch (both bars), why the foundation row has a different bottom edge texture than subsequent rows, and the Apple Tax on iOS-heavy fiber arts Patreon audiences from November 2026

2026-09-17 · ~5,900 words

Tunisian crochet tutorial videos show the forward pass and the return pass in motion — the hook picking up loops across the row, then the return pass chaining them off — but they rarely pause to state why retaining all loops on the hook during the forward pass is the structural feature that makes Tunisian different from every other crochet form, why the finished fabric has a consistent lean that blocking reduces but does not eliminate, or what the mechanical difference is between Tunisian simple stitch, Tunisian knit stitch, and Tunisian full stitch at the level of hook insertion path. Every Tunisian row is a two-phase construction: the forward pass accumulates loops without resolving any of them, the return pass resolves all accumulated loops in reverse sequence until one remains. The fabric’s structural bias comes from the directional asymmetry between those two passes. The three named stitch variants differ only in where the hook enters the vertical bar system of the row below. This post documents the mechanical layer that most Tunisian instruction compresses, the structural variables that determine whether a piece reproduces a pattern’s intended gauge and drape, and the Apple Tax that iOS-heavy fiber arts audiences will impose on creator revenue from November 2026.

Forward pass and return pass: how every Tunisian row is a two-phase construction, why no stitch is completed during the forward pass, and what the loop count on the hook at the end of the forward pass tells you about the row structure

In regular crochet, each stitch is completed in place before the next one begins. The hook enters, draws up a loop, works that loop off through one or more additional yarn-over-and-pull-through motions, and the hook returns to holding exactly one loop — the working loop — ready to begin the next stitch. The stitch count on the hook never changes during normal work: it is always one loop between stitches and during the completion of any individual stitch. This self-contained stitch-by-stitch construction is what makes a regular crochet hook usable at any standard length, because the hook never needs to hold more than one loop at a time.

Tunisian crochet works on a different principle. During the forward pass, the hook enters the stitch, draws up a loop — and then does not resolve it. The loop stays on the hook, and the hook moves to the next stitch position, picks up another loop, and leaves that one on the hook too. Every loop picked up in the forward pass accumulates on the hook shaft without being resolved. The hook keeps all of them simultaneously. For a row of thirty stitches, the forward pass ends with thirty-one loops on the hook: the thirty loops picked up in the forward pass plus the one standing loop that was already on the hook at the start of the forward pass from the previous row’s return pass.

This accumulation is the defining structural feature of Tunisian crochet. A row is not complete when the forward pass is done — it is half complete. The forward pass establishes the positions of all stitches in the row and captures the working yarn at each position, but none of those captures has been resolved into a finished stitch top yet. The stitches exist as loops on the hook, waiting. The return pass is what completes them.

The return pass works in the opposite direction from the forward pass: where the forward pass traveled right to left, the return pass travels left to right. The return pass resolves the accumulated loops by chaining them off in pairs: yarn over, draw through two loops, which reduces the loop count on the hook by one. This yarn-over-through-two is repeated across the row, working from the hook tip toward the standing loop end, until only one loop remains on the hook. That final single loop is the standing loop for the next forward pass — the seed from which the next row’s accumulation will grow.

The return pass begins with a specific starting sequence before the two-at-a-time chain-off begins. The standard start is: yarn over, draw through one loop only (not two). This creates a single chain stitch that establishes the stitch height for the first stitch of the next forward pass and aligns the top of the first stitch column. After this single-loop start, the return pass proceeds with yarn-over-draw-through-two-loops for every remaining loop pair. Some patterns describe the return pass start as “chain one” because the single yarn-over-through-one produces a chain stitch; other patterns describe it as the first step of the return pass without naming it as a chain. The mechanics are identical regardless of the naming convention.

The physical result at the end of a completed return pass is a row of horizontal stitch head bars crossing the top of the now-resolved stitch columns. Each stitch head bar is produced by the chain-off of one accumulated loop during the return pass. The stitch head bars are what the next forward pass will work over — specifically, they are the upper boundary of the stitch columns whose front vertical bars the next forward pass will insert through (in Tunisian simple stitch) or between (in Tunisian knit stitch) to draw up the next row’s loops.

