Pattern Reading Basics

Hi guys, Mary Beth Temple here and in this video, I wanna talk to you about the very basics of pattern reading. It's not that hard once you know what you're looking for, so let's go through this pattern and look at the different sections so that will be familiar to you when you pick a pattern that you wanna do. So the first thing that you'll see when you get a pattern, of course is a picture of your item and the title, and hopefully the designer and a little bit of information, we call that the romance copy, and then usually you'll see the skill level. It's totally fine to sort of punch above your weight and go for something a little more advanced than you normally do but if you are a beginning crochet, I don't know that I would go to something advanced so do check the skill level. Then you're going to see all kinds of other information.

There's usually abbreviations. And all of the abbreviations that are used in the pattern will be defined at the beginning. So if you come across an unusual one or one you haven't seen before, you can go back to this abbreviation chart and see exactly what it means. Now, this particular pattern doesn't have one, but sometimes you'll see a section that's called special stitches. And that's again, a stitch that's unusual.

Maybe it's a shell stitch maybe it's some kind of a front or back post stitch. Those will be defined usually in a section called special stitches. You'll find your finished sizes so that you can decide what size you want to make. And what I do when I select my size is I go through the whole pattern and I circle with a pen the size that's relevant to the size that I'm going to make. So I don't get confused.

You'll find materials. It'll usually tell you the Craft Yarn Council of America the CYCA weight, which runs from one I think we're up to six or seven now but that tells you what weight yarn you have. So if you want a substitute, you can do it, and how many yards that you're going to need and usually some descriptive about, you know, it's acrylic or it's in this case, it says it's a light linen blend which it is, or it might say it's multicolored, et cetera. If you need multiple colors that's going to tell you right there too. It's going to tell you your crochet hook size and it always says size needed to obtain gauge or size needed to get gauge.

And the reason is just because I used a 3.75 millimeter hook in this piece, and that's the gauge that I got doesn't mean that you're going to get that with a 3.75 millimeter hook although that's where you should start. But you may have to go up or down to get the gauge that the person got when they made this piece. Gauge down here is going to tell you how many stitches and how many rows equal how many inches. So usually it's four inches or 10 centimeters, and it should tell you if it's before blocking or after blocking especially for lace pieces, it's usually after blocking. But again, you can get going, you can compare your stitching to the gauge on the pattern.

I'm always going to tell you to do a gauge swatch four to six inches in width and height, and half of you are going to tell me, heck no I'm not going to do that I'd rather do my piece. If you're not going to do a gauge swatch you want to at least compare your work to the gauge on the pattern to make especially if you're going to do something if it has to fit somebody. I always say if it has to fit just to anybody and it comes out at the end and it doesn't fit who you wanted you can give it to somebody else, or you can donate it, but if you need it to fit a specific person you have to get the gauge that's in the pattern. Then there's going to be notes. If there are any, in this particular one it defines what a shell or a half shell is lets you know that turning chains count of stitches, which ones do and don't, that's usually on there too.

And often it will tell you the exact yarn that was used in the piece in case you want to use that exact yarn. This one also has a stitch, a schematic with the sizes that lets you know, how wide, how tall all that kind of thing, which you can use for information when you're making your pieces. The pattern will be divided up into sections. If you're doing a sweater it might say front or back or sleeve, et cetera and that's to make sure you're focused on the area of the project piece that you're going to make. Of course your rows are going to be knotted and there might be some asterisks in there to letting you know where to repeat from.

There might be some information in parentheses which tells you those stitches go in the same stitch or space, or sometimes there might be a stitch repeat marked in those parentheses, but you're going to follow along with the pattern and figure out how that works. And then at the end of the rows and this confuses a lot of people. So some of you may know this, but if there is a change in the number of stitches at the end of the row, it'll give you a stitch count. It might say 112 double crochet or 17 five double crochet shells or any number of things. And that is so at the end of the row that you can count and make sure that you have the same number that's in the pattern that's not telling you to make more stitches, That's telling you how many stitches you're supposed to have.

And I know that a lot of people find that very confusing specifically on smaller or shorter rows they see at the end, it might say 12 DC and they say, "Oh, where am I supposed to put those?" It's not telling you to put more. And another easy way to find that sometimes those are italicized or sometimes they're after a period. If there's a period at the end of the instruction and then a number of stitches after that with no period, that's a note not an instruction. At the end of your pattern you're going to have your finishing instructions. It's going to tell you to block it if it needs to be blocked, it's going to tell you how the piece was seemed, if it needed to be seemed, maybe there's an edging, maybe it needs some fringe.

That finishing section is going to give you all the information you need to get the piece 100% done and looking like the photo. I hope this is good information for you to use to pick your next project and gives you the sort of permission to go outside the box and maybe pick some trickier things now that you know how reading patterns works. Once again, I'm Mary Beth Temple. Thanks for spending time with me today. I'll see you again real soon.

Bye-bye.