On my site you’ll find 7 different types of Tunisian crochet decreases. Today I’d like to go into more technical details about the decrease on the return pass. It’s fairly technical. But illustrated with a video.

Return pass (RetP)

A RetP is the action of closing the loops picked up on the previous forward pass (FwdP). One by one or in groups.

A “standard” RetP starts with 1 chain (i.e. yarn over and pull yarn through 1 loop). Then you make a yarn over and you pull yarn through 2 loops, again and again. Why 2 loops? Because by pulling yarn through the first loop you actually make a chain. By pulling yarn through a second loop you close a loop that you picked up on the previous FwdP.

So, by pulling the yarn through 2 loops, you create chains (horizontal bars) in between loops (the vertical bars of Tunisian simple stitches) that you picked up on the FwdP.

Decrease

You make a decrease on the RetP by pulling yarn through 3 loops. The first loop is a chain, the 2 following loops are stitches that you picked up on the previous FwdP. You do not add a chain in between these 2 stitches. Which explains why these 2 vertical bars are leaning towards each other at the top. There is no chain, no horizontal bar available in between.

On the following FwdP, it is important to consider these 2 vertical bars as one unit, one stitch. They are not separated by a chain. So insert your hook under these 2 vertical bars at the same time.

Video

To show the thing in motion, today I posted a video on my YouTube channel. A very short, soundless video where you’ll see a RetP with a decrease and the following FwdP.