Learn to Read Crochet Patterns

Hi, everybody. Welcome everyone. Good morning or good afternoon or good evening. Whatever it is, wherever you're living, I'm happy that you guys are here. Um This of course is a live event and I am hoping that I get lots of questions from you guys. Uh, today we are going to be talking all about uh reading crochet patterns. So this is something that I've been meaning to do for a while because I know that you can be a very like prolific crochet or you can make all kinds of things and you might not know how to read a pattern just because you have never learned or um, it was confusing. Maybe you tried it a couple of times and you were like, I don't need that. I'm just gonna make my own stuff, but it is really awesome to be able to read patterns. Then it just opens up like a million doors for you because you might see something and think, oh, I'd like to make that and then you can see how somebody else did it. They give you all the information, they walk you through everything you're able to recreate the same project that they made. Um It's just really a really, really awesome tool to have under your belt. So this live is all dedicated to learning how to read patterns. Um, starting with total newbies. Ok. So even if you don't know anything about patterns, that's ok. We're gonna be talking about all that stuff today. Basically, I'm going to be walking you through a pattern that I created for the creative crochet corner website. It's the Glacier Cabled beanie. This is a full pattern. It's free. Um You could download it. It might be helpful for you to have this while you're watching this video. You can always go back and watch it again later. I mean, maybe you're like, well, maybe I don't need the download. I can just listen, but later on if you change your mind, you can download it. And that way you can come back with that in your hands while I'm going through because I'm gonna be showing you sections in this pattern and it might be easier for you. You might be able to see better if you can actually turn to that same page and take a look at what I'm looking at. Ok. So, um but you don't have to, you don't have to have this pattern. You can just listen to what I have to say as well and maybe that will just be enough. All right, I wanna say hello to a bunch of people. Um Hello to Dennis. And Regina from northeast Tennessee to Maureen, who is from London, England. Hi, Maureen. Um, and she's not get to see these live events. Well, I'm glad that you could make it this time. That's awesome. Um, and Marjorie from Colorado and Kathy from a soggy Kansas City, Missouri. I imagine it's pretty soggy outside here when I drove in. Um, this morning there was just a ton of snow out of nowhere. It was really beautiful though. It looked like a snow globe. All the, it was just big clumps of snow. It's still pretty much winter here. Um And Regina has a question. She, I have a question for all of you. Do you have more problems reading a pattern that is written out or in symbols? Thank you for asking that Regina because um I'm gonna be talking a little bit about both of those things. Um Well, a lot about both of those things and it would help me if a lot of you are like, oh, I don't understand the symbols. I can read patterns just fine, but I don't understand the symbols, what's going on there. Um If you wanna pipe up and just let me know what it is about patterns that you have trouble with or if you have specific questions, things like that, I will try to answer everything um to the best of my ability during this live so that we can get you guys through the patterns that you're working through, right. All right. So, um, and yeah, definitely pipe up if there's something that you feel like I skipped over or didn't, you know, talk through thoroughly enough if you have questions. Definitely let me know, put those in the chat. Um, so I can answer everything for you. All right. So we're gonna start out talking about this pattern and I'm just gonna be working my way from the beginning to the end of the pattern. And then I'm gonna go, then I'm gonna refer to a couple of other patterns that don't have. Um There's some extra components that these other patterns that I brought along with me today have that this one doesn't. So, you know, not every pattern is going to be written in the same format, it's not going to contain all of the same things. Um But I'm gonna be trying my best to talk about all the different aspects that you might come across and definitely trying to answer those types of questions that I get. I, I answer customer service questions that people have about crochet for the website. So I learn what it is that you guys um get stuck on with the patterns. A lot of people um write in and asking questions about that. So I, I do know some of the things that you guys might be wondering. Um But definitely if there are things that I didn't cover, let me know. All righty. So this pattern is called the Glacier Cable beanie. Usually your pattern will have some sort of name, uh you know, near a picture on the front. So you know what to call it. Um And that is