How to read a crochet pattern

Round 4, Rnd 4, Row 4

The label names one pass of the work. Round means you are working in a circle and will meet your own starting point; row means you turn at the end and come back. A pattern that says round and never tells you to turn is worked in a spiral.

The figure at the end, in brackets

How many stitches should stand on the work when that pass is finished. It is the only check you get. Count to it before you carry on, because an error found on round three costs three rounds and an error found on round nine costs nine.

An asterisk

Marks the start of a piece to be repeated. Everything from the asterisk up to the words that send you back is worked again, as many times as it says.

Round brackets and square brackets

Group stitches that go into one place. Two double crochets and a chain inside one bracket, followed by a place to put them, means all of it goes into that single stitch or space.

In the same stitch, against in the next stitch

The difference between the work growing and the work staying the same width. Two stitches in the same place adds one; two stitches in two places adds none.

A chain space

The gap under a chain that was made in an earlier pass. You work into the hole itself, not into the strands that make it, which is what turns a granny square from a lumpy disc into a square with corners.

Does not count as a stitch

Said of a turning chain. It gets you up to the height of the row and then stays out of the count. If a pattern is silent about it, work one round and count what you have against the figure in brackets.

Joined rounds against a spiral

A joined round finishes with a slip stitch worked back into its own first stitch, then a chain to begin again, which leaves a visible seam running up one side. A spiral never joins and shows no seam, so park a marker into that opening stitch or the place is gone.

Why so many counts on this site are missing

Of the 305 round instructions here, 94 end without a figure, because the pattern they were taken from never printed one. Nothing was recounted to fill those gaps. A count nobody has worked is a guess, and in brackets it is indistinguishable from one the designer counted.

A further 8 carry a figure a program worked out from the stitch pattern rather than one the designer printed. Those cells are ringed on the page and the pattern says so under its last round. Count that pass yourself before you trust it.

The abbreviation table spells out every short form, and the US and UK table settles which system a stray pattern is written in.