Some of my friends at the 'tunisiancrochet' group at Yahoo, were trying to understand some stitches found in various places. The stitches in question were originally published in1886 by Therese de Dillmont in her massive book: The Encyclopedia of Needlework.
Rebecca Jones included these stitches in her book: Tricot Crochet-The Complete Book (Lacis Publications 2000).
Both of these books contained instructions that were vague and difficult to understand, but I have generated more modern instructions.
Front Crossed Tunisian Simple stitch- FXTss this offers instructions on the easier stitch to understand- what Ms. deDillmont called Straight Plaited Tunisian Crochet. Scroll to bottom of the page.
Giving the Diagonal Plait stitch a more modern name... would be Diagonal FXTss. My modern isntructions for this stitch are:
Row 1: Forward and Return- Pick Up loops in each chain and Drop Off as you normally would.
Row 2: Forward- ignore outer loop. Tss in 1st st. *Sk 1 st. Tss in next st. Cross in front of st just formed and Tss in skipped st. Repeat from * across row, work last st as you normally would. Return as you would for any TC st.
Row 3: Forward- ignore outer loop. *Sk 1 St. Tss in next st. Cross in front of st just formed and Tss in skipped st. Repeat from * across row. If needed, work Tss in next to last st and work last st as you normally would. Return as you would for any TC st.
Repeat Rows 2 and 3 to create pattern.
General Notes:
If working with Odd numbered stitches, you will have 1 Tss to begin Even Number Rows, and 1 Tss to end all the Odd numbered Rows.
If working with Even numberd stitches, you will have 1 Tss to Begin and End all the Even Numbered Rows; but no extra Tss on the Odd numbered rows.
Photo was taken from The Complete DMC Encyclopedia of Needlework, page 297 - Running Press, Philadelphia, Penn. 1978. This is a reproduction of the original book.