The hook required for Tunisian crochet must be long enough to hold all the accumulated loops of the forward pass without crowding them. Standard Tunisian hooks (also called Afghan hooks) are straight shafts approximately fifteen to twenty centimetres long, with a stopper at the non-hook end that prevents loops from sliding off the back. The stopper is not a decorative end cap: it is structurally necessary because the loops on the hook shaft during the forward pass have nowhere to stop except the end of the shaft, and a loose end would allow loops to fall off unexpectedly. For projects narrow enough that all the forward pass loops fit on the straight shaft comfortably — typically up to about forty stitches depending on yarn weight and hook diameter — a straight Tunisian hook is sufficient. For wider projects, the solution is a circular Tunisian hook: a regular crochet hook head joined to a flexible extension cord. The loops accumulate on the flexible cord rather than the rigid shaft, and the cord can be as long as needed because it coils without stressing the loops. Circular Tunisian hooks allow blanket-width projects that would be impossible on a straight hook.

A regular crochet hook cannot be used for Tunisian work on any project wider than the single hook head itself. Regular hooks have no shaft length behind the hook head and no stopper, so accumulated loops would slide off immediately. The hook requirement is not adjustable by technique; it is a direct consequence of the forward pass accumulation structure.

Structural bias in Tunisian crochet fabric: why the forward-return directional asymmetry produces a consistent lean, and why blocking reduces visible bias without eliminating the mechanical cause

Tunisian crochet fabric leans. In a swatch of standard Tunisian simple stitch worked with even tension and a straight hook, the stitch columns do not run perfectly vertical from the bottom edge to the top edge — they angle slightly to one side. This lean is the fabric’s bias, and it is a structural property of the stitch geometry, not a tension problem or a beginner error.

The bias comes from the directional asymmetry of the two-phase row construction. The forward pass travels from right to left, inserting through each stitch position in sequence and drawing up a loop. The return pass travels from left to right, chaining off loops two at a time. The two passes cross the same row in opposite directions. If the stitch structure were perfectly symmetric around a vertical axis, the opposing directions would cancel and the resulting stitch column would be vertical. But the stitch structure is not symmetric.

The resolution of each stitch during the return pass creates the stitch head bar through a yarn-over-through-two-loops sequence. This sequence draws the two adjacent loops together at an angle determined by the working direction of the return pass (left to right) and the position of the accumulated loops on the hook (strung right to left from the tip). The resolution angle is not purely horizontal — it has a slight left-to-right directional component from the return pass travel direction, and this component produces a stitch head bar that is not perpendicular to the stitch column but angles slightly. Multiplied across all stitches in a row, and accumulated across all rows in the fabric, this angular stitch head produces stitch columns that lean in the direction of the return pass.

In standard right-hand Tunisian crochet (forward pass inserting from right to left, hook held in the right hand), the lean is to the left when the fabric is viewed right-side-up. The degree of lean varies with yarn type, hook size relative to yarn weight, and individual tension, but the direction is consistent: always left for standard right-hand technique. Left-hand Tunisian crochet produces a right-lean for the same geometric reason, mirrored.

The practical effect of bias depends on the project type. In a rectangular Tunisian blanket, the bias produces a parallelogram in the untensioned state: the top and bottom edges are straight and parallel, but the side edges lean at an angle rather than running perpendicular to the horizontal edges. This is often described as the blanket looking “slanted” before blocking. Blocking the blanket — wetting it, pinning it to a flat surface in the correct rectangular dimensions, and allowing it to dry under tension — corrects the visible slant. The fiber relaxes into the blocked configuration, and the dried blanket holds its rectangular shape. The bias remains structurally in the stitch geometry, but it is not visible in the blocked fabric under normal handling.

When the blocked blanket is washed and dried without re-blocking, the bias reasserts to some degree. The reassertion rate depends on fiber: wool has a strong memory and will reassert more fully than cotton; acrylic holds blocked shape more persistently than wool but loses its blocked shape under high heat such as machine drying. Patreon patterns for Tunisian projects that require dimensional accuracy — garments, fitted accessories, structured bags — must specify blocking as a required construction step, not an optional finishing recommendation.

