Brackets, Parentheses, and Asterisks in Crochet Patterns: What They Actually Mean
Here is a line from a real amigurumi pattern:
Rnd 3. [sc, inc] x 6 (18)
Four different kinds of punctuation, and every one of them means something specific. Once you know what, the line reads as plainly as a recipe. Until then it looks like a password.
Parentheses at the end of a round: the stitch count
Start here, because this is the one that trips up almost everyone.
The (18) is not an instruction. You do not crochet it. It is telling you how many stitches you should have when that round is finished.
It is a checkpoint, and it is the most useful number in the whole pattern. Count your stitches at the end of every round and compare. If the pattern says 18 and you have 17, you have found the mistake while it is one round old and easy to fix. Skip the check and you will find it six rounds later, when the shape has already gone visibly wrong.
Some patterns write this as (18 sts) or = 18. Same meaning.
Square brackets: repeat this group
[sc, inc] is a small group of instructions to be worked as a unit. The x 6 immediately after tells you to work that whole group six times in a row.
So the line means: sc, inc, sc, inc, sc, inc, sc, inc, sc, inc, sc, inc.
Twelve stitches worked, producing eighteen, because each of those six increases turns one stitch into two. That is where the (18) comes from.
You will also see this written as (sc, inc) x 6 or *sc, inc* x 6. Different punctuation, identical meaning. Patterns are not fully standardised, which is precisely why reading them is a skill rather than a lookup.
Asterisks: repeat from here
Asterisks mark a starting point to come back to.
*sc in next 2 sts, inc; repeat from * around
Work the instructions after the asterisk, then return to the asterisk and work them again, continuing until the round is complete. Sometimes a closing asterisk marks the end of the repeat, and sometimes a semicolon or the words "repeat from" do that job instead.
"Repeat from * around" means keep going to the end of the round. "Repeat from * 5 more times" means exactly that many additional passes, so six in total counting the first one.
Parentheses in the middle of a line: all in one stitch
This is different from the count at the end, and context tells you which is which.
(sc, ch 1, sc) in next st
Everything inside the parentheses goes into the same single stitch. This is how corners and points are made. If you spread those three stitches across three separate stitches, your corner will not turn.
The giveaway is the words after the closing parenthesis. If it says "in next st" or "in same st", the group belongs in one place.
Putting it back together
Now reread the line:
Rnd 3. [sc, inc] x 6 (18)
Round 3. Work a single crochet then an increase, repeat that pair six times, and finish with eighteen stitches on the round.
Nothing mysterious in it at all.
The one habit that saves the most projects
Trust the count in parentheses over your own memory, every time. Counting at the end of each round takes about fifteen seconds, and it is the difference between catching an error immediately and unravelling an hour of work.
Our guide to counting stitches in amigurumi covers how to do that without losing your place in a spiral.
Practise it, do not memorise it
Notation is like reading. Nobody learns it from a chart on the wall. You learn it by reading lines until they stop looking like symbols.
Our free Pattern Trainer is built for exactly this. It walks through brackets, repeats, stitch counts, and complete patterns as short interactive lessons, with a test at the end of each unit. It costs nothing and needs no account.