Learn How to Read Crochet Charts

Hi everybody, welcome to our live event. My name is Brenda Kay Anderson. I'm a crochet designer and also a crochet instructor, and today I am going to be um talking about reading a stitch chart or crochet diagram or whatever you'd like to call it, so. Um, for me this is a skill that is, uh, so important for me to know how to do this not only for, um, being able to follow other people's patterns and, you know, finding things in stitch dictionaries but also for me teaching, um, as I'm going through it's just easy for me to go back and forth between looking at the chart and explaining what I'm supposed to be doing next because it is um. It's just a more visual for me than words on a page.

So, um, there may be some of you who don't feel the same way about that, that it just isn't coming easily to you. If this is something that you've struggled with, you don't quite understand how to use charts. Well, this, this is for you. Also, if you have never ever even looked at a chart before, you don't know what I'm talking about, this is also for you too. By the end of this, you will under you'll have a good understanding on how crochet stitch charts, um, are.

You know how you would work from one, what they mean, how to read it, how to know what all the different symbols are, um, and basically how to use it as a map to create crochet fabric or a crochet garment or whatever it is that you're making. Um, so I would welcome you guys to, you know, put any questions that you might have, any comments, any advice for other people. Definitely if you have something that's related to the subject, put it in the chat. But even if there's something else crochet related that you'd like to talk about or you have a question about, um, you know, you can definitely throw that in there too. So this is gonna be very relaxed and informal.

I'm just gonna be. Kind of walking through um a bunch of the different points on how to learn or how to learn to read these crochet charts. I'm also going to be, um, I've compiled basically like a list of common questions that I get from people about how to read charts and also not even questions from people but also um I do answer a lot of crochet questions because um. Uh, because I work for the Creative Crochet Corner website and so I get crochet related questions sent to me that I answer for other people who are users of our site, members of our site, um, and so I have been over the years getting a good, like, uh, understanding on the types of things that are confusing about reading a chart or misinterpreting charts, so I do have a list of things like that that I want to go through today too. All right, so today, um, in the description there is a link to a download.

The download, let me just show you what it is here. It is just a little packet that has a list of the most common crochet symbols, um, just in general, but also the ones that I use the most for my patterns that I write for the Creative Crochet Corner and for Craftsy. So I have the symbols listed over here and then I have the abbreviation and also, you know, the name of the stitch or whatever it represents next to it. I've got those, um, on two pages here. So if you are working through a pattern and you see the symbols but you don't know what they mean, this would be a good reference for.

You, um, I always try to put a key in the bottom of my charts so that you can, you know, go ahead and just make a reference from that key, know what the symbol means in the chart. That's really the best way I think to make charts is to also have a key so people don't have to look at the symbol and just automatically know what it is, but. I have come across many, many crochet charts, you know, on the internet or in books that just have the symbols and don't have an explanation as to what the symbol actually stands for, so it is handy to have these little cheat sheets so that you guys can just look up what, what, uh, what symbols you're seeing and know what stitch to do there. All right, so let's start at the very beginning. Let's just talk about, um, what exactly a chart is.

So if you're working something up in crochet, and you're making, you're working from somebody else's pattern, so written words explaining what to do in what order and all that sort of thing that can be represented by a group of symbols. So let me just pull, let me just pull this one in here. So here is an example of a chart. Um, here is where I put the key at the bottom so you can see what the symbols in the chart, what they mean or what they stand for, what stitches they stand for, and you can see here in this chart that if you you just sort of blur your eyes a little bit and just sort of look at it, you'll end up seeing this motif here that looks sort of like, you know, a knot or like a little Celtic. Cable thing going through here.

That's because this is actually the fabric that it represents looked like this too. That's one of the coolest things about crochet charts: when you look at it, you can actually see in the chart the image of what you're making, um, and So for me it's so much easier to work from a chart because I can look at my—the thing that I'm working up, and you know, as I'm working through my piece, if I'm like halfway through this chart, I will be able to see this section and then I can easily find my place in the chart because I look at what I'm making, I compare it to this, which is basically a picture or a map of what we're about to do, and I can see, oh yeah, this is where I am. I'm making this row, um, and then you can continue. So. Uh, for that reason, well, for so many reasons I love working from charts, but it's just so helpful, and like, you know, looking back and forth between the instructions and what you're working on.

If you have to get up and make dinner and come back, you can very easily find your way, um, back to where you're supposed to be. So. Charts can be represented, you know, depending on what it is that you're representing. You might be representing something that's worked in the round. You might be representing something that's worked back and forth in turn rows.

You might be working on something that has cables and stitches crossing over each other, or maybe you're working on something where there's lace and lots of holes in your stitches. All of those things can be represented by all these little symbols that are showing you exactly what stitch to use and where they are placed. So. Um, let me just pull this in here and we'll talk about some, we'll just kind of go through quickly through what these symbols mean, um, and so that way you're kind of a little bit more familiar when you're looking at the chart, what in the world I'm showing you. So if you start working in the round, you might be using a magic ring or magic magic loop, adjustable loop, um, and so to represent that, the, the center of your piece, where you start out in the chart, would have this sort of coily looking ring.

Let's see, do I have an example of that? I don't; I didn't bring one with me today, but. This chart right here is worked in the round, and that coily ring would be right here, OK, right in the center, and then you'd be working your way out. So if you see a chart and you see this at the center, then chances are you're working in the round beginning with an adjustable loop, OK? This is just a tiny little oval.

Here, let me draw it a little bigger, bigger so you guys can see a little better. It just looks like that. That is a very common stitch that represents a chain. So it could be in a turning chain or it could be in a foundation chain, or like in this example here, we were making lace. It could just be, you know, you chain 4 and then you do some other stitches, OK?

So you'll see that throughout. Um, if you were to see it as a turning chain. You might see something like this along the end, so you'd see this; these stand for double crochets. We'll get into that, but the turning chain here would be two chains high, and you could see a chain, chain, and that's your turning chain. OK?

So you'd see that along the edges of your work if it's just a little section of fabric, um, working back and forth and turning rows. So the little tiny dot, that's usually a slip stitch. If you have an X or a plus symbol, so I'll just draw these a little bit larger so you guys can see an X or a plus symbol like that. Those stand for single crochet, and these are all, by the way, American terms, they're not English terms for crocheting, so I know in English terms you would be calling it a double crochet, but. Um, for the purposes of this, we're gonna be doing everything in American crochet terms.

OK, so the half double crochet looks like a letter T. OK, so it looks like this. The double crochet looks just like that letter T, except it has one line going through it. And the treble crochet looks exactly the same, except it has two lines going through it. Like that, so I like to think of these, you know, at the beginning of when I was learning to read those stitch charts, I kept getting confused between half doubles, doubles and treble, um, because those are the three that I saw most commonly, and I couldn't remember which ones had a line and which ones had two lines and all that sort of thing.