For garments, the bias has structural implications at seams. If two Tunisian fabric panels are seamed along their side edges, the seam line runs along the lean angle of the fabric rather than along a true vertical. In a rectangular garment body panel, the side edges of the fabric lean rather than being perpendicular to the hem and shoulder edges, so a seam joining two side edges follows a line that angles across the fabric’s stitch column orientation. This seam behavior is acceptable in loose-fitting garments where precise fit is not the design goal, but in tailored garments where side seams are structural, the bias must be blocked out and the panels seamed while still pinned on a blocking board.

The curl in Tunisian fabric is related to but distinct from the bias. Bias describes the horizontal lean of stitch columns. Curl describes the edges folding inward toward the right side when the fabric is held flat without tension. The curl comes from tension differential between the forward pass and the return pass: the return pass chain-off tends to draw loops tighter than the forward pass pick-up because the chain-off is a pulling motion that compresses each resolved loop, while the forward pass pick-up draws loops to a specific depth determined by hook insertion depth rather than a compression motion. The result is a fabric where the wrong side (the return pass face) is under slightly more compression than the right side (the forward pass face), and the differential tension causes the edges to roll toward the more-compressed face — toward the wrong side, which means curling toward the right side from the viewer’s perspective. Blocking eliminates the visible curl as well as the visible bias.

Foundation row versus subsequent rows: why the cast-on edge shows chain links, how back-bump insertion in the foundation forward pass produces this edge, and the Tunisian foundation stitch as an alternative starting method

The first row of Tunisian crochet is worked differently from every row that follows it, and the structural difference is permanently visible in the finished fabric at the cast-on edge. The cast-on edge of a standard Tunisian piece shows a row of chain links — the interlocked V-shapes of a crochet chain — rather than the row of horizontal stitch head bars that appear at every other row boundary in the fabric. This edge difference is not a defect. It is the expected result of how the foundation forward pass inserts into the starting chain.

The starting chain is made in the standard way: a slip knot on the hook, then a sequence of yarn-over-pull-throughs producing chain links. Each chain link has three components: a top loop (the forward-facing strand on the front of the chain), a bottom loop (the rearward-facing strand on the back of the chain), and a back bump (a small raised bar sitting on the reverse side of each chain link, behind the V formed by the top and bottom loops). The back bump is a third strand that is structurally part of each chain link but is not part of the V visible from the front.

The standard Tunisian foundation forward pass inserts the hook through the back bump of each chain link, not through the top loop. The back bump insertion is a deliberate choice with a specific structural result: inserting through the back bump picks up a loop from the rear strand of the chain link, which leaves the front V of the chain link — the top loop and bottom loop — sitting free at the base of the emerging fabric. When the foundation forward pass is complete and the foundation return pass has resolved all accumulated loops, the bottom of the fabric shows these free front V-shapes aligned in sequence along the cast-on edge. Each V is one chain link from the starting chain. The resulting bottom edge looks like a chain: interlocked V-links, recognizable as a crochet chain, with a slightly firmer, less elastic character than the stitch head bars that form all other row-boundary edges in the fabric.

If the foundation forward pass inserted through the top loop of each chain instead of the back bump, the starting chain’s front V would be picked up and incorporated into the forward pass loop rather than left free at the edge. The bottom of the fabric would show only a single strand at the cast-on edge — the bottom loop of each chain link, now the only remaining free component — producing a looser, more open edge texture without the chain-link appearance. Most Tunisian patterns specify back-bump insertion for the foundation forward pass to produce the clean chain edge that is characteristic of the technique; variations exist but should be specified explicitly in pattern documentation.

