14-Day Learn to Crochet—Terminology

Hi, welcome back to the 14 Day Learn to Crochet series. I'm Brenda K.B. Anderson, and in this video we're going to be talking about crochet terminology, or speaking the language of crochet. So I don't know if you have ever looked at a crochet pattern before. If you haven't, that's totally okay.

If you have, you may have noticed there's lots of weird abbreviations and half words in there, and it is very confusing if you don't understand crochet terminology. So I'm going to be showing you what all those words and abbreviations mean, and I'm also going to be talking about stitch diagrams, because that is basically like the visual version of a pattern, and it's really great for visual learners, like me. So let's get started. So the first thing I want to mention is in your abbreviations in your pattern, we'll take a look at your pattern here, you will see when you look in here that there is something that says with larger hook, CH-22, beg with the third CH from hook, like what is all that? Okay.

So if you're trying to figure out what all these abbreviations mean, your pattern should have somewhere in it a little chart or a list of all the abbreviations that were used in it. So for example, we just read CH, that means chain, and we'll learn what that technique is in the next video, but CH means chain, and beg actually means beginning, so it's kind of like a shorthand way to write out all of these sentences, because especially crochet patterns can get very long and wordy, and when they're trying to condense them so they can be in a magazine or a book, or just a piece of paper you can take with you, you don't wanna read pages and pages and pages when you could just read the abbreviation and know what it means. It does take a while to train your brain to understand what those things are, and not have to keep looking them up, but the more practiced you get the easier it'll be, and soon you'll be speaking the language of crochet. So when you see things like HDC that equals half double crochet. What is that?

We'll get into that in one of the next videos, but I just wanted to point out that there are abbreviations for different stitch patterns. So a stitch pattern is a way to wrap the yarn around your hook, where you're placing your hook, how all the stitches connect together. It's basically a series of movements that you do with your hand, the hook, and the yarn to get the stitch to look a certain way. So in this class later on you'll be learning how to do the single crochet stitch. That is abbreviated SC, which you can see right here, SC equals single crochet, and I'll be teaching you how to do that.

But another way to look at that is a picture like this. You can see over here this little plus sign, or sometimes they will show it as an X, that is standing in for a single crochet. So if you take a look at this chart or diagram over here, this is a stitch diagram, you can see here's a bunch of little plus signs here. That means these plus signs all stand for a single crochet, so what you're looking at here is basically a picture representation of what you're gonna be making. So if you were taking a look at this, all these little stitches here are represented here, single crochet, single crochet, single crochet.

And all these little flattened ovals here, those all stand for chains. And I'll show you how to do all that stuff. But this is what a chain looks like when it's shown in a stitch diagram. So these stitch diagram symbols all stand for different types of stitches. So this is a single crochet pattern, and that would be shown by a bunch of these.

It would look just like this. This is a half double crochet pattern, and that is shown with this long T shape. And if you were gonna make a stitch diagram of this piece, it would look like this, except it would be a bunch of T's all lined up. You would still have this little chain here because that's how you start your project, but it would be full of a bunch of these. So this symbol stands for a double crochet stitch, and that is what these stitches are.

So you can see when you look at these, let's compare the next one. This is a treble crochet. These stitches are very long, very tall compared to the single crochet stitches, which are right here. So that is shown in the chart. So you can see, this is very short, and that is very tall.

So it helps you get a good picture of what is actually happening in whatever you're trying to make, if you can see it all written out like this as a chart. So I love charts because, I mean, besides being a great visual tool, you can also go buy a book that was made in Japan and even though you don't understand any Japanese, you can take a look at all the stitch patterns in there because they are written out like this and you will know how to make it. It's just kind of amazing. It's a whole different language. It's a great way to communicate with these symbols.

So this is a little cheat sheet which you guys will have access to, and it shows you the different basic symbols here, and an example of what a stitch chart could look like, and it also explains how to do your stitches. And then on the second page I want to point out this little chart here. This says US terminology and UK terminology. Okay, so this is where it gets a little confusing for people who don't know about this. This is why I'm telling you so that you don't get confused if you pick up an English magazine and you want to make something in it.

So English meaning from England, not written in English. But US terminology, these are different types of stitches, as we talked about before, single crochet, it's abbreviated SC. Half double crochet, abbreviated HDC. But the same stitch, the same movements that you make with your crochet hook, where in the United States they would be called a single crochet, if you were in England or in the UK, you would call it a double crochet. And we actually do have a double crochet in US terms as well.

So that is actually called a treble crochet in UK terms. So you don't need to know all of this. You don't need to know what they all translate into unless you are actually working from a pattern that is written with UK terminology. So you need to make sure when you're looking at a pattern that somebody else wrote, you need to know whether it's in US terms or if it's in UK terms so that you know which way to follow. So I just wanted to show you too, with these stitch diagrams, if you're doing something other than just straight back and forth single crochet, single crochet, single crochet, if you're doing something where you're using a variety of stitches, you can see how your stitches all lay out next to each other, and they start to make the shape that your piece will make.

