Crochet – the one fiber art that will never be taken over by machine. You must use your own two hands to achieve this ancient art. Just you, your favorite crochet hook, and whatever luscious yarn you’ve chosen for your next wonderful project. Oh, yes, and the instructions in the crochet pattern. You need to be able to read those darn instructions to make the crocheted baby sweater or afghan of your dreams. Now that can be a problem.
First, there’s the challenge of learning what those symbols mean: ch, dc, fl – and don’t even get me started on the difference between yoh and yrh. Patterns usually include a key, letting you know that, for example, “dc2tog” means you must “(insert hook in next st, yrh and draw a loop through) twice, yrh and draw through all 3 loops on hook.” Oh, of course – I was just about to do all that!
Next, be sure you are looking at a crochet pattern in the “language” you know. US patterns use different symbols from UK patterns, and some of the same terms actually mean different stitches. Good gawd – that’s right. Pick up a UK pattern, and you’ll see the term “treble crochet” used for what would be called “double crochet” in a US pattern. And a “treble crochet” in a US pattern would translate to “double treble crochet” in a UK pattern. That’s a potential tangle, for sure.
Add to that the fact that it’s way too easy to skip a line in the instructions, or follow a line twice, while attempting to decipher a crochet pattern, with its closely spaced lines of tiny type. There are just so many ways to go wrong (ask me how I know).
But you’re not alone. It’s comforting to know that patterns have been loaded with errors and difficult to follow since the first known crochet pattern was printed in 1824, instructions to make luxury crocheted purses from gold or silver silk thread. Patterns were tricky, and they were not really meant to be followed on their own.
As Kathleen Brewster writes, “The reader was expected, it turns out, to read the pattern but to use the illustration as the more accurate guide. These patterns still relied on the reader copying from the original image. It relied heavily on the crocheter’s intuition for stitches and reading patterns and pictures.” (“A History of Crochet Patterns”)
So if our great-great-grandmothers used images to learn a new crochet design, why are we struggling to follow along with words?
Pattern designers have solved this problem, creating visual crochet diagrams, or symbol patterns.
Crochet symbol pattern. Image courtesy of Annie’s.
Symbol patterns allow you to look at a diagram of a crochet piece, sometimes color-coded, and see which stitches are used, in what order, and how they are joined. There’s a key to help you figure out the symbols, but they are so intuitive that you may not need the key. If you pick up a pattern that includes these symbol diagrams, you’ll easily understand where to begin crocheting and how to proceed.
Crochet symbol chart courtesy of the Craft Yarn Council.
But if you prefer to take it slowly rather than forge ahead, these resources will help you get started reading crochet symbol patterns:
- Start with a helpful four-minute video, “Universal Crochet Stitch Symbols,” which explains a few of the most common crochet symbols and their corresponding stitches. Watch for free at Annie’s Catalog website.
- Browse through Robin Brzozowski’s article, “Understanding Crochet Diagrams: The Key to Breaking the Code,” on the Craftsy blog.
- Take a Craftsy class from Charles Voth, “See it, Make it: Reading Diagrams.”
- If you are fortunate enough to travel to the Crochet Guild of America’s annual conference in Chicago this July, take a class from Edie Eckman, “Understanding Symbol Crochet.”
And once you get started using crochet symbol patterns, you’ll want to keep a chart handy so you can follow along, even when a new stitch symbol appears. The Craft Yarn Council offers a free chart with the most commonly used stitches: http://www.craftyarncouncil.com/chart_crochet.html
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Jennifer Hynes has spent a lifetime working on her crochet and sewing skills, beginning with making her own clothes as a teenager and continuing to explore various styles and techniques in quiltmaking. She teaches college writing and literature, and she does freelance copyediting to support her yarn and fabric addictions. Find her on Facebook, Etsy, and perhaps your local craft show/sale as Jenny’s Quilts and Crochet.
Why do people always want to ‘persuade’ others that their own preferred method is best? Some people like charts, others prefer the written instructions. Chart lovers of the knitted and crochet variety always seemrather zealous in their attempts to get everyone to love them as they do. Often they are quite pejorative about the written instructions (which they themselves have difficulty with) yet fail to see that for others it is the opposite. One system is not easier for all!
I really love crochet charts but I prefer them in tandem with written instructions, they can be hard to decipher without any written instruction at all. On the other hand they help to clarify any ambiguity of the written word. I say they work best in synergy. It’s best to provide both, but if I can’t have that, then I would prefer the written instructions. I personally don’t find abbreviations or crossing from US to UK terms very difficult, but I appreciate others do. For some, charts are a terrifying muddle of symbols despite knowing in theory how they work.
Charts are great for simple things, and much crochet remains at a basic level for many people but once you move into patterns with lots of shaping and design, they can be very perplexing indeed. Crochet has lots of variables and is not as standardised as knitting and it can sometimes be hard to see from a chart alone what the intentions of the design are.
I can follow simple Russian or Japanese patterns following charts, which is great fun but I’m afraid that doesn’t allow me to do all the patterns in the books I have, as words are important too! Having written patterns to follow really isn’t a ‘problem’, and I for one am thankful they exist.
My first crochet book was text-only, so I just figured out how to decode the pattern. When I discovered the diagrams, well that was a game-changer. For me, an overanalyzer (is THIS the first sc, or maybe they mean the first st in the row, or does this sp count…?), the diagrams cleared up any confusion. I do like having both, and now feel pretty proud of my ‘de-coding’ abilities (!), but having diagrams can be a pattern deal-breaker for me. Thanks for spotlighting crochet – the underdog in the yarn craft world!
Crochet visual charts can be almost as lovely as the finished work. I’ve embroidered many a crochet chart as a piece of fiber art on its own. Newer mandalas can be a lot of fun, but older patterns, such as Victorian antimacassars, are absolutely intriguing on their own.
Beverly, Charts are great as they read the same in any language, which is 1 more way to help bridge communication gaps.
Someone who speaks/ reads Español, Japanese 日本語 , Simplified Chinese 汉字 or any other language may prefer a pattern written for an international audience! I’m sure glad that I can read patterns made by people who speak / write languages other than American English!
There are more than 1.4 Billion people in China and about 326 Million in the USA as of July, 2018.
Anything that helps us communicate with other people seems like a good thing!
I have a written pattern that is so confusing, I think a chart would be better. But I can’t seem to get the hang of writing one out. I have stitch fiddle and stitch works and neither is really usable for this. So incredibly frustrating.
can you advice me please what would you consider to be the better programme to have to translate written patterns to a graph please.
the reason I ask this, I have been given several Heritage patterns and would like to translate them.
Thanks for your excellent web site.
Ross