After the foundation row is complete (forward pass through back bumps of starting chain, plus return pass chaining off all accumulated loops), the second row’s forward pass begins working into the stitch system of the foundation row rather than into a starting chain. In Tunisian simple stitch, this means inserting the hook through the front vertical bar of each stitch in the foundation row. The front vertical bar is now available — it was created during the foundation row’s construction — and is structurally different from the back bump of a chain link. The front vertical bar is the forward-facing upright strand of the stitch column built during the foundation row. Every subsequent forward pass for the rest of the fabric inserts into front vertical bars (for TSS) or between vertical bars (for TKS) or through both vertical bars (for TFS), regardless of row number. The consistency of the insertion structure from row two onward means that the fabric body has a uniform stitch appearance, with the foundation row’s chain-link bottom edge as the single visible marker of the starting edge.

An alternative to the standard starting chain is the Tunisian foundation row, which works the starting chain and the foundation forward pass in a single combined motion per stitch. Instead of chaining a full row first and then working the forward pass through the chain, the foundation stitch creates one chain link and one forward pass loop simultaneously: chain one (creating a chain link), insert hook through the back bar of that just-made chain, draw up a loop (creating the forward pass loop for that position). The chain link is made at the same moment that the forward pass loop is drawn up, so there is never a separate starting chain row. The cast-on edge of a piece started with the Tunisian foundation stitch shows stitch head bars rather than chain links, because each foundation stitch position’s chain link is worked from and the resolution loop produced at that position has the same stitch head structure as return pass chain-offs in all subsequent rows. The Tunisian foundation row produces a starting edge that matches the appearance and elasticity of the fabric’s other row boundaries, and is preferred for garments and projects where a consistent edge all around is part of the design requirement.

Tunisian simple stitch, Tunisian knit stitch, and Tunisian full stitch: hook insertion path mechanics and why the insertion point determines the stitch face on the right side

Three Tunisian stitch constructions form the foundation of the Tunisian stitch library: Tunisian simple stitch (TSS), Tunisian knit stitch (TKS), and Tunisian full stitch (TFS). All three use the same two-phase row structure — forward pass accumulates loops, return pass resolves them — and all three are worked at the same position in the row (into the stitch column of the row below). What differs among them is where exactly the hook inserts into that stitch column.

A Tunisian stitch column has a front vertical bar and a back vertical bar. These are two parallel vertical strands, one on each face of the fabric, that together form the upright wall of the stitch column from one stitch head bar to the next. Looking at the fabric face-up with the right side toward you: the front vertical bar is the strand nearest to you, facing directly forward. The back vertical bar is the strand on the other side of the fabric, facing away from you. Between the two bars is the interior of the stitch column — an open channel through the stitch body that a hook can pass through.

In Tunisian simple stitch, the forward pass inserts through the front vertical bar only. The hook tip slides under the front vertical bar from the right side, the tip rests between the front and back bars without touching the back bar, and the loop is drawn up on the front bar side. The back vertical bar is not picked up: it stays on the back of the fabric, unworked. Over many rows of TSS, the unworked back vertical bars accumulate on the wrong side as horizontal ridges — each row’s unworked back bars lying across the wrong side surface at the base of that row’s stitch columns. This produces the characteristic wrong-side texture of TSS: horizontal ridges at regular row intervals, separated by the smooth stitch column bodies. The right side of TSS shows the front vertical bars as clear upright strands with horizontal stitch head bars crossing between them — a grid-like surface texture sometimes described as the classic Afghan stitch appearance.

In Tunisian knit stitch, the forward pass inserts between the front vertical bar and the back vertical bar. The hook enters from the right side but passes completely through the stitch column — the hook tip goes in through the front face of the column, between the two vertical bars, and exits on the wrong side of the fabric, with the hook head now past the back vertical bar. The working yarn on the wrong side of the fabric is then drawn up from the wrong side back through the stitch column interior to the right side. The loop that appears on the hook on the right side has traveled through the full thickness of the stitch column from back to front.

This through-column insertion produces a different stitch face than TSS. When the loop is drawn from the wrong side through the column to the right side, the front vertical bar is pulled slightly forward and the back vertical bar is pulled slightly backward as the loop passes between them. The exiting loop on the right side is arranged in a V-shape at the top of the column — the two legs of the V correspond to the two sides of the loop as it clears the column. This V is the stitch face of Tunisian knit stitch, and it resembles the V-shape of a knit stitch face in hand knitting. The resemblance is structural, not coincidental: both Tunisian knit stitch and hand-knitted stockinette produce their V-shaped stitch faces by drawing yarn through a stitch loop from the back face to the front face, which positions the yarn legs into a V around the top of the column or needle stitch respectively.

