How to read any pattern, including the ones written the other way round, without crocheting a single line on guesswork.
"My pattern looks like it is written in another language." It partly is: the US single crochet is called a double crochet in the UK. Fourteen chapters to read a whole document, from its header to its last line.
You do not read a pattern straight through. You split it up, and you write down what each line consumes and produces.
Keep reading if you want to:
- Open a pattern from any site and know exactly what it asks for, stitch by stitch.
- Stop mixing up the two English systems, where the same word means two stitches of different heights.
- Understand nested repeats, asterisks and brackets, instead of counting blind.
- Pick your size once and never read the other columns again.
- Read a symbol chart, including which way it is read when you crochet left-handed.
- Spot a publishing error on the page, before you have crocheted three rows for nothing.
From: Elodie Marchand
Crochet teacher and founder of The Crochet Method.
Location: Nantes, France.
If you have ever closed a pattern without starting it
You found the piece you wanted. You opened the file. And you landed on three lines of abbreviations, asterisks, brackets and numbers in parentheses.
You closed the file. Not because crochet is too hard for you, but because nobody ever teaches you to READ a pattern: they only teach you to make stitches.
That is exactly the gap this book fills.
The trap nobody warns you about
There are two English systems, and they use the same words for different stitches. What a US pattern calls a double crochet is a tall stitch. What a UK pattern calls a double crochet is a short stitch.
A pattern does not always say which one it uses. So you crochet a piece twice as tall, or twice as flat, without understanding why.
The way out is not to memorize a table. It is to count two things: the yarn overs before you insert the hook, then the closings. Together, those two numbers tell apart the stitches whose names change from one country to another, and they do not lie in any language.
At that point you have two options
Option 1 locks you into whatever others chose to film. Option 2 takes fourteen chapters and works on every project after this one.
The principle: you do not read a pattern, you take it apart
The whole book fits in one sentence:
From there, everything can be checked:
- The reading sheet. Eight columns filled in before the first stitch: what the line consumes, what it produces, what repeats and how many times.
- The yarn overs. The name of a stitch changes from one country to another; the number of yarn overs never does.
- The key. The key of the document in front of you outranks any table, including this book's.
- The check. An announced count that cannot add up shows on the page, before it has cost you a single row.
That is the difference between following a pattern and understanding it.
Just imagine for a moment...
- Opening a pattern and knowing, in three minutes, whether it is written in the US or the UK system.
- Reading a line full of asterisks and knowing exactly how many times to repeat what.
- Looking at a symbol chart and seeing a piece of work, not an abstract drawing.
- Closing a badly written pattern knowing it is not you, it is the pattern.
Written for the left hand as much as the right
A chart is read in one direction. That direction is not the same depending on which hand holds the hook, and almost no book says so.
Chapter 12 writes both, each with its own illustration: where a row starts, where a round starts, and what changes when you crochet left-handed.
I am pleased to introduce my digital book:
Read Any Pattern: fourteen chapters to decode the header, the repeats, the charts and the multiple sizes.
This is not a dictionary of abbreviations. It is a path through a whole DOCUMENT: what it holds before its first line, what each line asks for, and how to check that it is correct before you crochet it.
And it is a fully illustrated book: every reading move has its close-up view, from splitting up the document to the sheet filled in beside your work.
What you will go through, chapter by chapter
The move that changes everything fits in one sentence.
When a stitch name confuses you, do not look for the word.
Count the yarn overs before you insert the hook, then the closings.
Those two numbers do not lie in any language.
The rest of the book follows from that.
Ready to start?
Here is everything you get today
Everything is a PDF, to read next to the pattern you are trying to decipher. Here is exactly what you receive:
- The complete, fully illustrated book "Read Any Pattern" in PDF, fourteen chapters (value $47)
- The printable reading sheet, eight columns, to fill in before you crochet (included)
- The full terminology table, US and UK side by side, with the yarn overs and closings of every stitch (included)
- The chart symbol table and the check cards (included)
- Lifetime access and every update (included)
Value: $47 → today:
This price will go back up to $47. Ordering today locks it at $17.
Our 30-day satisfaction guarantee
I know what it is like to close a pattern because it looks like another language. That is why I take all the risk off your side.
Take the book, and read a real pattern with it, sheet beside you. If after 30 days you do not read better than before, write to us at contact@thecrochetmethod.com. We refund you in full, no questions. And you keep the book.
In other words: either this book opens patterns for you, or it costs you nothing.
P.S. Ordering today gets you the fully illustrated book "Read Any Pattern" for $17 instead of $47. Fourteen chapters, from the header of a document to its last line, charts and multiple sizes included. The principle: a line of a pattern is not a sentence to read, it is a calculation to check. And if within 30 days the book does not help you, you are refunded in full.
P.P.S. Remember: this price will go back up to $47. Counting the yarn overs and the closings takes a second. That is all that separates an unreadable pattern from one you follow without hesitating.