Tunisian Leaf Stitch

In this video, Mary Beth Temple demonstrates how to crochet the Tunisian Leaf stitch. This stitch pattern is worked onto a background of Tunisian Simple Stitch by working some Tunisian Double Crochet stitches in some specific places to create the leaf motif. Leaves can be placed anywhere you choose within the fabric.

On the forward pass, Mary Beth pulls up loops from the vertical bars and places them on her hook until she reaches the location where she intends to place the leaf motif (so far this is just like a regular forward pass in the Tunisian Simple Stitch pattern).

Once she reaches the place where she wants to add the leaf, she makes a Tunisian DC into the bar that is 1 row down and 2 stitches before the working bar*. She makes a second Tunisian DC two rows down, and 1 stitch before the working bar. A third Tunisian DC is made 3 rows below the working bar. This is the center of the leaf. She then continues with a Tunisian DC that is 2 rows below and 1 row after the working bar, followed with a Tunisian DC that is 1 row below and 2 bars after the working bar. There are now 5 Tunisian DC in a row on the hook. Mary Beth then makes a yo and draws through all five of those DC loops. This allows the stitch count to remain consistent.

To continue, you will need to skip the working bar (because the decrease that was just made will replace that working bar), and continue working in Tunisian Simple Stitch across to the end of the row.

*Note: the “working bar” referred to above, is the bar that would be considered the next bar to work into if we were continuing in the Tunisian Simple Stitch pattern.

After completing the forward pass, you will need to work a standard return pass (as for the Tunisian Simple Stitch): Yo, and pull through one loop on the hook, *yo and pull through two loops, repeat from * across until only one loop remains on the hook.

This is such a beautiful little detail that is so fun to incorporate into your own designs.
How do you plan to use this stitch? Let us know in the comments below!