Then I realized as you're working up that stitch, when you're working up, um. A half double crochet, you yarn over, insert, yarn over, pull up a loop, then you yarn over and pull through all three. But in a double crochet, at the very end of that stitch you yarn over, pull through two, and then you yarn over, pull through two. So anything beyond that initial yarn over after you've pulled your loop through, that's the, fabric. Any more additional yarn overs, you can count those as the little notches in the stem here.

Um, I used to think of it as. How many yarn overs you do before you start the stitch, but that doesn't really hold up for the half double crochet because you do a yarn over as, you know, when you're starting that stitch. So that didn't work for that. But so that's why now I think of it as being like. How many yarn overs that you do after the initial, after you pull the loop up from your stitch, and you do the initial yarn over, pull through after that.

That's how many notches you would see on those symbols. If that doesn't make sense to you, that's OK because that's why we have this little cheat sheet. You can just very easily look it up when you see a symbol like that you don't remember, um, you can just see it's double crochet. Eventually, that'll, um, you know, work its way into your memory and you'll just be able to see the symbol and know what it is. So, a double treble would be that tall T and it has three little slashes like that.

This symbol here, where we've got it's like a little upside down V with two little lines through that, is really two single crochets kind of coming together at the top. So if you look at, you know, that plus symbol or even the X, they're coming up to the top. So that means it's a decrease when you see. A stitch where it has posts, these, these represent the posts, like the two legs of the stitch coming from two and then rising up towards the top and it joins up together. That it's usually some kind of a decrease where you had multiple stitches and then you would decrease them together.

So that would be a single crochet two together. Um, if you were doing a single crochet 3 together, you would have 3 of those posts like this. You know, if you were doing 4 together, you would have 2 more. I know this is getting a little messy, but you'd have a total of 4 all converging together. So that's basically telling you how many stitches go into one stitch.

So this is a double crochet two together and you can see it looks just like 2 of those double crochet stitches, but they only have one little top to it. OK? So they're coming together at the top. So that's a double crochet two together. Let's see.

OK, Cheryl's wondering what they need to view. Um, I'm just gonna be showing you some different stitch patterns and um we can get a list of these later. If you want to see, if you want to go back through and and um look at these specific charts, all of the charts that I'm gonna be using today, they are all from free um projects from the Creative Crochet Corner website or from Craftsy, um, so like every single one of these diagrams that we're gonna be looking at, you could actually, if you want to wanted to you could um print them out later and look at them close up if you'd like if that's what you're asking, and we can get a list of those later. OK, so Lisa is saying I can crochet but I can't read a pattern and I lose my place as I go. OK, Lisa, I hope that this is really helpful for you because um.

You know, I've been working from patterns for a very long time in crochet but I still lose my place over and over in the patterns, especially because sometimes when you're reading through there's like a line and then the next slide is almost the same as the one you just read and then then you don't realize that you picked it up. The wrong spot. It's just so easy to get mixed up and that's why I really really like charts because you can see what you've got, you can see the image that it's supposed to look like and you can find your place so much easier. So I really hope that this is helpful for you and good morning to bookkeeper. Thanks for being here.

OK. Oh, and Cheryl's saying I'm not viewing. You're not able to see the video, I wonder? OK, so it looks like the host is helping you out. Um, just above that, Sheryl.

So, OK, um, OK, so all right, back to these, so let's talk about the double crochet three together decrease. So you can see that's up here, so it really looks like those like as if three of those double crochet stitches all just kind of leaned in together and got connected at the top. So anytime you see something that's got like multiple points down here and one point at the top, that pretty much always means it's some sort of decrease. You had some kind of stitches coming together into one stitch at the top. Here we have a three half double crochet cluster or a puff stitch or half double crochet cluster or so it's like written in different ways, a three half double crochet cluster, but basically, um, those cluster stitches or puff stitches usually, they look kind of like a puff stitch.

They're sort of rounded like that. But if you look closely at this, it looks like you have a half double crochet, but that's sort of curved and bent, and another one that's sort of curved and bent, and another one in the middle. So these are all like the posts of the half double crochet, and they all come together into that very top right there. Here's something similar. We've got the three double crochet cluster, so you know, we've got basically like three double crochet stitches.

There it's just only different because you've got that little line through the middle all coming together, but this is just to give you an idea, you know, you may see something that is like this three half double crochet cluster you might see something that has five of those, so you just there would just be more posts or more of the, um, yarn over pull up a loop kind of thing going on there and then eventually you kind of decrease them all in together together into the top. So as we're working through this, just know. All of these, you know, if they're using a puff stitch or some kind of unusual cluster or something like that where they want you to have, you know, more lines or more lines, more, um, yarn over pull ups or things like that if it's something specific and it's not just one of the very basic stitches like single single crochet, double crochet, your pattern should have like this is how you do this. Type of stitch, um, and it should be written out for you so this, this is like to be able to recognize when you look at the, the chart what what all these symbols are standing for and then you're like, oh that's a puff stitch or that's a certain kind of cluster stitch and then you can look in your pattern and see in the pattern where it says, like this is how you do a 5 double crochet cluster or this is how you do. You know, so hopefully in your pattern there would be an explanation on how to do that.

If there isn't an explanation, you know, it's some sort of cluster or puff, you could look up, you know, different ways to make those stitches and then try to decide what looks the best in your project, but most patterns should have some sort of explanation like this is, this is how you do the puff stitch in this in this particular pattern. This is how you do this cluster stitch in this particular pattern. OK, so you can see here this is almost the same as that. It's just that it's got those five legs all coming together. So that would be like more of those partially made double crochets and then you, um, crochet them all together.

So this could sometimes mean a, like when you have that curved top like this, it could mean a popcorn stitch. So that's when a popcorn stitch is when you make a bunch of stitches all into one stitch and then you. Remove your hook, place it through the very first stitch, come back, yarn over, and pull through to connect the first post and the second together, and it makes a little sort of popcorn shape or like a puff, but the top sticks out a little bit more. Um, so that is represented slightly differently because it has this little curve shape on the top of it. So that's usually for a popcorn.

Uh, a popcorn stitch. So here we have 5 double crochet stitches, and they're all kind of arranged so that they're pointing into the same section, but all the tops are spaced out. That would be a shell or, you know, working several stitches into one stitch, like maybe there would be a stitch right here below. So you'd know you'd do all 5 of those double crochets into one stitch that's, you know, whatever is below here. And here we have a front post double crochet.

So these, and here's a back post double crochet. So the difference between these two is that you have that little C shape. This is like, you know, backward C, forward C at the very bottom, and that's showing you're you're hooking the bottom of that stitch around the post is what that represents. And then here we have this little sort of teardrop with a plus sign above it. That is the symbol that I use the most for the extended single crochet, which is a stitch that I absolutely love.