useful, like if you are going on a website and you wanna ask other people about it or if you wanna find the designer, because you have a specific question about that pattern, you know, it's really useful, you know, when people put an actual name on the pattern. So it isn't just like sweater or something like that. So that way you can look it up and find out if other people had the same kind of questions as you. Um And then it'll usually say, you know, who designed it. So in this case, it was me and then after that, there's usually some sort of, you know, um fluffy talking about like, you know, here's all the, it's called like Romance Text. It's like just talking about why you wanna make it, what it makes you feel like, you know, there's usually something like that or so sometimes it's just useful information. Um at the beginning of the pattern, like this stitch pattern came from this place or it was inspired by this or that type of thing. Um So that's what this paragraph is about. Then usually at the beginning of the pattern, it will have a section that talks about what size the the item is that you're gonna be making. So whether that's, if it's home decor, like if the blanket, it'll have a length and width or something. Um, or if it is apparel or an accessory or something like that, sometimes it'll have something that like this where it says baby child, adult, adult large where it lists the sizes that it may, that you can make. Um, but it also should have actual finished measurements, um, you know, in inches or centimeters. So that way, you know what size you are actually, you know what it's actually going to turn out to be. It's not very helpful. I mean, there are probably some patterns out there that just say, oh, this makes a baby, a child, an adult large or, or adult or adult large size and then they don't have the measurements that's not very helpful because you don't know, I mean, that could be really anything. You don't know what size that's really gonna be. So most patterns will have some sort of finished measurements, which is right here. So in this pattern, I'm telling you what size, the circumference of the ribbing is. And right here it lists a bunch of numbers. Ok. So this is one of the things that I get questions about often what is going on with all the parentheses and the brackets and all that stuff. So if we go back up here, take a look, it says sizes baby and then in parentheses, it says child adults adult large. So what this is really telling you is this is the order that the pattern is going to offer the sizing information throughout the pattern. It's going to have directions broken down for these different sizes and they're going to be listed in the order that they're listed here. So for example, when you get to the finished measurements, it says ribbing circumference. So there's a 16 and it's outside of the parentheses. So that, that the 16 corresponds to the baby measurement. So the baby has the baby measurement has a ribbing that is 16 inches around in circumference, then the 17.5 that corresponds to the child because it's next in the parentheses. And likewise, 19.5 that corresponds to the adults and 21 inches in the adult large. And so this could be in inches or it could be in centimeters. It just depends on, you know, the person who wrote it, what country they're from, you know what they're most familiar with um at the Creative Crochet Coroner website and also at Craft C we like to put the inches and also the centimeters for people because we have an international audience and it's just more helpful that way. So after we have all these listed in inches, we will have brackets and saying this is what these measurements are in centimeters in case you think in centimeters and that just makes it a little bit easier for people. So then if you move down here it's got circumference through the cable section. So again, the measurements are listed within those parentheses and they correspond to the sizes listed here. Um, under sizes sometimes you'll have a pattern and it'll just say, um, you know, it won't even have this. It'll just say sizes 16, 17.5 19.5 20. It'll just have the numbers and it doesn't call it like a word name. Like baby child, adult, adult art. It'll, or maybe it'll be numbered like sizes one through seven, which don't necessarily correspond to anything like, um, you know, in a ready to wear or anything like that. It might not correspond to dress sizes. It might just be a way of numbering the sizes throughout the pattern. So, you know, which set of information goes with which number. So if you are, you know, when you're working through somebody's pattern, you kind of have to figure that part out. Usually, you know, if you just look under sizes, it'll list, however, it's going to um differentiate between the sizes. So in, in my case, the baby child, adult adult large. All right. And so, and then under finished measurements, I also have the height. This isn't always super common in hats, but I have the heights listed again, they correspond to those sizes. And then I like to put, if there, if there are some helpful notes