Open the drawer when a round goes quiet —
Every short code a pattern uses, in plain words
Patterns write in shorthand so a round fits on one line and you can read it withoutlosing your place. Here is what each code stands for, what your hands do when you meetit, and the UK word beside the US one wherever the two disagree.
Every pattern on StitchMood is written in US terms unless itsays otherwise on its own page, and where the UK word for the same stitch is differentit is noted underneath the definition. Nothing here is worth memorising. Leave thedrawer open beside you and look things up as they come.
Reading a round out loud
A round is written the way you would say it if you were reading it to somebodyacross the table, with the repeats folded up so the line fits. Two conventions donearly all of that folding, and once you can hear them the shorthand stops beingshorthand.
The asterisk, and what it sends you back to
An asterisk marks a place to come back to. *2 sc in next st, sc in next st;repeat from * around means: do those two things, then do them again, and keepdoing them until the round runs out. Everything between the asterisk and the wordrepeat is one helping. Square brackets or ordinary brackets with a numberafter them say the same thing in fewer words — [2 dc in next st] 6 timesis six helpings and nothing else.
The number in brackets at the end
A round that finishes (18) is telling you how many stitches you should havewhen you put the hook down. It is not decoration and it is not the row number. Countthem. If you have seventeen, the mistake is in the round you have just worked and itwill take five minutes to find; if you carry on, it becomes forty rounds ofincreasingly wrong and an evening to undo. Every pattern on StitchMoodends every round with that number for exactly this reason.
The stitches themselves
chain
Yarn over, draw it through the loop already on your hook. Do that a number of times and you have a chain — the row of little Vs nearly everything else gets built on top of.
In UK patterns: ch (same)
slip stitch
Hook in, yarn over, straight back out through everything on the hook. It adds no height at all, which is exactly why it is used: joining a round back to its own start, or travelling sideways to where the next stitch needs to be.
In UK patterns: ss
single crochet
Hook in, draw up a loop, yarn over, through both. The shortest and closest stitch in US terms. Anything stuffed is worked in it, because the fabric it makes has nowhere for the filling to escape.
In UK patterns: dc (double crochet)
half double crochet
Yarn over first, then hook in, draw up a loop, and take all three loops off together in one go. It sits between the short stitch and the tall one, and it is a good deal warmer than its height suggests.
In UK patterns: htr
double crochet
Yarn over, hook in, draw up a loop, then work the loops off two at a time, twice. Roughly two and a half chains tall. This is the stitch a granny square is made of and the reason blankets get finished.
In UK patterns: tr (treble)
treble crochet
Yarn over twice before you go in, then work off two loops at a time, three times over. Tall, quick to cover ground, and open enough to see daylight through.
In UK patterns: dtr
Adding and taking away
increase
Two stitches worked into the one stitch below. It is how a flat circle gets wider and how a square finds its corners. If a round has gone wavy, you have put in one too many.
In UK patterns: inc (same)
decrease
Two stitches joined into one, so the round gets narrower. It is how a shape closes over at the top. If a round has gone tight and cupped, you have taken out one too many.
In UK patterns: dec (same)
single crochet two together
Draw up a loop in one stitch, draw up a loop in the next, then yarn over and take all three off together. The ordinary way of decreasing in single crochet, and perfectly serviceable.
In UK patterns: dc2tog
invisible decrease
The tidier version, and worth the small extra care. Go through the front loops only of the next two stitches, then yarn over and off. It leaves no gap and no bump, so on the outside of a stuffed piece you cannot see where it happened.
In UK patterns: invisible dec
How a piece is put together
magic ring
A loop of yarn held closed by its own tail. Work the first round over both strands, then pull the tail and the middle shuts completely. It is what anything stuffed starts with, so no filling ever shows through the centre.
In UK patterns: magic ring (same)
round
One trip all the way around a piece worked in the round. Most stuffed things are built round after round, and each one ends with its stitch count in brackets so you can check yourself before moving on.
In UK patterns: rnd (same)
row
One trip across a flat piece, after which you turn the work and come back the other way. Blankets and squares worked flat are counted in rows rather than rounds.
In UK patterns: row (same)
back loop only
Go under only the far loop of the stitch, leaving the near one alone. The unused loop stands up as a visible ridge, which is how a flat-bottomed basket gets its fold and how ribbing is faked.
In UK patterns: BL
front loop only
The other way round — under only the near loop. Leaves a free loop behind for a later round to be worked into, which is how petals and layered edges are added on top of finished fabric.
In UK patterns: FL
stitch
One completed thing on the hook, whatever kind. Patterns say “next st”, “each st”, “same st” and mean exactly that — the next one along, every one, or the one you have just been in.
In UK patterns: st (same)
stitches
More than one of the above. The number in brackets at the end of a line — (24) — is how many you should have when that round or row is done. Count them. That is what the brackets are for.
In UK patterns: sts (same)
Shorthand a pattern uses
yarn over
Lay the working yarn over the hook from back to front. On its own it does nothing; it is the motion that gives dc, tr and everything taller their height.
In UK patterns: yoh (yarn over hook)
repeat
Do the bit between the markers again, as many times as it says. “*sc 3, inc; rep from * 6 times” means work those four stitches, then work them again, until you have done the whole sequence six times over.
In UK patterns: rep (same)
skip
Go straight past the stitch without working into it. The gap it leaves is deliberate — it is what makes the holes in lace and the spaces between granny clusters.
In UK patterns: miss
fasten off
Cut the yarn leaving a tail of about ten centimetres, pull it right through the last loop and draw it tight. Then weave it in properly. A tail left dangling will find its way out again eventually.
In UK patterns: FO (same)
wrong side
The face that will not be seen when the piece is finished. Patterns say when it should be facing you, usually because something is about to be worked that only looks right from the other side.
In UK patterns: WS (same)
right side
The face that will be on show. It is normally the tidier of the two, and on a stuffed piece it is the one facing out once the whole thing is closed up.
In UK patterns: RS (same)
What the ball band tells you
double knit weight
Number three on the band, one step lighter than worsted. It takes a 4mm hook and suits baby things, finer toys and anything meant to be light. See the weights chart for the whole run.
In UK patterns: DK (same)
worsted weight
Number four, and the porch default. A 5mm or 5.5mm hook, stitches big enough to see across a table, and what almost every pattern here assumes unless it says otherwise.
In UK patterns: Aran
fingering weight
Number one — fine, and slow going. Socks, shawls and lacework live here. Lovely to look at and not where anybody should begin.
In UK patterns: 4-ply
gauge
How many stitches and rows you get across a measured span, usually four inches or ten centimetres. It is the only number that accounts for your own hands, which is why a square worked and measured beats any amount of guessing at hook sizes.
In UK patterns: tension
Somewhere to practise these
Every beginner pattern on the porch uses exactly these codes, spellsout each round, and ends it with the stitch count in brackets — so you can checkyourself as you go rather than at the end.