Um, there may be other representations of the extended single crochet stitch, uh, but usually if you find those, they're pretty obscure, obscure, so people would have that in the key what it actually stands for. And this, this is just for me here. I use the knotted double crochet, also known as a herringbone half double crochet a lot in my projects, so I wanted to throw it in here in case, um, you know, you guys are CCC watchers or Creative Crochet Corner website, you know, like you watch my tutorials and you want a quick and handy reference to most of the symbols that I use very often. This is not something that is super duper common, um. You know, it's become more popular over the last few years to do this stitch, but I've never really seen it represented in a chart before, so I had made up my own symbol because this looks sort of like what that stitch looks like when you work it back and forth and turn rows.

So that is what that symbol is for. That is for the knotted double crochet or herringbone half double crochet, and I just wanted to add it to my list because these are symbols that I use a lot. So, um, I figured some of you guys have probably seen some of the other tutorials, and it would be helpful for you to have that on your list. OK, so that's just a little bit to be familiar with. These symbols all represent very specific stitches, and so when they're laid out in a chart, you can see, oh, that's where I do that type of stitch.

Oh, this is where I do this type of stitch. OK. So, um, and like I said before, it is very important, once you, you know, if you're using somebody's chart, always look for the key because that's gonna tell you what these things actually stand for. Um, there I have seen people using unusual symbols before for things that I, you know, hadn't come across, you know this particular symbol or that for a single crochet or for a double crochet. So hopefully there will be a chart if people are using a very unusual symbol, and that way, you know, everything you know about reading charts, which is, um, you know, by the end of this.

Uh, you know that there are certain symbols, that represent stitches, and they're arranged in a way that shows you where they are worked within your piece. So that would still all apply even if they were switching out and using unusual symbols or something like that. OK, so, um, the first thing when you're looking at a chart, if you just feel like I don't even know where to start, where to, where do I even start reading this chart from, if you're working something back and forth and turned rows, OK, so for example, let's just pull in a really simple one. So, this is a chart for the waffle stitch. Um, and here we work back and forth in turned rows, and you can automatically see this because you've got turning chains.

You'll start, you'll start realizing, oh, when there's like little vertical chains on the side, that's a turning chain, so that must mean this thing, this whatever we're crocheting is worked back and forth in turned rows. If you were working something in the round, it wouldn't be represented like this. You wouldn't always have these sort of chains on the end. Then, um, the next thing to look for is the numbering system. So we would do, so this would be, I actually hadn't numbered this yet, but I'm just going to number real quick.

2, 3, 4. You can see I'm going back and forth between the sides. Because we actually read the chart from one side and then you read it from the other side when you're working in turned rows. OK? So, I wanted you to see.

That when you start row number 1, if you're working in turned rows, you would work all of these little ovals here. Those are the foundation chain. These two ovals represent two more chains that are counting as a turning chain but also counting as the first stitch. You can see it's going to count as the first stitch because here above it is a stitch that's just directly above it, so it's worked into the stitch. Then for row number one, so you would, if you don't know how to start reading your chart, you're almost always starting at the bottom of, you know, your represented picture.

OK, so here we start with the foundation chain and then we're gonna work our way up from the bottom up and that's because that's the way that you crochet. You start on the foundation chain and you work back and forth, and then as it grows, you know, as you're looking at your piece, regardless of what way it's oriented later in life. Um, you're still going to be creating the fabric that you see here. So we would start with row number one, and we would work across making one double crochet. These are all those double crochets into each one of these foundation chains here, OK?

Because each double crochet is directly above each chain. So. So row number one, you can see, you're going to skip the first two chains because here we have two chains. Nothing is actually pointing into it until on the next row, OK? So you don't need to look at that yet, but actually, I'm gonna Here's something that I do pretty often when I'm working from charts is I will block out what comes next because you don't need to know what comes next.

You'll get there just, um, it's more helpful to see where you've, where you've been in the current row that you're working in. OK, so here's our two turning chains and then we've got this double crochet going into this chain. So we're starting our piece by working into the third chain from the hook because here's Here's the first chain from the hook, the second chain from the hook, and the third chain from the hook. OK? So, we can already tell we're making a double crochet into the third chain from the hook and into each of the rest of the chains across.

OK? So, that would be row number one. And then here we are after you've worked all the way across here, then you're going to chain two. And so the reason we know we have to switch directions is because we ran out of stitches here. There's nothing over here.

We're going to switch directions and we're going to work across here on the chart. But now, like if you're a right-hand crocheter, every time you're crocheting, unless you're doing the crab stitch, you're pretty much always crocheting from right to left. And then you turn your work and you still go from right to left. If you are a left-handed crocheter, and we're gonna talk a little bit more about being a left-handed crocheter in just a little bit. If you're a left-handed crocheter, you're always crocheting from left to right, from left to right, okay?

But when you're reading a chart and, um, it's worth. In turn rows, it's represented by going in one direction in the chart and then the next row, you're actually going to be reading the chart this way, like a right-handed crocheter, even though I'm reading these stitches here, I'm actually crocheting from right to left, okay? Let me know if any of you guys are, um, not understanding what I'm saying there because I feel like that can be a little bit tricky. Let's see. Oh, okay, so Cheryl wants the list of the patterns that I'm showing here.

Okay, awesome. All right. Okay, yeah, and Lisa's saying if I follow someone on YouTube making something, I can do good on that. I just have to go back sometimes and rewatch the video, yeah, and that's, that is one of the best things about teaching video-style format, so nice because people can always learn at their own pace. You can pause it, go back, watch it again and be like, what did they just do?

and watch it a whole bunch of times and, um, it's yeah, it's a wonderful resource to have. Okay, so here's row number 2. We started out by making those two turning chains, and then you can see our next stitch, which is right here, is not worked into this stitch. It's worked into this stitch. So we know just by looking at this chart that this is going to count as a, this turning chain here is also going to count as a stitch.

It's standing in for one of these double crochets along the edge here. Okay, so then the next stitch we get to. This is a front post double crochet. Right here. So it's hooked around this stitch right there below, okay?

And then we've got another double crochet. Another double crochet. So these are worked into the stitches that are directly below them. Here's another front post double crochet worked into this double crochet. There's another double crochet, double crochet, front post, double crochet, double crochet, double crochet, front post.

Double crochet, double crochet, double crochet, front post, double crochet, and this double crochet is worked into this chain right here. So we're working it into that, um, turning chain, OK? So the turning chain is counting, uh, once again, counting as a stitch here. So if that makes sense. So basically, row number 1, we're working in this direction.

Row number 2, we're working in this direction. Now, let's just talk really quickly about for those of you who are left-handed. Normally, like, almost always, I will suggest to left-handed, uh, crafters or crocheters who wanna follow a chart or to follow me to flip things horizontally so it's a mirror image and what that does is it makes it look like um makes the chart look like how you would crochet. So as a right-handed crocheter, when I see this, I start on row number one. I start on the right and work to the left.

