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This Tunisian Crochet Earwarmer is an easy way to learn the basic Tunisian crochet stitch and make a quick winter accessory for yourself or for gifting.
I bought some of the Red Heart Heat Wave yarn, which is sunlight activated to be even warmer than regular yarn. I wasn’t sure what to do with it but I decided on this little earwarmer to try it out. It would be perfect to wear on a walk on a cold winter day.
What is Tunisian Crochet?
If you’ve never done Tunisian crochet before, it’s kind of a mix of knitting and crochet. You use a crochet hook with a cable on the end (or a long crochet hook) and pick up stitches along the row, holding the loops on the hook and the cable as you go.
Then you work across in the opposite direction, closing those loops as you go. You never turn the work in Tunisian crochet.
It’s like knitting in that the fabric that is formed looks more like knitting than crochet. There are lots of different stitches and one is even called Tunisian knit stitch because the resulting fabric looks like Stockinette Stitch.
How to Work Tunisian Crochet
This most basic Tunisian crochet stitch is often called basic or easy stitch, or sometimes Afghan stitch because of the popularity of Tunisian crochet to make blankets in the 1970s.
To start, make a chain of the number of stitches you need. Work into each stitch of the chain, pulling up a loop and leaving each one on the hook.
Once you reach the end of the chain, yarn over and pull through the first loop. Yarn over and pull through two loops, and continue the yarn over, pull through two loops across the row until you’re back to one stitch on the hook.
Now you’ll see the stitches from the row you just worked look like a couple of strands of yarn. Put your hook into the stitch, behind the first strand of yarn. Yarn over and pull up a loop, leaving the loop on the hook. Repeat across. When you get to the end, work back as before, pulling through one loop the first time and two loops for the rest of the stitches across.
And now you basically know how to make the Tunisian crochet earwarmer.
Tunisian Crochet Earwarmer
For this project you need about 60 yards of medium weight yarn and a size J-10 6mm crochet hook. Mine is Heat Wave in Bikini.
Gauge isn’t all that important but I got 14 stitches and 12 rows per 4 inches/ 10 cm in Tunisian simple stitch.
The finished size on mine is about 4.25 inches wide, and you stitch it about an inch shorter than the measurement around your head (measured over the top, around the ears and the back of the head). In my case that’s 23 inches.
Chain 15.
Work in Tunisian simple stitch for 23 inches or to desired length.
To finish the work, form the stitch as established but then pull the loop through the loop on the hook (as you would in regular crochet) and finish off the project at the end of the row.
Sew the short ends of the piece together (I do something kind of like mattress stitch if you’re a knitter and know what that is, where you pick up a stitch on each side from behind and pull closed, but any stitch will do).
If you don’t like it as wide you can chain any number of stitches, or fold it in half and wear it as a headband.
About Heat Wave Yarn
Red Heart Heat Wave is a 100 percent acrylic yarn with UV activated, heat generating technology that they say keeps you up to 12 degrees warmer when wearing it.
I haven’t had a cold sunny day to test it on yet, but even without that this is a nice, easy to work with acrylic to use for winter accessories (I also knit my husband a balaclava using mostly this yarn, and that worked pretty well, too.
It comes in solids and multicolored options, and a skein is 164 yards in 100 grams.
Looking for more easy Tunisian crochet patterns? Check out this fun Tunisian crochet basket.
