How to Read Crochet Patterns: Identify the Repeats
Most crochet beginners are reasonably comfortable, with a bit of help, with understanding the abbreviations that you find in a crochet pattern (SC = Single Crochet, DC = Double Crochet, Ch = Chain).
But the thing that cause some anxiety is all of those other symbols: like stars or asterisks, brackets or parentheses, and hyphens or dashes.
In some cases, the same symbol can mean two different things, depending on the context.
Usually, the symbols are associated with Repeats - sections of a pattern that you do over and over until you have reached a particular spot in your project.
Let's look at some examples of repeats.
Simple repeat: a single row
Crochet Pattern with Simple Row Repeat
This snippet is from a pattern designed for beginner crocheters. Notice the second half of the snippet, where it says to repeat last row until work from beginning measures a certain length.
The important part is that this line is saying to repeat Row 2 only - not Row 1 (whatever that was).
This is the basic pattern for row after row of Single Crochet. Each row will begin with a "Chain 1", the turning chain. And each row will end with a Turn.
Medium repeat: a few rows
Multiple Row Repeat
Notice the highlighted part, where it says to repeat Rows 2-5 a bunch of times. This means that you will work these rows in this order: 1,2,3,4,5, 2,3,4,5, 2,3,4,5, 2,3,4,5, and so on. Row 1 is only done once.
This brings up a key point: in most crochet patterns, the first row is special, because it is telling you to work certain stitches into the foundation chain. In subsequent rows, the pattern tells you to work stitches into the stitches that were created in the previous row. That's why in most crochet patterns, the repeated section starts with Row 2.
However, there are some crochet patterns that call that first row a Foundation Row, with Row 1 being the first row that is worked into stitches, not chains. In that case, the row repeat usually starts with Row 1, which just seems easier to understand!
Medium repeat: a repeat within a row
This is where you will usually find the star or asterisk identifying the repeat. The general form of the instructions looks like this:
Row 1: Do some stitches, * Do some different stitches, Rep from * until some stitches from the end, Do some finishing stitches.
Here's an example (and trust me, it's a reasonably simple example!):
Crochet Pattern: Repeat within a Row
Sometimes it is useful to identify the three parts of a pattern row, the beginning/repeat/ending, just to get it clear in your mind. The snippet above would then look like this:
- The beginning: 1 sc in 2nd ch from hook.
- The repeat: 1 sc in each of next 9 ch. Ch 2. 1 sc in each of next 10 ch. Miss next 2 ch. 1 sc in each of next 5 ch. Ch 2. 1 sc in each of next 5 ch. Miss next 2 ch. 1 sc in next ch.
- The ending: 1 sc in each of next 9 ch. Ch 2. 1 sc in each of next 10 ch.
Please notice that the repeat starts with an sc in the next 9 ch, and it ends with an sc in the next ch. When you repeat that section, it really means that there are 10 consecutive chains that have sc's worked into them! The absolutely most important thing to learn from this is that you must, you must, you must work every single step in the repeat before going back to the star. If you miss a step, you are hooped!
Big repeats
Quite often, when you have a pattern for a pullover, the front is worked the same as the back up to a point, usually where the neck shaping starts. In that case, the pattern designer will use double stars (**) to denote the part that gets duplicated. Here is one example, with the ** highlighted:
Crochet Pattern with Big Repeat
The best way to handle these double stars is whenever you see them, highlight them. It can be hard to find the matching pairs, especially if the pattern is somewhat complicated. So just highlight them, just like I did in the pattern snippet above.
Complex repeats: Repeats within repeats
Crochet patterns can get really complex. Occasionally, there will be a repeated portion within a larger repeat. These will usually be shown with single, double, or triple stars, or by an inner repeat within parentheses. The challenge is to find out where the inner and outer repeats begin and end.
Unfortunately, at the time of this writing, I couldn't find an example - when I do find one, I'll put it into this article.
Conclusion
Identifying the repeats in a crochet pattern is a key skill. After that, it is very important to do ALL of the steps defined in the repeat.
That leads to success!
