How to Work Tunisian Purl Stitch.

Use smooth yarn and a hook with enough usable shaft to hold nine loops without crowding them against a handle.

Chain nine, pick up a loop in the second chain and each remaining chain, and keep all the loops on the hook. With the original active loop, the total is nine. Complete the standard return pass, beginning through one loop and then through pairs until one remains.

Make two complete simple-stitch rows above that setup, retaining the nine-position width. These rows make it easier to find the bars while learning the purl movement. They are preparation for this sample, not extra rows to insert into every pattern.

The loop already on the hook represents the first edge. Leave its vertical bar unworked and locate the next interior front bar.

Bring the working yarn to the front of the sample, below the hook. Keep that strand where you can see it as you insert. If it slips behind the fabric before you begin, you are back in the ordinary simple-stitch starting position.

1. With the working yarn in front, pass the hook sideways beneath the next front vertical bar.
2. Keep the front strand beneath the hook while guiding the working yarn back behind the hook.
3. Catch a yarn over and draw a new loop through the bar.
4. Leave the new loop on the hook, then bring the working yarn forward again before entering the next interior bar.

You add one retained loop at each position. Do not leave an extra unworked yarn over on the shaft between stitches. The strand placed across the front makes the purl texture; an accidental extra loop changes the count.

Repeat across seven interior positions for this nine-stitch sample.

Move the working yarn behind the fabric for the far edge. Rotate that edge slightly towards you, find its outside V and draw up the last loop beneath both strands.

Count nine loops: the retained starting loop, seven interior purl loops and the final edge loop. Check now, while the individual pickups are still visible.

If there are ten, look for an extra yarn over or a first edge worked twice. If there are eight, check whether a bar or the last edge was omitted. Do not try to compensate by changing the return pass without finding the cause.

Without turning the piece, yarn over and draw through one loop. Then work successive yarn overs through pairs until one loop remains.

The standard return sequence is the same as in the other basic Tunisian stitches. The difference here was the yarn position and insertion during the forward pass, not a new method of removing the loops.

Make four complete purl rows in total, including the first purl row just described. Work three more forward-and-return pairs after that first purl row. The sample then has seven completed rows: one setup row, two simple-stitch preparation rows and four purl rows. The bind-off below is a separate finish. The counter can record completed pairs, but it cannot tell whether the yarn stayed on the correct face.

For this practice, use a simple-stitch-position slip-stitch bind-off. After the last return pass, leave the retained first edge loop in place. With the yarn behind the work, slip stitch beneath each next interior front bar, then under both strands of the final edge V.

You make eight slip stitches across the remaining positions. This gives the sample a plain finishing edge; it is not a promise of an invisible purl-matching border. A pattern asking for a purlwise bind-off needs its own defined movement.

Fasten off and secure the ends without gathering the fabric.

Look at both faces and note where the horizontal strands appear. Compare it with a labelled simple-stitch sample made in the same yarn. If you measure, finish both samples by the same care-compatible process first.

Purl rows may change the way a particular fabric curls, but they are not a universal fix for excessive curl or an incorrect stitch count. The gauge guide and blocking lesson help you assess those questions separately.