So in this example here, this is a stitch diagram for the cowl that we're gonna be making, and you can see, we're gonna do a bunch of foundation chains here, which we'll learn how to do in the next video. And then you do the half double crochet across here, and then you do a taller stitch, the double crochet, and then you do a treble crochet. And then on the next row, because you're looking at it from the backside, you turn your work over, that's called right side and wrong side means, the right side would be the public side, or the side that people see. So if you had a hat, the right side would be the side of the hat that you're actually looking at when somebody is wearing it on your head. If they look at your hat, that's the right side of the hat.

The wrong side of the hat, it doesn't mean there's anything wrong with it, it's just the inside or the backside. Or the inside of your sweater. So in stitch diagrams that go back and forth in rows, a lot of times you'll see another color in between, and that can be an indicator that oh, this row is worked from the other direction, okay. So you look at this stitch diagram, and you work this way when you're facing it, and then you turn your piece around and then you work in this direction. So I just wanted to give you a little overview there so that you can understand what these different colors are all about here in this stitch diagram.

And this is a different type of stitch diagram. This is for something that is worked in the round, and we'll talk about that later on in this class. But this begins by working from the center of the circle out. So you can see there's little numbers here. One, two, three, four, five, six.

Those numbers are telling you what round you're on when you're looking at this. So if you start with number one, this is a little map you can follow, and you do your single crochet, single crochet, single crochet, all the way around to here, and then you go to round two. And this symbol, this symbol we haven't talked about yet. This symbol is used to show two single crochets into one stitch, which is called an increase. So you can see that right here.

So we're doing, so by looking at this, you know that in this stitch you're gonna make two stitches in there, and on the next stitch, two stitches into that stitch, all the way around. So you're following this from the center. This is the beginning in the middle. You're following it around, and around, and around to the outside. So that is a different way to make a stitch diagram, and it's written this way, it's drawn this way, because of the type of project.

Because it was worked from the center out instead of back and forth in turned rows. So, let's take a look at a sample pattern. This isn't the pattern for the cowl that we're going to be making. I just want to point out a few things about reading a pattern to make it a little bit easier for you the next time you read a pattern, which will probably in this class. At the beginning usually there's a section with things you need to know about before you even start.

So usually there's something called the finished size or finished measurements. That's gonna tell you what size the actual piece you're crocheting is. They might also have information about what type of size it was designed for. So just pay attention to whether they're telling you if it's just the size of the hat, or whatever it is you're making, or in this case the cowl. Or if they're telling you this is the size of the head that it should go on.

So that's just something to pay attention to in the finished size or finished measurement section. Then these should be telling you what type of yarn to use. So in this pattern, I tell you about how much yarn you need, what thickness of the yarn you need. I even put a little about what kind of fiber, because that can be helpful too, to get the same kind of drape that I did. And next I show you in here the actual yarns that I did use in the pattern.

You might not always get that in the pattern. But there should be some sort of information telling you about what type of yarn you need just for the project. Then they should also show you what type of hook they suggest, and that doesn't mean that that is for sure gonna be the hook for you. What that means is it's a jumping off point. A hook to start with.

That is the hook that the designer used to get the size that they needed, and to work the pattern up. But everybody crochets a little bit differently, as we'll talk about next. But you need to, you just need to do a gauge swatch. And we'll talk about that in the next video. So hook size is just more of a jumping off point.

Then they should also list if there's anything you need in this pattern, you just need a tapestry and a yarn needle, but it might say thing like you need buttons or other things like that. Then here's the word gauge again. We'll talk about that in the next video. But basically what gauge is is it's telling you how many stitches are gonna fit in four inches so you know about how loosely or how tightly to crochet. Then sometimes there's directions on how to make a gauge swatch.

A lot of times there aren't. That's okay. Then make sure if there are notes that you actually read the notes, because they're put in there so that it will help you get the project done in the way that you need to. So then, after all of that, that's when you actually start the directions. So you have to look through all that stuff first before you even start, and then you'll start reading the directions.

So it'll tell you what to do on every single round or row, or it'll tell you something like working even, and working even just means you're doing the same stitch pattern back and forth for a while, and it should tell you how long. It'll say work even for six inches. So that just means you do whatever you were already doing and you don't make any extra stitches, or you don't change your stitch pattern at all. You just keep doing the same thing for six inches. Then when you get towards the end of the pattern, there should be a little something telling you about finishing.

Usually it's something like weave in your ends and block it, and we'll talk a little bit more about blocking later. But those are the basics of reading a pattern. So that should help you the next time you check out a pattern. It'll help you figure out what all these abbreviations are and what all the different terms inside the pattern mean. So now that we've learned about the terminology and the language of crochet, we are gonna move on to actually working on gauge, we're gonna talk about gauge, and then we're gonna start making our foundation chain.

And that is just how you begin.