I'm working across my, my piece. Um, in the same direction I crochet. Then on row number 2, I'm working across my piece as I'm reading the chart. I'm reading from left to right. I'm still crocheting from right to left, but they're opposites, and so it makes it a lot easier if you're following someone and you're also working from a chart.

If you flip your screen. Horizontally, so mirroring it, and then also if you printed out the chart, to print out the chart and before you print it out, flip your chart. So usually when you're printing something out you can look under layout or some other, you know, some other thing on your printer, um, or you know, and then print it out so that, um, so that it's a mirror image, and that way what you're making is actually a mirror image of what a right-handed person would make, but it's exactly the same otherwise and almost always. Making a mirror image of something, it doesn't make a difference. The only time it really makes a difference is if you are writing letters and you're like crocheting something that has words in it or something like that, or if you want, like, if you're doing something really detailed and you really want your cables to cross exactly the same way or you really want, um, like the opening in your sweater to be slightly offset.

To the left or slightly off to, to the right. So there are some instances that make it a little bit tricky where you wouldn't want to make a product that is exactly a mirror image of what the right hand person is making, but for the most part that alleviates a lot of confusion, and it helps you to be able to watch me. If you flip me horizontally, then I will look like I'm a left-handed crocheter. OK, so after we've worked across row 2, we end up over here. And then on row 3, we would do those two turning chains, and then we would work this double crochet into this post stitch, and this post stitch into this double crochet.

Here's a post stitch worked into the double crochet. Um, so you would work your way across when you're working, you know, because you're working in turn rows, again, you're working from right to left. So you may notice a couple of things. First of all, we have blue stitches in this chart and we have black. And so the blue and the black, those are the most common two colors, but really crochet chart designers can use whatever colors that they find helpful to differentiate between different things.

The reason you would have something in blue or in black, the first, the most important reason is to make it obvious what's just come from the row that you're working on to kind of group them together visually, like here when we're working across row number 1, we do that turning chain. And then you could see all these blue stitches that you're working across, you know, and then that is all part of row number 1, and then you start row number 2 and you have black stitches so you know it could also be. Um, the blue stitches could represent the wrong side of the work, and the black stitches could represent the right side of the work. That's pretty common. Also, you know, it could also just be if you're working something in the round, like this granny square, we alternate between blue and black and blue and black, and really the only reason we do this here is so that especially for areas that are kind of complicated looking with a lot of stitches close together, you can see the difference between working this round.

This round is in blue. And then working this round below it, this round is in black. You can see just, you know, what stitches belong to what round because you're alternating colors. You're not alternating um right side wrong side. If that makes sense.

So that might be a reason that there would be different colors used throughout your piece, and for things like this, it's a little more complicated in a chart here. Here we've got black rows, blue rows, gray. rows, light blue rows, and then we have these other colors, and it's just ways of grouping things together so that you think about them as like being from a certain row. You know, you can follow your way across, especially something like this where you've got stitches that come down here and then along the same level. Like if you were just gonna look straight across, it might be hard to tell what stitches are you doing in what order here, but you can see now that.

Because this, there's gray that's separated out by color. This is a separate row that you'd be working. This is the row from before that you've already worked in blue, OK? So even though they kind of intermesh and stick into each other because that's how the stitches actually look in the fabric, you can differentiate them with your eyes just by, you know, looking at the two different colors. And then later on here, we have all these other rainbow colors around.

We've got purple, red, and orange. I used those so that people could just keep track of what round they are on, and they can see that they are worked in a different way. Like we have this separated out: the blue, black, and gray. That's the part that we actually make first. And then after that, we start working these stitches around and around the edges of everything, OK?

Because in crochet, I think even more so than in knitting, in crochet, you can very easily switch directions and, you know, oftentimes you'll be crocheting in one way and then you'll switch directions and be crocheting along the row ends, and I mean, yes, you can do that knitting too. You can pick up stitches, but I think in crochet, it's just so much more prevalent. It's something that we do more often because it's just so easy to do. You can crochet into any part of any stitch or anywhere around, you know, so it's nice to have different colors that can help you realize, oh, there's something different going on with this section. Like you can see just by looking at this chart like, oh why is this grouped together here and then we have this frame around it.

Maybe the frame is actually crocheted around it. And not work like into the stitches as you work back and forth. So, um, there are some visual cues that designer chart people who are making charts will use so that you can, it kind of helps you understand what symbols belong to what, what round or whatever part that you're working on. I hope that makes sense. OK, so, um, so as you're looking at your chart, we talked a little bit about this before, um, I started talking about this.

When you're looking at a chart like this that has numbers on both sides, that means you're working back and forth in turned rows, and we kind of talked about how you're, when you read the chart, you read it in one direction, then you read it in the next direction. So you're always looking when you're trying to figure out the next round, you can look for the numbers. So here's where we start round number 1. Where do we start round number 2? Oh, over here.

When we read the chart, we start it over here and then where do we start number 3? Oh, it's over here. This is where we start working round number row number 3, sorry. It's kind of the same theory for working in the round. So here, hopefully you guys can see these little numbers here, but on round number one here is a number one right in the middle here.

There's a tiny little number 1 right there. so that's how you know, oh, this is where we're starting. So this is where we're gonna be doing, you know, we, we've worked our little central ring and round number 1 we're working around here. Then you can see round number 2 OK, round number 2 starts here so we would be. Making this beginning chain, so the next thing you can look for is like where you see the number where would be a good place to start out, right?

so a beginning chain, something like that that looks like a place where where you would naturally start your your next round by making that beginning chain or a turning chain. You can always look for that and that's gonna help tell you where are we starting in this round. So there's number 2, so we would work all the way around here in round number 2. number 3 is over here so you can join your yarn here and chain up, and we've kind of shifted a little bit to the right, but it's showing you, oh hey, the beginning of our round is over here. That's where the number is.

Round number 4, we're starting over here. We're slip stitching to this little chain space here, chaining 1, and then we're gonna work into that chain space. So, those numbers will really help tell you like not only what round you're on or what row you're on, but where that round or row starts, ok? So that's, that's a very helpful thing to know to look for is when you're trying to figure out like, oh where do i even start this? Look for the number that should help you figure out and then.

Usually by the number, there's some sort of either like a slip stitch dot if you're joining yarn or or some chains or something um so that you know that, oh, that seems like that would be the beginning, the beginning of the round, ok? so those, those numbers will really help you whether you're working back and forth in turn rows, whether you're working in a round in the round, and it also helps you realize, oh yeah, this is actually worked in the round because if it was worked back and forth and turn rows you couldn't, like, figure out how to connect those stitches together like you just sort of have to visualize like, oh these stitches are representing double crochets, but they're sideways so that must mean we're working in the round in this in this particular uh stitch pattern. Ok, so. Um, for the most part, when we're working in the round, usually that will be represented, um, by, by either a magic ring or some sort of like chains and you slip stitch to join into a ring or something at the center and you're gonna be working your way out. however, there are times when we're working in the round when we actually aren't starting in the center where it's something that we're making like a tube shape, you know, just imagine if you were making a leg warmer, you know, you'd, you'd make a chain and then you'd be working around that.