that I can give people, I like to put, um, a little note about how to pick the best size for you because you might not know if a 20.5 inch size hat or maybe an 18.75 inch hat, which one would be better? So I tell you down here that it, that, um, for this pattern, this hat fits best, best with 1 to 2 inches and there's a centimeter equivalent of negative ease at the ribbed brim. Ok. And so what I'm telling you is that the ribbing should be an inch or two smaller than your own head measurement. So this is not always found in everybody's patterns, but I like to add that extra note in there just to help you um choose a size, especially if there's kind of larger jumps between sizes and you just don't know which one to go with because your fabric could be really stretchy or just a little bit stretchy. And so this kind of guidance is very helpful for people I find to choose your size. All right. So usually on that front page or the first page, you will have a list of the materials that you need. Um In this case, I am telling you in the first bullet point, it's approximately 192 63 053, 27 yards. Here are the meter equivalents um of worsted weight yarn preferably. And then I tell you what kind of what kind of yarn preferably a soft wool acrylic or wool acrylic bren blend. You aren't always gonna have all that information. Sometimes it'll just tell you what yarn you need and the thickness of the yarn usually. Um, so again, these numbers correspond to the sizes you're making. So if you're making a baby size hat, you would need about 100 and 90 yards. If you were making the adult size hat, you would need 305 yards. Ok. So, same thing for the meters as well under materials or, um, sometimes there's a separate heading for this. You should find out what size hook you need and what this means is this is the size hook that was used by the person who wrote the pattern to make their sample. So it doesn't necessarily mean the hook size that you need. Um, but it's a really good place to start. So if you start working it up and you are ending up with a, if you make your gauge swatch and your gauge swatch is too big, you're gonna downsize your hook. If it's, if you work it up and your gauge is too small compared to what it's supposed to be, then you're gonna go up a hook size or more. So that way, you know, this just gives you a place to start and you could definitely modify in order to get the gauge correctly and we'll be talking about gauge a little bit more in a minute. If you're not familiar with what that means. Ok. So the other materials we need are a yarn needle removable stitch markers. And then I also talk about the pom, pom that I need. Any other materials that you need to make the project. Um Whether it's the yarn, the hook, any anything should, everything should be listed here that you would need. And then I like to list the specific yarn that I used. Um, oftentimes if you're looking at somebody else's pattern in a book, whatever, oftentimes they will actually list the specific yarn they use, but sometimes they'll just say you need a worsted weight, wool or you need a fingering weight, cotton or, you know, different things like that. So, um you know, you just have to get as much information as you can to make a good substitution if you're looking to substitute yarn or you can purchase the actual yarn that, you know, that designer used and then you know that you're using the same thing. So when I list my yarn and this is pretty common for uh some of the other large yarn companies, they will list the name of it and then they will list what, what weight it is, meaning like the thickness of the yarn. So in this case, it's a worst weight. Um Oftentimes you'll see AAA CYC A number, I actually don't have this on here because this is one of the earlier patterns that I did before I started adding that to our patterns. Um But you will need, you know, sometimes it will specify whether it's a 123 or four and th or, or, you know, all the way up to a seven or an eight now, maybe. Um So that's the thickness of the yarn. So you might see that number there and then usually it'll tell you what the yarn is made out of. So this was 100% Merino wool and it'll tell you how much yardage per skein or per ball or Hank or however the, the yarn comes, it'll tell you how much yardage for that. And then it'll also have color, color names and color numbers if they have those and then how many skeins of each you would need. And I also make these little notes um Often if, and I say um this yarn was used in the 20.5 inch size, which is this one right here and down here, I use a different yarn to create this off white hat here. So, um so I also mentioned that as well. Ok. So then we're down to the gauge section. If, if it's a good pattern, it should have a gauge section unless you're making something where the gauge does not matter because there are projects where it doesn't really make a difference, you know, or, or it doesn't matter that much if you get the exact gauge. Um maybe just looking for the type of fabric that you create, like maybe you're making a scarf and you get the width. Ok. But you