Understanding my Patterns: Symbols

Welcome to Tutorial Tuesdays!

Every crochet designer has their own style of writing patterns. 

Today I will talk you through understanding the symbols used in my patterns. 

I use three different symbols in my patterns: 

Square brackets [ ], 

Parenthesis ( ), &

Curly Brackets { }. 

On occasion I will use Asterisks * *.

===================================================================

( ) : Stitch Count at the end of the row or round.

Example: 

Round 2: [Sc twice in next st, sc in next st]. Rep [3x]. (12)

After crocheting the entire round as instructed you will have a total of 12 stitches. 

===================================================================

{ } : Number of times the same round or row is repeated.

Example: 

Round 2-16: Sc in each st. (12) {15}

This is added to patterns to make your life easier. By looking in the curly brackets you already know how many rounds are the same without counting. 

===================================================================

[ ] : Instructions to repeat. 

Example: 

Round 2: [Sc twice in next st, sc in next st]. Rep [3x].

You will crochet instructions in square brackets then repeat 3 times. In the example you are crocheting the instructions a total of 4 times.

Example 2: 

Round 3: [Sc twice in next st, sc in next st]. Rep [2x]. Sc in next 12sts. Rep [2x]. 

In this example the square brackets are used three times in one round. You would crochet the instructions in brackets and repeat them 2 times, then continue crocheting as instructed. When told to repeat the instructions in brackets a second time you will repeat them again 2 times. Since the instructions are the same I don't feel the need to write them out a second time and it saves space.

===================================================================

* *: Instructions to repeat. Used to avoid confusion on what instructions to repeat when square brackets have different instructions to repeat in the same round.

Example: 

Round 4: [Sc twice in next st, sc in next st]. Rep [2x]. *Sc in next 2sts, sc twice in next st*. Rep *2x*.

You would crochet instructions in square brackets first and repeat 2 times. Then you would crochet instructions in asterisks and repeat them 2 times. You will notice that instructions in asterisks are different then the ones in the brackets. 

Example 2: 

This example is a little more complicated but its actually something you will see in my Octavio the Octopus pattern so I want to make sure you know what to do.

Round 5: *[Sc2tog, sc in next 3sts] Rep [2x], sc2tog 3 times, Rep[4x], sc2tog, sc in next 12sts.* Rep *5x*.

In this example you have square brackets in 3 places and asterisks in two places. You will crochet the instructions as written until you get to the- sc in next 12 sts. The last part tells you to repeat everything found inside the asterisks 5 times. So you would basically be crocheting the instructions of the entire round a total of 6 times. 

===================================================================