Um, so there are other ways to represent our stitches where you want to chart where it's showing something in the round, but you kind of wanna show it from the side view if that makes sense. Like imagine you're looking at a tube. And you want to show what those stitches look like, ok? So that's where this type of chart comes in. here we have, this is for pineapple lace stitch.

This was um. Let's see, oh, this was for a water bottle sling, like a water bottle cozy. And in that project we had started at the bottom. We did start out with, I think, a magic ring or some chain, you know, some kind of a ring, and then worked our way out. But then by the time we're getting to the very interesting part with the lace, I really wanted to represent that.

In a picture that would look like if you were looking at the side view of, of this tube that you're making, okay? So, so here we have like a section, just a section of that. Um, pineapple lace stitch pattern that's worked around this bottle. There are two motifs, one on the front and one on the back of the bottle, um, and as we work around, the way that this chart works is if you take a look at this little section, so you know, again we can look, oh, where is number one? Okay, number one is here, so we're going to start working right here and working our way across row number one, or actually it's round number one.

And then once we get over here, then what happens, right? We just have like stitches going into nothing, right? If you are working from a chart, this could mean a couple things. This could mean someone's just showing you a little section of the stitch pattern, and then you know if it sort of trails off into nothingness, that they've already shown you all you need to know, and it's probably part of a repeat, so you can go back to where you see, you know, like you can see right here. This is going up, going back down, we have those two single crochets.

There's two chains going up. And then probably what comes next over here is this and oh look, it looks like this. So in this case, and oftentimes, um, you know, if I'm trying to chart something that's like a complicated lace pattern and it's worked in the round, I like to chart it this way because it looks a little more like what you're making, as opposed to, um. This works great for a granny square or something where you start small and you'll get larger as you're going out, but in this case we're not doing any more increases, so it's a tube shape, um, and so I wanted to represent that by, you know, you work your way across when you get to the very end here, then you can go back to the beginning. These little faded bits, those are things you've already worked, so it's already right here.

And then you jump back in, making that double crochet and a slip stitch to end your round. Then you can slip stitch here for row number 2, or round number 2. Make your chain. And then work your way across, and after you get here, then that means these two little faded stitches are actually something you've already worked over here, and then you finish off your round right here by placing a double crochet right there and a slip stitch. And then you start round number 3.

So sometimes, you know, when we represent working in the round, sometimes it's represented in a way where you start in the center and you work your way out and it gets bigger, you know, granny squares are great charted this way. You can do also Amigurumi will look like this too, um, you know, it'll actually let me draw a little because this is very common in Amigurumi. For especially like if it's a Japanese publication that they will just do symbols to represent um their patterns so you would start in the middle with that magic ring and then you'd have these single crochets. That wasn't very equally dispersed, was it? Oh, this doesn't want to erase.

OK. No mistakes. So then you've got, then you would have like an increase, so you're, you have two single crochets pointing at one. So that means you're putting 2 stitches into one. For doing those increases.

So you've got 2 stitches pointing at that stitch, 2 stitches pointing at that stitch. Two stitches, pointing at this one. And 2, pointing at that one. And then let's just say, um, let's just say we'll we'll do one more increase, OK? So let's say that this is the beginning.

So this would be 12, and then this would be the 3rd one we're gonna increase twice in that stitch and once here, and then we're gonna repeat that. 1 and 2. There's one worked into that stitch, one stitch here, one stitch here worked into this one. So you can see. The stitches should be pointing at, like down below, they should be kind of angled toward and pointing at whatever's below them.

And that means they're worked into that stitch below. So those are going into the stitch, and then there's the stitch. And then let's just say on round number four, you stopped your increasing. Like, let's just say you're going to do one stitch in each stitch around. So you would have one stitch per stitch.

like this. okay, so we're just doing one, pointing at each stitch from below. And then let's say on the next round we were going to do decreases, right? So we're making, say we're making a sphere we're increasing maybe we work even for a couple of rounds or something like that and then if we're going to decrease later, we can show that decrease by doing these kinds of single crochet two together, right? So we have this type of stitch.

so you're basically pointing at, oh, the bottom of the single crochet came from here, and then the bottom of the single crochet came from over here. And then they come together and converge at the top. All right. All right, so here we have, you know, all those decreases that happen and, you know, we've got half as many stitches now because this counts as one stitch, right? Because we've got those two legs pointing at the two stitches below.

all right, so then as we decrease more, our stitches get a little weirder and a little weirder looking because here's a single crochet coming together from those two stitches. Here's a single crochet, you know, these are single crochet two togethers coming from these two stitches. So sometimes when you're working in the round and you're trying to show something. um, it can be a little bit confusing looking because. Um, it stops looking like what it actually is like this doesn't really look like a sphere unless you know what these symbols are and then in your mind you're like, oh I see what's happening, you know, we work around there and I can see we're decreasing so oh it makes a sphere like you know that in your mind, but here it looks like sort of a crazy flower.

So this is, this is where I feel like. Reading stitch charts, you actually, you know, it, it, it isn't always exactly um representing a picture of what it is, You know, you can take a look at this, and you can say, oh, I know that's a single crochet two together, and we're decreasing from these two stitches. I can see this one's pointing here, this one's pointing here. Those are decreased into one. So it's like a little map that's leading you through, and you'll know what to do next, but the more you work with stitch charts, the more you're gonna realize that.

You know, it just, um, it just helps to know what the actual stitches are and to be able to translate the stitches in your mind. Um, to see, it looks like this is not gonna erase very well, but maybe. Maybe I'm using too old of a marker. That's OK. If I need, if I need to draw more, I will just do it on the back of one of these pieces of paper, no big deal.

OK. All right, so let's see. OK, so another thing that I wanted to point out, um, is sometimes when you are, when you're working across like, particularly this is confusing, I think, with postages. So here we have, like, this is a basket weave chart, and we've got a bunch of, um, these are back post double crochets right here because that C is a regular letter C, and these are a backwards letter C. Some of these are forward.

Some of these are backward. OK, so as we're looking through. I think people have had questions about this before as you're working those front post double crochets and those back post double crochets, when you're looking at the chart, they're always going to be represented by the same symbol throughout your piece, whether you're working a right side or a wrong side in the chart doesn't matter. So, for example, what I'm trying to say is if you are doing a front post double crochet right here. And then on the next row, you can see just above, here we have.

A C going the opposite direction to keep that ridge going on the right side of your, of your work, we would be working a back post double crochet right there, OK, so when you're working a back post double crochet, when you're looking at the wrong side row, it's gonna make that bump stick out on the side that you're not looking at, the side opposite you, and which is actually the right side because you're working the wrong side row. Um, so just so you know, whether you're working a right side or wrong side, when you see a symbol and the C is shaped in this direction, That is supposed to mean you're going in a back post. You're going around the back post. If the C is going in this direction, that means you're making a front post. OK, so regardless of the side of the work that you're working on, you know, that remains true.

