Crochet techniques: How to read a stitch diagram

Stitch diagrams can be one of the easiest ways to help you envisage how the stitches are supposed to work together when you don’t have a close up of the pattern itself.

They are made using symbols to signify the stitches. A full list of which can be found in the appendix, but here are the ones you will find in most beginner patterns:

Symbol	Stitch
	Chain
	Slip Stitch
	Double Crochet
	Treble Crochet
	Half-Treble Crochet
	Magic Ring
	Increase
	Decrease

 

An example stitch symbol pattern, for the following pattern:

Ch 4, join with a sl st into the first ch,
ch 3, 2 tr, (2 ch, 3 tr) 3 times, ch 2
and join with a sl st.

Start at the highlighted stitch and work anti-clockwise around the diagram.