The practical result of the between-bar insertion in TKS is a fabric that looks like stockinette knitting from the right side. Experienced knitters who see TKS fabric for the first time often do not immediately identify it as crochet because the stitch face matches what they associate with knitting. The fabric is slightly stretchier horizontally than TSS because the through-column insertion path allows the drawn-up loop more yarn than the front-bar-only insertion of TSS. For Patreon pattern documentation, the TKS insertion instruction must be stated as “insert between front and back vertical bars, passing hook to wrong side, draw up loop from wrong side” or equivalent language that makes the through-column path explicit. “Insert through the stitch as for a knit stitch” is insufficient because it does not distinguish TKS insertion from the interpretation “insert as in knitting, which means through the back loop of the stitch” — the wrong action.

In Tunisian full stitch, the forward pass inserts through both the front vertical bar and the back vertical bar at the same time. The hook tip goes behind both bars simultaneously, capturing the full stitch column body in the hook pick-up. The drawn-up loop travels through and over both bars, incorporating both into the loop rather than passing between them (TKS) or picking up only one (TSS). The TFS loop is larger and uses more yarn than TSS or TKS at the same hook size and yarn weight because the loop must extend around the full combined thickness of both vertical bars. The resulting stitch is thicker, denser, and more material-heavy than TSS or TKS. TFS fabric has significantly more drape restriction than TSS fabric — it is stiffer and heavier for the same stitch count and dimensions. TFS is used in applications where structural density is the goal: tote bags that need to hold their shape under load, pot holders and trivets where material thickness provides insulation, rugs and mats where durability requires dense stitch construction.

The gauge differences among TSS, TKS, and TFS are not trivial. A pattern swatch in TSS at a given hook size and yarn weight will produce different stitch and row dimensions than a swatch in TKS or TFS at exactly the same hook and yarn. The differences arise from the different amounts of yarn incorporated into each stitch, the different tension produced by each insertion path, and the different way each stitch body affects the stitch above and below it. A pattern designed for TSS cannot be worked in TKS at the stated gauge and produce the same finished dimensions, even if the stitch and row counts are the same. Patreon patterns that include gauge specifications must identify which stitch the gauge was measured in and block the gauge swatch before measuring. Tunisian fabric’s curl distorts unblocked stitch and row dimensions significantly enough that unblocked gauge measurements are unreliable for finished size calculations.

A fourth stitch worth documenting for Patreon pattern accuracy is the Tunisian purl stitch (TPS). In TPS, the yarn is held to the front of the work before the hook insertion — the working yarn is moved from behind the work (its normal resting position in TSS forward pass work) to in front of the work, the hook then inserts through the front vertical bar as in TSS with the yarn in this front position, and the loop is drawn up with the yarn still positioned in front. The result is a stitch face that shows a horizontal purl bar at the stitch head rather than the upright front vertical bar of TSS. Alternating TSS and TPS stitches across a row produces a rib-like texture; working TPS rows in specified sequences creates textured pattern effects such as the Tunisian smock stitch, which groups purl stitches across a background of simple stitches to produce a gathered-surface visual effect. The yarn-to-front instruction must be explicitly documented in Patreon patterns: it is easy to miss in video tutorials because the hand motion of moving the yarn to the front and back is fast and sometimes obscured by the hook.

Apple Tax on Tunisian crochet and fiber arts Patreon audiences: iOS percentages for YouTube, Instagram, and Pinterest, with monthly revenue calculations at three income levels

Tunisian crochet and fiber arts creators distribute their work primarily across YouTube (long-form tutorial videos), Instagram (stitch close-up photography and colorwork documentation), and Pinterest (pattern and project discovery). The audience characteristics for fiber arts content on all three platforms are consistently iOS-heavy: the fiber arts and crochet audience is predominantly adult women, predominantly mobile-device users, and the mobile-device split within this demographic is iOS-dominant across all platforms where reliable platform data has been available.