However, I have seen sometimes in people's stitch patterns, sometimes they would keep the C going in the same direction. So this is a backward C because it's a front post double crochet when you're looking at the right side. Then when they would do the next row here, They were trying to maintain that the postage is always on, you know, raised on that front part of your stitch, so when they did that they wanted to keep the C in the same direction. I think this is technically, you know, this happens not super often, but I have seen it enough times where I think it is confusing to people because sometimes people are using this stitch. As a front post double crochet when you're working on the right side row, and then sometimes they use the same stitch when they're working a back post double crochet on a wrong side row so that it makes this look consistent throughout your.

Um, your stitch diagram, but it's confusing to people, so. In that case, always look and see what the key is saying. I'm just bringing all this up because this has happened a couple of times where people have had questions and I've looked at other people's patterns and I, and I thought, oh, that's because they're using what I always think of as always, no matter what side of the row you're working on, doesn't matter what side of the piece you're working on. This is always, to me, a front post double crochet when it hooks on this side. But I have seen some people using this as a back post double crochet when you're working across those wrong side rows, OK?

So I just wanted to bring that up just in case anybody is running across this, um, this issue and it's confusing them in everyone's charts. Hopefully, if they're doing something like that, they would actually have a key to look at so you can see what they actually mean, but just double check by looking at their key if they've got one or if they have any written out words. It's great to just like kind of get used to the chart and the way that they're using the symbols by reading through the first couple of instructions if your work isn't turning out how you thought it would. OK, so like if there's some sort of problem happening and you're trying to figure out how They're using a symbol and it doesn't seem like it's making the right fabric then. Go back and look through the chart and compare that again to, you know, the written words if you, if you have that.

All right. Hopefully that was helpful. Um, let's see. OK, so I, I do also kind of want to go back on that section where I was talking about stitches should be pointing to the stitch that they're worked into. So this is one of the things that I love so much about charts is you can tell where they're coming from, um, where you make those posts, especially if you have something like let's just say we're working on this.

This is, um, this is from the Autumn Glow cable or, uh, cable towel, and this is worked in the round. This is just a repeat section that's been charted out here. So after you get to the end, you again start start on this side here, and you can tell it's worked in the round because all of the numbers are on the right. So you're always going to be starting there as you're working across each round. OK, so if you take a look at this.

You know, we've got this stitch is pointing, you know, it's just directly above this, you know, this is an extended single crochet and it's worked directly into the stitch, right? This one's worked directly into this stitch. When we get over here, there's all this crazy business going on with all these things crossing over each other. So as you're working across round number 1, you can do extended single crochet in the next 3 stitches. Then these are front post double crochets, and they're all worked in the stitch directly below.

So front post double crochet, front post double crochet. Here's an extended single crochet worked in that stitch, front post double crochet, front post double crochet. Now, there are these other things sticking down in the way into our stitches, but when you're reading a chart, you do not need to care about when that's happening because those are coming from a different round, OK? So, even though they're in, they're kind of like infringing on the territory of these little front post double crochets down here. It's like sticking down here.

The front, or the top, of these stitches is way up here because they're in the next round. So don't worry about it. If you are working across the round and you see some things sticking down into your round that and the tops of the stitches are somewhere else, just ignore them. The best you can do is just ignore them. OK?

So you're just gonna be working that round. Then we get to round number 2. Here is an extended single crochet worked here. Here is a, like, a bobble stitch worked into this extended single crochet, an extended single crochet worked into this stitch. And here we have two stitches.

These are kind of lighter in color. And you can see the top of the stitches here and the bottom of the stitches there. OK? Same thing with this one, top of the stitches here, bottom of the stitches there. So what's happening here is your next two stitches are actually worked not directly below, but they're worked into posts that are way over here.

So. If you've ever worked in a cable stitch pattern before for crochet, you'll know that sometimes that happens. You're shifting around where your next stitch is actually connected to a stitch that's, you know, slightly out of slant. It makes the stitch kind of lean a little bit. Oh, we have a question here.

Let's see. Oh, and I'm sorry that I missed this earlier. OK, um, Valerie is saying, so once I turn the row, row 2, I actually read the chart backwards. Yes. So we're talking about back, we're talking about those turned rows.

Yes, Valerie, sorry, I didn't get to this, um, earlier when I was actually teaching this part. I'm sorry about that. Um, but yes, so when you're working in, working in rows, you will be working across here and then row number 2, you can see in the chart the 2 is over here, so that's telling you, hey, we're gonna work from this side to that side, OK, but just in the chart, so every. When you're looking at what you just worked, you're gonna turn your row. You're always gonna be, as a right-hand crocheter, you're always gonna be working from right to left.

If you were a lefty, you'd be working from left to right, but yes, you're reading the chart backwards and working forwards, if that makes sense. So it does take a little bit of getting used to. Um, you know, a couple of projects and then your brain will just start to kind of just look at what comes next, what comes next, and you'll think what comes next, what comes next, and you'll be able to just see it in your piece. I don't know, it's just, uh. Probably for some people that'll happen right away.

Probably for other people they'll need to keep reminding themselves, oh yes, this is one of those rows where I'm working across the chart this way, but I'm working my piece this way. Yes, um, so Cheryl says, could you show in a piece how you're following the pattern where you are crocheting right handed, but at the end of the second row you read the pattern Left to right, but you're physically crocheting right to left. OK. OK, so you wanna see what that looks like when I'm actually crocheting it. That's actually OK, um.

OK. Good, Valerie. OK, I'm glad that that helps. So, I'm gonna work up a little section of this. I'm, I'm probably going to do a couple, well, maybe I'll do the same amount of repeats because that'll just make it easier for you guys to see.

So 123456789, 1011, 1213, 1415, 16. We're going to do 16 chains. We've got 23456789, 1213, 1415, 16. OK, so here we have these chains plus these two chains all together. So if we really wanted to make it look like that, we would bend this up a little bit like that.

And then we're going to work a double crochet into the third chain from the hook. So we've got +123. So here's our first double crochet, and there's that chain. So it looks like this. There's the chain, double crochet, chain, double crochet.

And now I'm gonna do a double crochet in each of the chains across. So this is row number one, oops, row number one that I'm working on here. Reading the chart from right to left, and I'm also crocheting from right to left. So that's easy, right? Makes sense.

Whoops, losing my loop here. All right, I'm almost there, you guys. Thank you for being patient. I mean, I guess I don't know that you're being patient. You could be yelling at me right now for all I know, but I know you guys, you guys are always so nice, so I'm just gonna guess you're being very patient with me.