can just work as many rows as you need to, to be the right length. Then your gauge doesn't matter too much. Um Unless you're working it sideways, then it really matters. Um Or if you're making a toy, you just crochet it up to the tightness that you need to so that the stuffing doesn't come out of it, you know, so there might be things like that, maybe there's tips, but for most projects, it will tell you how many stitches and how many rows or rounds, just depending on how um the fabric is created are in four inches. Sometimes it'll say six inches or eight inches, often times it's four inches or 10 centimeters. So what that means is it, they're telling you to make a little square and they're telling you how many stitches across and how many rows tall it is for a four inch by four inch square of, of this fabric worked up. OK. So this is saying in the yarn over slip stitch, the back loop blocked. So that's the stitch pattern that I used to get, you know, for this amount of stitches and this amount of rows, it measures four inches. OK? And so I also, because this hat pattern, let me just show you real quick what this hat pattern looks like. So there's all these larger cables going around here. This is the yarn over slip stitch pattern, but this is a different stitch pattern. So I gave both gauges here and I talked about um one repeat of the, of the glacier cable pattern. It is 3.5 inches wide by 1.5 inches tall. So I'm just giving you more information if you want to find out like what the gauge is of this fabric as well. So I'm telling you how wide this should be and how tall, you know, this should be for, I think just one repeat. 044 rounds. Yeah, so that's one repeat and four rounds. Um But basically it's just giving you enough information so you can crochet something up and check to see if it's the same size as what I made and then you can adjust your hook, you can make it bigger if you need to make, you know, if your, if your piece turned out too small or you can use a smaller hook if your piece turned out too big. So that's, that's what this gauge is for. It's to help make sure that you are going to be on track for ending up with a project that is this, you know, gonna be the right size. Let's see. It looks like we've got some comments in here. I'm just gonna very quickly check these out. Um ok, this, oh Marjorie is saying the symbols are harder for her than the written out patterns. Ok. Well, we're gonna be talking about symbols in a little bit. Maureen's saying. I find the symbols hard and also all the brackets. Yes, the brackets. That is a very common issue that people have. Regina says I always have to go back and look up each symbol when I come to them, but I do enjoy both. Ok. All right. Um, ok. So, let's see. So we've talked about the gauge. Um Then usually in a pattern, there is some kind of notes about, you know, like if there's anything tricky or something you feel like might be overlooked. Um Or just extra information, there's a space for that right here. So I'm talking about, you know, changing how you close the top of the hat if you're, if you're using a pom, pom because I want people to know that before they get to the very end. Um And also turning chains and the ribbing don't cut as a stitch. So this would be a place where people can say whether turning chains count as a stitch or do not count as a stitch. Um Just, and then sometimes there is just general information about how something is made. Like, for example, this is made, the body of the hat is made in continuous rounds without joining. Um And up here, I mentioned, the ribbing is worked sideways and turn rows and slip stitch form a tube. So there might be some more information just telling you how the pattern comes together, um, in the note section. Ok. I have a little note here about how to make a gauge swatch for the cable pattern because a lot of people have questions about making a gauge swatch in the round because, um, I'm not gonna go into this too much here. Maybe we'll have another live event where we discuss this. But, um, when you are making a gauge swatch, you need to crochet it in the way that it's going to be made in the thing you're making. So if you are making something in the round, you need to make a gauge swatch in the round. If you're making something in turn rows, you need to make your gauge watch in turn rows. And the reason this is, you might say, well, I can work single crochet back and forth and turn rows or I can make it in the round. What, what does it matter? But the way your stitches all fit together and linked together, they actually oftentimes end up with a slightly different gauge depending on whether you're working it back and forth in turn rows or in the round. So this is different than in knitting. Usually in knitting, it's pretty standard. Um, but in crochet because all those stitches are asymmetrical, the way they all fit together, it can really make a big difference. So always check your gauge in the way that you're going to be using it. Usually in your pattern, there will be a list that says something like special stitches. Um So that's a place