YouTube is the primary platform for Tunisian crochet instruction because the two-phase row structure requires watching hand motion to understand. The forward pass accumulation — watching all the loops build up on the hook as the forward pass progresses — communicates the mechanics far more directly than a photograph of a completed row or a diagram. Return pass chain-off technique, yarn management during colorwork, and the transition between forward pass and return pass are all motion-dependent concepts best conveyed in video. Longer tutorial videos on Tunisian crochet commonly run twenty to forty minutes because they need to show the complete forward-plus-return cycle of multiple rows in real time to establish the rhythm of the two-phase row construction.

Instagram hosts Tunisian crochet stitch library content and colorwork documentation. Stitch library posts — one post per named stitch, with close-up photographs showing the insertion mechanics, the front face, and the wrong side — function as searchable reference material within the platform’s image search. Creators who document TSS, TKS, TFS, and TPS with macro-photography showing the vertical bar system and insertion path are providing genuinely different value than tutorial videos, because the still photograph allows the viewer to study the stitch structure at their own pace rather than following video in real time. The Tunisian crochet community on Instagram is smaller than the regular crochet community but engaged and relatively consistent in follow-through to purchase patterns.

Pinterest drives discovery for Tunisian crochet in the same way it does for all craft categories: image search returns finished project photographs (blankets, scarves, garments, colorwork panels), and viewers who find a project they want to replicate follow through to the creator’s page or pattern source. Tunisian colorwork — which produces a woven-looking fabric surface with multiple colors per row — photographs well and spreads on Pinterest because the visual effect is striking and unusual for a piece described as crochet.

The iOS proportions for platforms where Tunisian crochet and fiber arts creators concentrate their audiences: YouTube crochet and fiber arts tutorial channels: 68 to 80 percent iOS. Instagram fiber arts stitch detail and colorwork pattern accounts: 72 to 84 percent iOS. Pinterest crochet pattern and project inspiration boards: 74 to 86 percent iOS. Facebook fiber arts and crochet technique groups: 63 to 75 percent iOS.

From November 1, 2026, Patreon passes Apple’s 30 percent App Store commission directly to creators rather than absorbing it into the platform fee. The commission applies to every patron subscription processed through the Patreon iOS app using Apple’s in-app purchase system. For a fiber arts creator whose patrons are 74 percent iOS subscribers who subscribed through the Patreon app on their iPhone or iPad, 74 percent of their gross monthly Patreon revenue is subject to a 30 percent pass-through to Apple before the creator receives any portion of that revenue.

Three representative monthly revenue calculations for Tunisian crochet and fiber arts Patreon creators: at $100 per month with 70 percent iOS — $100 multiplied by 0.70 multiplied by 0.30 equals $21.00 per month, which amounts to $252.00 per year permanently redirected from creator revenue to Apple beginning November 2026; at $200 per month with 74 percent iOS — $200 multiplied by 0.74 multiplied by 0.30 equals $44.40 per month, which amounts to $532.80 per year; at $400 per month with 78 percent iOS — $400 multiplied by 0.78 multiplied by 0.30 equals $93.60 per month, which amounts to $1,123.20 per year.

The mechanism that allows the Apple Tax to be avoided is web-only checkout. Apple’s in-app purchase requirement and commission apply only when a subscription is processed through a native iOS app using Apple’s payment infrastructure. A patron who opens a web browser on their iPhone or iPad and subscribes through a web payment form is completing the transaction through Stripe’s payment infrastructure, and the Stripe transaction carries no Apple commission regardless of the device. The patron’s device type does not determine whether Apple takes a commission — the payment infrastructure path does.

KeepTier provides a hosted web-only membership page that routes all patron subscriptions through Stripe in a web browser. Patrons who receive a KeepTier link and click it on their iPhone open a browser-based Stripe Checkout, not a native app purchase flow. The November 1, 2026 deadline is public, fixed, and announced by Patreon. Creators who migrate their membership before that date avoid the pass-through on all subscriptions initiated on the web, including subscriptions from patrons who exclusively use iOS devices.