OK. So here I've made it to the last double crochet, and then row number 2 starts here in the chart. OK. So we're gonna be reading row number 2, and we're gonna be working from left to right in the row or in the, in the chart, like with our eyeballs looking here. But we're gonna be working from right to left because I'm a right-handed crocheter.

So I'm gonna chain my 21 and 2, and I'm turning my work, so I just did those two, and now I'm gonna work a front post double crochet in the second double crochet, OK, because those two chains we just made. Are counting as a stitch. They are, it's as though I worked into that double crochet right below. OK. So, the next double crochet, which is right here, that's where I'm gonna be working my front post double crochet.

So, here I am on my second stitch of the row. And here is that post. So I'm gonna be working my front post, double crochet right there. And then I'm gonna do 2 more double crochets. One and 2.

And then I've got a front post double crochet and the next post. And then I've got 2 double crochets in the working row. And so you can see here. When you have these post stitches, you can see there isn't another stitch behind that, OK? Right?

Like when you're working those post stitches, so for example, let's see, let me do my next double crochet. So when I work this post stitch, I'm working it around this post from row number one. And that's considered this stitch is considered being worked. So this, even though this top of the stitch is available here, we're actually working our next stitch here because this stitch is considered worked because I've already worked around the post down there if that makes sense. So, also in that way, you know, the chart is telling you that because you only work the stitch once, you work around the post and then you move on to placing a double crochet in the next stitch.

So as you can see, I'm working from right to left and reading the chart from left to right. All right, so here we've got front post double crochet. We're right here, 2 more double crochets. And then a front post double crochet. Oops, I didn't finish that double crochet.

There's my front post double crochet. And then I can see that this double crochet is made into the top of my turning chain, which is right here. Like that. OK? So that would be row number 2.

I worked from right to left. That's because I'm a right-handed crocheter, but we read the chart from left to right as we were making those stitches. OK. I hope that that was helpful and that makes a little more sense. Um, OK.

Let's see. So, I also wanted to mention, oh, back on this, um, when we are talking about this chart here. So as we're working across, I started talking about these weird stitches that go across there. So what we're really doing here is we're skipping over, you know, the tops of the stitches are—they're here, they're coming up in order. Always look at the top of the stitches, and that's going to tell you what stitch actually comes next.

So here's the first stitch, 2nd, 3rd, here's the 4th stitch, but the bottom of the stitch is way over here. It's out of order. You know, normally we would go straight down here to that stitch, but we're reaching over here. But the reason we know this stitch is next is because we're looking at the tops of the stitches as we work our way across this chart. So we have extended bauble, extended single crochet, and then we have this front post treble crochet that's worked in this stitch way over here.

So we would skip 1, 2, 3 stitches and work a post stitch around the next stitch. And then the bottom of the stitch is way over here. It's out of order. You know, normally we would go straight down here to that stitch, but we're reaching over here. But the reason we know this stitch is next is because we're looking at the tops of the stitches as we work our way across this chart.

So we have extended bauble, extended single crochet, and then we have this front post treble crochet that's worked in this stitch way over here. So we would skip 1, 2, 3 stitches and work a post stitch around the next stitch. And then we do the same. So we would do another front post treble right here around the following stitch in that stitch way over here. And then we do the same.

So we, we would do another front post treble right here around the following stitch in that. Row below. Then, as we're working our way across this row, we see we have an extended single crochet, and that's pointing straight down. So we work that stitch into this stitch because it's directly above the stitch, it's directly above that stitch. Then, as we're following along, looking at the tops of our stitches, we see this stitch here.

This is a front post treble crochet. And it's made over here into this stitch, OK? And then the second, the next front post treble crochet is worked into this stitch. All right, so in that way, when you're not sure what comes next when it's just like a mixture of stuff going on, always just look at the top. Where is the top of the next stitch?

So here's the top of the stitch. That stitch comes next, the stitch comes next. Look at the top of the stitch, don't look at the bottom of the stitch because that is confusing. This will have to come next because, you know, once you have made this stitch, the next stitch is right here. So that's just leading you down to put your post, uh, post stitch down over here in this other stitch.

And the reason why, you know, in this chart and in many of my cable crossing charts, I like to make some of the stitches a lighter color and some of them a darker color, and the reason that I'm doing that is just so you can see very easily what is sitting on top of what. So when you look at this, if you just sort of blur your eyes a little, it really looks like this part of the cable comes down in front like that, we would see something that looks like this, OK, so this is more prominent, it's sitting on top, so that's, that's the darker black color is sitting on top of this faded gray color there. Now, this isn't - not everybody does their charts this way. I think it's fairly common, um, but I like to do it this way just so you can see at a glance what is crossing over what. And you can just know, oh, these have to go on top.

So if you don't, if you've never worked cables before, this might not make very much sense, but if you have worked cables and you're working from a chart and you see something like this, you can double-check and make sure that you're placing those two stitches in front of the stitches that you already made when you make them. If you had seen something where, just for example, we had very light pale stitches going in this direction, so we've got like two front post double crochets going that direction. And then say we had really dark ones. Oops, that's not a very good drawing, but if we had very dark ones going in this direction. Like this.

When you look at that, it looks like this side is on top. OK, so like the right side of the cable is sitting on top of the left side. So what that means is when you come across, you work this post stitch, you work this post stitch, maybe there's another stitch in the middle like this one, or maybe not, and then you're going to work these two post stitches. That means these have to be worked behind the first two that you made. So you've got two here, and then you have to work those post stitches behind those two stitches so that it looks like this.

So I mean, if you're not a, uh, if you haven't worked up any crochet cables, um. Or if you've never crossed them over in the opposite direction, you may not realize that you can actually work your postages behind stitches that you've already made, um, but this will make a little more sense to you later when you start working on charts that cross over in different directions. If you want an example of that, the rigid cable cowl, um, which is shown right here, this is a really lovely, like Celtic-inspired cowl that I made for Craftsy. It is, um. It's a free tutorial, free pattern download, but in here we have cables crossing in multiple different, or in different directions.

Here you can see there are darker front post trebles sitting on top of these lighter ones back here, and then we have the opposite of this happening. Let's see, where is the opposite of that here. So the darker ones are going in this direction. You know, in this diagonal right here, and the lighter ones are in this diagonal. OK, so, so there are different ways to cross your cables, and your cable chart can help you look at a glance, you know, when you look at that, you can say, oh, those are faded; those are supposed to be behind, these darker ones are supposed to be in front, you know, or vice versa.

OK, let's see if we've got, oh, Valerie said the visual was better. OK, great. So that's helping, um, you understand how to work and turn rows and all that stuff from, I'm guessing that's what we're talking about still. Right? Yes, reading the chart backwards.

OK. Um, OK, so I wanted to talk just a little bit about what happens when you're somebody's making a chart and they for some reason cannot actually have the stitch look like it's connected to another stitch. Sometimes you will see these little arrows on the chart. Um, and I am just about done. I'm just gonna wrap up, so like if you guys have any lingering questions, put them in the chat so that I know I can, I can help you guys out, OK?

