Crochet Techniques

A stitch multiple tells you how many chains to start with. Here is how to read "chain a multiple of 4 + 2", do the arithmetic in five seconds, and stop running out of stitches halfway along the row.

A pattern says ch 1 on one row and ch 3 on the next, with no explanation. The number is not arbitrary: the turning chain replaces the height of the stitch you are about to work.

Some patterns are pictures, not sentences. Here is what the common crochet chart symbols mean, which way to read a chart, and why Japanese amigurumi patterns use them.

Amigurumi is worked in a continuous spiral with no join and no turning chain. Here is why that matters, what it costs you, and how to keep your place without a visible seam.

The number in parentheses at the end of a round is not an instruction. Here is what every bracket, parenthesis, and asterisk in a crochet pattern is telling you to do.