May 18, 2021

How To Crochet The Tunisian Smock Stitch

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Welcome back to another Tunisian Stitch tutorial: the Tunisian Smock Stitch. This is a super gorgeous stitch that looks a bit like lattice-work. In fact, I’m pretty sure that it’s also known as the Lattice Stitch.

To work the Smock Stitch, you will need to know how to do a TSS2TOG which is Tunisian Simple Stitch 2 together. It is a decrease, but you make up for it by yarning under and holding that yarn under the whole time (instead of releasing it like we do for a purl stitch).

Take Note!

This is a more difficult stitch to work and you will need to pay very close attention to where you are inserting your hook and starting and finishing each forward pass. It is a 2 row repeat and requires an even number of chain stitches to get started.

Deeper Exploration of How to Work Smock Stitch

The more detailed explanation of this stitch is as follows:

Row 1
F: Yo Purl-wise (yarn in front of hook) and hold the loop while working, insert hook behind 2
front bars and pull up a loop (you can now stop holding the loop on the hook as it is “set”),
*yo purl-wise and hold the loop, insert hook behind the next 2 front bars and pull up a loop;
rep from * to left edge stitch: yo purl-wise, and make a left edge stitch
R: Normal return pass.

Row 2
*NOTE* you might want to mark your right edge stitch and the “riff raff”
Forward Pass: Sk the “riff raff”; TSS in next bar, *yo purl-wise, TSS2TOG over next 2 front bars (one of the
bars you need will be a little hard to see); rep from * until 1 bar and the left edge stitch
remain: yo purl-wise and hold that loop, TSS last bar; work a left edge stitch as normal (no
yarn over).
Return Pass: Normal return pass.

Row 3
Forward Pass: Yo purl-wise and hold the loop while working, sk first bar and insert hook behind next 2
bars and pull up a loop; *yo purl-wise and insert hook behind next 2 bars, pull up a loop; rep
from * to end: yo purl-wise, insert into edge stitch and pull up a loop.4
Return Pass: Normal return pass.

Repeat rows 2 and 3 working both Forward and Return passes until your square measures desired sizing.

Bind off:

You can do this with a 6.5mm regular crochet hook if you prefer—with the starting
loop on your hook: Work a normal bind off for TSS—insert hook behind first bar and pull a
loop thru all loops on the hook, *insert hook behind next bar and pull a loop thru all loops on
the hook; rep from * all the way down to the end and work the edge stitch as follows: insert
hook into edge st and pull a loop thru all loops on the hook. FO. Weave in ends.

Materials List:

Note: this list contains affiliate links at no extra cost to you!

I used:

Worsted/Aran/#4 weight yarn–Brava Worsted by Knit Picks in Cornflower, Tidepool, Alfalfa, and mint. I was able to get 2 squares out of each skein. As there are 12 squares, if you are using the same yarn, you will need 3 of each. I also used Brava Worsted Speckle in Tidal for borders and joining.

You can find Brava Worsted at WeCrochet

Fiber: 100% premium acrylic

Weight: Worsted

Crochet Gauge: 11-14 sc = 4″ on I-K hooks (5.5mm-6.5mm)

Yards: 218

Grams: 100

Machine was and dry

I used a 6.5mm Tunisian hook from Furls and also one from Love To Crochet–a set I bought on Amazon.

Written Instructions

To work this swatch with me, I recommend doing at least 4″ x 4″ square to learn the stitch before doing a pattern. For the CAL, you will need to do this for 12″ x 12″ square. This stitch does not have a multiple, you can simply crochet any number of stitches until you reach the desired measurement.

Complete a normal foundation row–you can find instructions for this in the Introduction to Tunisian post, here.

Row 1

Row 1, Forward Pass: Crochet a row of Tunisian Smock Stitches, end with a normal edge stitch.

Row 1, Return Pass: Complete a normal return pass (see the introduction post, here)

Row 2

Row 2, Forward Pass: Complete a row of Tunisian Smock Stitches by skipping first bar and completing a TSS2TOG with the next 2 bars, end with a normal edge stitch.

Row 2, Return Pass: Complete a normal return pass.