for the designer to give information or directions on how to make stitches that are not very common. So often times, um you won't have stitches like single crochet, double crochet, things like that. Sometimes I will put them in, in the pattern, like directions on how to make those um simple stitches or, you know, basic stitches. Oftentimes I don't have the direction in my pattern, especially if it's not a pattern that's specifically geared toward beginners. Um Then uh that stuff is just kind of understood, but this section is more for like if you're doing something like an extended single crochet, not a lot of people use that, you know, often unless you're me, I use it all the time. But so then I write down, you know, all all the motions you need to make to be able to make that stitch, OK? All the directions for making that stitch or a yarn over slip stitch, you know how to make that stitch or front post, double crochet decrease or front post, double crochet. Those are the stitches that um are not just sort of assumed knowledge necessarily in patterns, some patterns might not have information for those. So you might have to look up how to do all those individual stitches. Um But oftentimes if it's something a little bit obscure or something that the designer made up, there will be directions within the special stitches section or something labeled in a similar way. OK. So we have a lot of special stitches in this pattern, front post treble crochet, front post, double crochet, extended, extended, single crochet decrease. So you know, a combination of stitches being decreased together. So there's information for that, I also have stitch patterns. So this is not how to make an individual stitch, but this is how to make uh this is instructions on how to make the cable pattern itself. So for example, when you were going through creating this cable right here, this is how to, you know, it's a series of things that you have to do each row to make this cable appear to be twisting. All right. So this is in, you know, information on how to do that. We've got round one, round two, rounds three through five, round six through nine and then you repeat rounds two through five, you know, over and over for the stitch pattern. You, you keep on working that up. So sometimes your pattern will have a little section that says this is how you work in this particular stitch pattern. It might be like a shell stitch pattern or, or some other kind of um decorative stitch pattern where you're using those small building blocks of, you know, single crochets or double crochets or whatever it is you're using to create a stitch pattern that you're repeating over and over. So there might be a special section for teaching um teaching you how to make that stitch pattern. And then later it's referred to in the pattern. It'll say like for example, in this one, it'll say something like work in the glacier cable stitch pattern for, you know, for the size you're working on. So then you would follow these directions to do that part. Ok. Oh, and Lauren is giving me a compliment. She loves my lives. Thank you, Lauren. I guess I shouldn't assume there. I, I know uh uh uh a man named Lauren, so I shouldn't assume. But thank you Lauren and, and he says, um I'm from Estonia. Welcome. I'm glad that you're here. That's exciting. Ok. So next, after all that preliminary stuff at the beginning of the pattern, you finally get into the actual directions on how to make something. So then you'll have some instructions. This one starts out by making the ribbing. So a lot of times your pattern will be broken down into different parts. Like if you're making a sweater, it might say front or back or sleeve or collar or whatever the part is that the designer is starting with. So that way you can kind of picture where you're going with it. You can make sure this is making sense. I mean, it would be really hard to follow someone's pattern if you had no idea what part of the, the thing you were working on then you wouldn't know if you were on track or not, right? So in this case, we're making the ribbing first. So I write that down, this says C 1925 2529. So this c stands for chain. So throughout patterns, you will see that there are abbreviations like crazy. And the reason that we do that is so these patterns aren't like incredibly long. So it's kind of like shorthand that you have to learn another language that you have to learn. The more you read from patterns, the more your brain will just automatically tell you what that abbreviation is. But when you're first starting, you, you may have to reference a section in the pattern that is going to tell you what all the abbreviations mean. So let's see where is that in this pattern? It's towards the end, it could be anywhere in the pattern. It could be at the beginning, it could be at the end. If you're working from a book, it might be at the very end of the book or the beginning of the book somewhere in whatever document it is you're working from there, hopefully is a list of abbreviations. So that is telling you what every all this like secret code is. So if you look at