Free crochet Pattern Trainer: learn to read crochet patterns

The Yon Crochet Pattern Trainer is a free, browser-based course that teaches you to read written crochet patterns. There is no purchase, no card, and no account required to start. It is made by Yon Crochet, a crochet learning platform based in Toronto, Canada.

Crochet is really two skills wearing one name. There is the physical skill of making stitches, which video tutorials teach well. And there is the literacy skill of reading what a written pattern is asking for, which most tutorials skip entirely. That gap is why so many people can follow along with a video and still freeze the moment they open a written pattern. A line like "Rnd 3. [sc, inc] x 6 (18)" is not difficult once someone explains it, and almost nobody does. This trainer does.

Twenty two lessons are live across the first two units. Each one teaches a concept and then asks you to use it. Your progress saves on your device, and signing in is optional so that progress and your YonCoins follow you between devices.

Unit 1: Read a round, with Linda

Thirteen lessons covering the vocabulary of a round worked in a spiral, which is how nearly every amigurumi begins.

1. Read our pictures: what every drawing in a pattern means
2. The magic ring, where every plushie begins
3. Your first round: read the line, count the V stitches
4. The increase, and how circles grow
5. Brackets and repeats: the recipe you repeat
6. What a repeat builds: two old V stitches become three new
7. Plain rounds: one in, one out
8. Count the stitches, and catch mistakes before they grow
9. Right side, wrong side: tell the outside from the inside
10. The decrease, and closing the story
11. The two dials: width and height, one stitch at a time
12. How rounds hold hands: every line fits the line above
13. Unit 1 test: everything so far, mixed and harder

Unit 2: Read a whole pattern, with Pug

Nine lessons that take you from a single round to a complete multi-piece pattern.

14. The setup page: ten seconds that save an hour
15. The legend is your friend: you never have to memorise abbreviations
16. Shorthand rounds: one line, many rounds
17. The foundation chain: how a flat piece begins
18. Rows go back and forth: flat pieces turn at each end
19. Fasten off: end a piece so it cannot unravel
20. Close the body: shutting the last little gap
21. Weave in ends: hiding the tails
22. Many pieces, one plushie: sections and sewing

Units in development

Seven further units are being built and are not yet available: Hands on the Hook, Shape Theory, Amigurumi Mastery, Read Any Notation, Technique Families, Crochet Around the World, and The Designer's Path.

What it costs

Nothing. The Pattern Trainer is free to use and always has been. There is no trial and no card required. Signing in is optional and only exists so your progress carries between devices and earns YonCoins.

After the trainer

Pattern literacy lets you use any designer's work, not just ours. When you want to put it into practice with your hands, the Yon Crochet video lessons teach technique stitch by stitch, in right-handed and left-handed versions, with captions and audio in English, French Canadian, and Vietnamese. If you need materials, the beginner kits arrive with the magic ring already started.