Crochet Techniques

Amigurumi patterns rarely give a gauge, and that confuses people coming from garments. Here is what gauge actually controls in a stuffed piece, and the one test worth doing.

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.

When your pattern says dec, it usually means the invisible decrease, not sc2tog. Here is the difference, why it matters, and how to work it.

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.