Return Pass Short Rows

Short rows on the return pass are used to create a piece that has more rows on the finishing edge of the work and less on the starting edge. So, for a right-handed crocheter, more rows on the left than the right and for a left-handed crocheter, more rows on the right than the left.

Left handed photos are on the left, right handed photos are on the right.

Method

Start with a base of Tunisian simple stitches. My sample has 10 ch and 10 tss x 2 rows. 

Short Row FwdP: Worked as a normal tss row – Tss to end, pick up loop in edge st – 10 loops on hook.

Short Row RetP: Ch 1, *yarn over, pull through 2 loops* 4 times – 6 loops remain on hook. Place a marker in the 1st loop on the hook (closest to the hook). The stitch directly under the marked st is the first edge st of the short row.

Row above the short row:

FwdP: 3 tss, pick up a loop in edge st – 10 loops on hook.

RetP: Ch 1, *yarn over, pull through 2 loops* until you reach the marked st.

(Remove hook from live loop [blue], insert hook into vertical bar [pink] below the marked st [green],

reinsert the hook into the live loop (blue), yarn over, pull through three loops), *yarn over, pull through 2 loops* until 1 loop remains on hook.

The instructions within the (brackets) above create a kind of twisted or crossed stitch.

2nd row above short row: Worked as a row of tss except when you get to the twisted/crossed stitch, insert the hook under both loops of that stitch and treat those loops as one tss.

You can watch a YouTube video all about this technique here which includes some additional construction methods of return pass short rows using exactly the same techniques described above.