the c that equals chain, so these are listed in alphabetical order, sometimes they could be listed in the order in which you use them. Um They could also just be random. So you might have to look through them. But these are all the abbreviations that are used within this pattern. So this will tell you what the abbreviations mean. So for example, C equals chain B LP is back loop esc is extended single crochet and then I write things like C notes if it's kind of uh you know, if it requires a little more explanation because some people might see esesc extended single crochet. I don't know what that is. So I'm just letting you know right here that there is another place where I explain how to do these things FP DC. That's a front post, double crochet, see notes again once again. So all these abbreviations, you know, there should be somewhere some key in your pattern that tell you what the abbreviations mean. But I have seen patterns that just have abbreviations and they just have sort of assumed knowledge. Um So it'll say sc for single crochet or yo for yarn over or sometimes it's Yoh for yarn over hook. Um and abbreviations are not necessarily standardized either, you know, there might be things that are a little bit different, you know, depending on the region the world you're working in. Sometimes things are a little more standard. Um But for example, you know, in the US what we call a single crochet, someone who's in the UK would call a double crochet. So there's all that to weed through too. So you have to kind of find out where the pattern was written. Make sure you're looking at the terminology, like from the point of view of the person who wrote it. So that, you know, if it's, you know, an sc if it really means, you know, insert your hook, you're an over, pull up a loop, you're an over, pull through two or if that is a double crochet, you know, if, if, if they're calling it a double crochet, is it the, you know, is it in American terms where it's taller or is it in UK terms where it's shorter? So that's another thing you have to figure out when you're looking at people's patterns, all of the patterns that I write up for the creative crochet corner and also for craftsy. Those are all written in us terms. So I'm using a single crochet for the shorter stitch um instead of using the double crochet where you would be using that in the UK um or other areas of the world too. OK. So let's see. So back to this. So this is now we know this means chain and then we have the series and numbers and parentheses. Again, this is referring to the baby size and then we have the child size, adult and then the adult, large size. So if you were making the baby size, you would chain 19, if you were making the adult size, which is here, you would chain 25. So this is a way of making the instructions consolidated. So that for any size, you can look at the same line and go and figure out what um you know, how to begin and what stitches to make. So what I like to recommend to people, especially if they're newer to reading patterns is, let's just say, for example, you're making the adult size, you go through your entire pattern. If you print it out, you can highlight, we're gonna do this in yellow. Here, you can go ahead and highlight your size. So you know that it pertains to you just looking through all the parentheses, there's my size, there's my size. OK? So um so that way you, you're kind of focusing in on the numbers, only the numbers that pertain to you. So here we have row one and this says Rs, that means right side. So we're looking at the right side of our work and then beginning with the second chain from hook and working into the bottom of the chain one yarn over slip stitch into each of the next. And then it just depends on the size you're working on. In my case, if I'm doing the adult size 24 stitches, and then after that, there's a period and then there's a bunch of numbers. So this shows up differently in different people's patterns. Sometimes this is italicized sometimes this isn't bold. Sometimes there is a line here. Sometimes there's brackets, sometimes this is on the next line. Sometimes there's a little dash here. There's lots and lots of different ways that people try to tell you. Ok, this is your stitch count when you're done. So what this means is you work these directions after the period, it tells you how many stitches you should have had on that row or round or whatever you did. So, you know, we work into each of the next 24 stitches. We have 24 stitches total. Um And then there's a little note here, use a stitch mark at the beginning of the end and end of each row to help maintain stitch counts. So sometimes there will be little notes throughout the pattern just to help keep you on track. And here we have rows two through 64 2 through 72 through 78 2 through 84. Again, these are going to pertain to the different sizes. So if we're doing the adult size, it's the middle set of directions in the parentheses right here. Oh, that smeared my number. That's not the best highlighter. Um So for my size, I would be working rows two through 78. What that means