Before diving into a pattern, check to see if it’s written in US or UK terminology. The same stitches are named differently based on the country. All the patterns in our crochet kits are written in US terminology. Here’s a list of all the abbreviations used in our crochet kits, plus their UK equivalent:

US ABBREVIATIONS	US TERMINOLOGY	UK ABBREVIATIONS	UK TERMINOLOGY
blo	through back loops only	bl	through back loops only
ch	chain	ch	chain
dc	double crochet	tr	treble crochet
sc5tog	bobble stitch, double crochet 5 stitches together (or any number of stitches)	tr5tog	bobble stitch, treble crochet 5 stitches together (or any number of stitches)
dec	decrease	dec	decrease
flo	through front loops only	fl	through front loops only
hdc	half double crochet	htr	half treble crochet
inc	increase	inc	increase
rnd	round	rnd	round
sc	single crochet	dc	double crochet
sc3tog	single crochet 3 stitches together	dc3tog	double crochet 3 stitches together
sk st	skip stitch	-	miss
sl st	slip stitch	ss	slip stitch
sl st join	slip stitch join	ss join	slip stitch join
st	stitch	st	stitch

 

 

There are really only 2 things you need to know when reading a crochet pattern:

1. What country are the crochet terms from?

Different countries have different words for the same stitches. For example, the British English term double crochet (dc), is actually the same term as the American English term single crochet (sc). As you may imagine, this can get confusing fast. Most patterns begin by defining which country’s terminology they use, as well as any abbreviations used. Here are some common abbreviations used in amigurumi written with US terminology:

rnd: round

yo: yarn over

sc: single crochet

inc: increase

dec: decrease

ch: chain

2. How do you read crochet patterns?

Different crochet pattern designers use different formats to convey their instructions. This is also usually defined at the beginning of the pattern. You can expect that there will be repetition of stitches, which is probably the most confusing part to reading a pattern. Some patterns use brackets ((…), […]) or multiplier indicators (*, x), to convey which stitches you should repeat and for how many times.

Crochet patterns by The Freeasyfar are written in US terminology, and follow this format:

Round 3: [sc, inc] x 6(18)

This means that for round 3, repeat the sequence of [1 sc followed by 1 inc] a total of 6 times.

Which also could've been written as:

[sc, inc]    [sc, inc]    [sc, inc]    [sc, inc]    [sc, inc]    [sc, inc]

Or with a lot more words:

[single crochet stitch in the first stitch, then 2 single crochet stitches in the next stitch] for a total of 6 times

(Are you starting to dig abbreviations yet? )

Since 1 increase stitch = 2 single crochet stitches, 1 increase stitch counts as 2 stitches. 1 single crochet stitch counts as 1 stitch.

Therefore, that's [3 stitches] repeated 6 times, for a final count of 18 stitches.

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