How to read a knitting or crochet pattern

Patterns look like code until you know the handful of conventions every designer uses. Here are the ones that trip people up most: brackets and parentheses, asterisks, sizes, stitch counts, repeat blocks and charts, with an example of each.

Abbreviations

Every pattern has an abbreviations list, usually on the first or last page. Read it before you start, even for stitches you know: designers differ on details, such as whether "sl1" means slip knitwise or purlwise. Crochet patterns also differ on US and UK terms, and the list tells you which one the pattern uses.

Asterisks: repeat from *

*K2, p2; rep from * to end. means: knit 2, purl 2, and keep repeating that pair of steps until the row is finished. A second marker, often **, sets the end of the repeat when there are stitches after it: K1, *k2tog, yo; rep from * to last st, k1.

Brackets and parentheses

Brackets and parentheses group steps. They mean one of three things, and the words after them tell you which:

A number of times: (k2, p2) 3 times means work the group three times in a row.
Into one stitch: (2 dc, ch 1, 2 dc) in next st means all of that goes into the same stitch, as in a crochet shell.
A count: (48 sts) at the end of a row is the number of stitches you should have now. Check it; it catches most mistakes a row after they happen.

When brackets sit inside parentheses, work from the inside out: [(k1, p1) twice, k4] 5 times is k1, p1, k1, p1, k4, and that whole block five times.

Sizes in parentheses

Cast on 80 (88, 96, 104) sts. The first number is the smallest size and each number in the parentheses is the next size up. Circle or highlight your size's number through the whole pattern before you start; it is the easiest thing to misread halfway through.

Repeat blocks: "rep rows 3 to 10"

A line such as Rep rows 3-10 five more times. means you go back to row 3 and work down to row 10 again, five times. This is where most people lose their place, because you need two counts at once: which row of the block you are on, and how many blocks you have done. Keep a separate repeat count (our online row counter has one) and mark the current line.

Charts

Each square is one stitch and each row of squares is one row. Knitting charts are read from the bottom up. When you knit flat, right-side rows are read from right to left and wrong-side rows from left to right; in the round, every round is read from right to left. The key explains the symbols, and a bold outline marks the repeat. Crochet charts are read from the bottom up for rows, and from the center outward for rounds, following the row numbers printed at the start of each row.

Reading a PDF pattern on a phone or tablet

Most patterns now come as PDFs. Zoom the chart or the rows you are working, and keep a mark on the current line; on paper that is a sticky note or a highlighter. If you knit from a tablet, use a reader that keeps your place when you switch apps, because nothing loses a row faster than a PDF that jumps back to page 1.

How to keep track of rows · How to count rows in knitting · How to count rows in crochet