Um, so, for example, in this, actually it's happening in this diagram and it's also happening in this diagram. So let's just look at the, let's just look at the large flower for right now. So actually these diagrams both come from um an Irishish is what I call it Irish-ish cowl that I made and it has some details of Irish lace in it and that's what is represented here. So, here we've got, as you're working around, this is worked in the round. So we started with a bunch of chains, and then we worked a round of single crochet here.

Round number 2, we're doing a single crochet, and then some chains. Single crochet, some chains. We're working around. Um, round number 3, we're starting to make some little petals, so we've got some taller stitches that go into those chain spaces like that. So here, these are all pointing at this little chain here.

Oh, and here, just another thing about, um, just a little aside, sometimes you can't tell the difference between whether stitches are actually worked into the chains below or if they're worked into a chain space. This happens a lot, it's particularly in like. These types of motifs and things like that where you're working into chain spaces. Sometimes, sometimes you might just be working into stitches. So this is a point where it's good to actually read through the directions and say, oh, are these supposed to be worked into those chains, or are they worked into the chain space?

You can also just work them into the chain space and then look at the picture and see if it looks like that. Um, and then you should be fine 'cause that, that, that does look pretty different than working into each individual chain if that. Makes sense. I hope you guys understand what I'm saying. Like, for example, let me just make a little chain space here.

So say you have this chain space, we make some chains, and then we make a single crochet here. And then we're going to work in the opposite direction. Not that you have to work in the opposite direction, but I'm just getting back over to this chain space. Here's the chain space where my finger is here. So you could, according to your chart, if I, if say this was that chain space, obviously this doesn't look anything like this motif, you could be you would make a slip stitch into the chain space, or is it into the chain?

So you could, if it's worked into the chain, you'd be working into that, uh, you know, right into that stitch, or are you going to be working that into that chain space? OK. And then you, there's a little turning chain there, and then you have some more stitches that you could be working into the chain space like this, or you might be working it into each individual chain, OK, like this. So you can see that there, there, there is a difference when you work into that chain space, it just has a different look to it. Once you get more filled in here, I'll show you.

12, I'm making those double crochets now, And then here's a half double crochet, because that's what's after that. And then a chain one, and then we slip stitch into that chain space again. So when you work into your chain, you can see all of those little, when you work into it, you have all those little vertical lines, and they look very rounded. Usually, they kind of have a bit of a sheen to it. It's very smooth down here because you're not working into each individual chain where there are bumps that are left over from the bottom, OK?

So normally, when you're making motifs and things like that, if there's a bunch of stitches sort of pointing at a space where there's a chain and then there's nothing underneath that chain, usually it's worked into a chain space, but not always, and this would be a point where it would be good to go back and read through the actual directions. All right, so the other thing I wanted to mention here, so as you're working around, let's see, you get to round number 4. Let's see. Yeah, round number 4. And you've got these, like, these are called uh back post single crochets right here.

This is not a very common stitch, um, but that's, that's what we're, we're working here when we have those sort of like little letter C's with uh. A plus sign attached to it, that's a back post single crochet. And so what these red arrows are telling you is this single crochet is actually worked around the post of this stitch. It's pointing at it. So when you have something in a chart, we have a little red arrow that's telling you, hey, this stitch is actually worked into this.

Like I couldn't get this. I, one, if I tried to put it down here, it would have made it really confusing when you got to this round, so it was easier for me to pull it up here and just say, hey, this is worked into that stitch. OK, this, this one goes there. The same thing, sort of the same thing is happening over here with these lines with the arrows. So we're working this leaf.

It doesn't really look much like a leaf, but it does in real life when you're actually working all these stitches where they're supposed to go. So we've got some single crochets and some chains, and then we work back in this direction. We have single crochets through the back loop. That's what those little dashes are below the stitch that's telling you that there's a loop open. So we're working single crochets through the back loop and then we chain one for a turning chain.

Here's row number 3, single crochets to the back loop, and then we chain 3 more, so 3 more plus that turning chain, and then we're gonna work across in this direction. And work in this direction. Here's row number 6, this direction, 7 goes here, 8 goes here, and suddenly we have the stitch that's just floating up above of nothingness. Where does that go? This is the arrow that's telling you, hey, this is actually worked down here.

But it would be a very, very weird looking chart if I was able to bring the stitch all the way down there, it would also be very confusing to do those short rows when you're first building this up, so it's a lot easier to just be like, hey, you're working that down here into the stitch, and then when you make the stitch, oh, it's worked down here, this one's worked down here, OK. And these little, this is something that I made up with these little swoops, but this is telling you, you kind of connect it by picking up a loop in the side of a stitch and then you're working it below. That's all described in the pattern, so don't worry about that. This is not a very usual thing to have this like little things. It off, but having an arrow showing you, you know, connecting one stitch to another, that's basically saying like, yes, they aren't next to each other in the chart, but this really goes into this stitch here.

So that's happening here. It's also happening here. I do have another example of that right here. Here in the chart, we've got all these little red arrows saying, hey, all these stitches, those are actually worked into this chain, into this chain space below. Not into this chain, but down here.

OK, so this is basically telling you this single crochet, we worked that down here into this chain space. All right, that's what all those little arrows are. So if you're coming up, like if you have a chart that's kind of crazy looking like this, sometimes it just takes a little bit of effort, but looking, reading through the directions for the first couple rows. And looking at the chart at the same time, you'll be like, oh, I see what they're trying to show me that goes into there, OK? And then once you know that, it's like the same throughout the chart, you don't have to keep referring to the directions.

All right, OK, that's, that's about where we're going to stop because I could talk and talk about charts for a very long time, but I hope that this has given you like a really good foundation so that you guys can look at a chart and be like, hey, those symbols look familiar. And also I have this little downloaded cheat sheet, so I know what those are and I understand how they relate to each other and I know to look for the numbers that's going to help tell me what direction to work. Um, so you have all these little visual cues to help you read charts. Also, I very often teach from charts, so I'll be showing the visual, you know, like how to actually crochet something, but a lot of times I'll be bringing in a chart so people can kind of follow along on the chart also so I can follow along on the chart, and I don't lose my place. Um, so if you are interested in just kind of learning a little more about charts in general or using them more, then watch some more of my free tutorials, you guys, because I'm always teaching from those, you know, picture representations, those charts, and then I will go back and forth and to keep track of where we're at on those, and just, I think, just seeing somebody showing you, oh, these are the stitches right here; now I'm going to do them in real life.

Here's the stitches right here; now I'm going to do them in real life. I feel like that is just a helpful thing that you can start kind of training your brain to look at these as though they are actual stitches, and you can kind of understand what it means when you look at these lovely diagrams. So I hope this is very helpful for you guys. I hope to see you in another live event. Thanks so much for joining me, everybody.

Bye.