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Forward Pass Short Rows

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


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: Pick up a number of sts that is less than the full row, eg pick up 4 tss ­– 5 loops on hook.

Tunisian Crochet forward pass short row left handed Tunisian Crochet forward pass short row

Optional tip: Place one marker around the front and back loops of the last st on the hook.

Short Row RetP: *Yarn over, pull through 2 loops* until 1 loop remains on hook. Note that I have omitted the usual ‘ch 1’ at the start of this RetP. 

left handed view Tunisian Crochet short row return pass complete

Row above the short row: Tss in each st until the marked st, pick up both the front and back loops of the marked st (the same as you would for an edge st at the end of a row), then continue the row like normal to the end – tss to end, pick up a loop in edge st – 10 loops on hook.

RetP: Ch 1, *yarn over, pull through 2 loops* until 1 loop remains on hook.

row above forward pass short row row above forward pass short row

There is no limit to what you can do with short rows. You can make multiple short rows on top of each other but it’s best to stagger them – don’t make them all the same number of sts or you will get holes in the work! 


Here I've continued my swatch and changed up how I positioned the short rows. I've highlighted the last loop of the forward pass in pink so you can see where the rows differ.

forward pass short rows play forward pass short rows play


You can watch a YouTube video all about this technique here.