is I keep repeating this all the way up through row 78. I work row two, row three is exactly the same row four, row five, row six, all of those numbers all the way up to 78th row. I'm just working this set of information. That's right here. So that would be chain one, turn one yarn over a slip stitch through the back loop into each stitch. The last row worked as a wrong side row. Do not fasten off. Ok. So that's what that means. Now, we're gonna move to the next set of instructions and this is telling you how to seam the ribbing. So there's a new little heading here telling you, hey, we finished doing the ribbing. Now we're gonna do something else. We're seaming it. So this just basically explains how to seam your ribbing. Um chain one turn as if to work another row. And then with the right sides held together, place the foundation row directly in front of the last row, worked slip stitch the edges together, working through the back loops of the layer in front and the back loops of the layer in back slip stitch into each stitch across until each stitch has been worked. Do not fasten off. So this is just more information, telling you how to do something. Um And then we move into the next section. So the body of the hat is the cabled section. So this says leave the slip stitch seam on the wrong side of the ribbing RS is wrong side. I mean, sorry, right side, right side of the ribbing R stands for right. Um Seam will be hidden when the ribbing is folded up, rotate the piece 90 degrees to work along the row ends as follows. So now here's some instructions and now here's where we break it down into different sizes. So this is the set up round for baby. You can totally ignore this whole thing unless you're doing the baby size, set up round for child, adult and adult large. Now because we are only working with these three sets of instructions. We have moved the child to the outside of the parentheses before it used to be baby here. Remember? And then it said child, adult adult large. So now when we look at the instructions, this is the child, this is the adult, this is the adult large. So that's, but you're always gonna have something to check it against. It's going to tell you right before we go to this. So you know what the numbers refer to. So if you're making an adult, the number is 78 right there. So you work um 78 ex single, extended, single crochets around the top edge of the ribbing. Ok. So we worked that and there's a little tip there to help you place your stitches and now it says for all sizes. So no matter what size you're working on, you follow these directions. So the headings will tell you, hey, this pertains to your size. Hey, this pertains to all the sizes. Hey, this pertains to some other size, you can ignore this section. Um So then you work your way through these. Now, we're working in rounds R and D that stands for round. So round number one and here we have some brackets. All right, we had to get to the brackets part. Now we have in within brackets. We have the set of instructions that says extended, single crochet in the next stitch, front post, double crochet in each of the next 12 stitches, extended single crochet in the next 0101 stitches and of the brackets. And then there's some numbers here and some numbers in parentheses. So what this is telling you when you see something in brackets like that, it's setting aside a specific set of information, some instructions and you are going to do something with those instructions, often times it's telling you to repeat those instructions. So you extended single crochet to the next stitch, front post, double crochet into each of the next 12 extended single crochets into each of the next and then depending on the size you're working. So here again, we have those four sizes. So this is baby, child, adult, adult large. So we're back to the normal way that those are displayed. So since we're doing the adult, it means extended single crochet into each of the next zero stitches. So this is something I wanted to talk about because I get a lot of questions about that. How can I extend a single crochet into zero stitches. That's just a placeholder when you have a zero like that. It's just telling you for some sizes you're going to make an extended single crochet into one stitch or whatever the number is for some sizes. You don't do this set of instructions at all. You just don't extended single crochet in this part at all. Ok? So you would be for the adult size, you'd be doing extended single crochets into the next stitch, front post, double crochets into each of the next 12 stitches. And then when you get to this, you just don't do this part because you're making extended single crochets into zero stitches. That means you don't do it everything in those brackets. You're going to do six times for the adult size, ok? Because that's found there in the parentheses. So that means you'd work what's in the parenthesis one time and then you're gonna do it five more times. The same series. You start here, go to the end, start here, go to the end. You're gonna do that a total of six times for an adult size. Um And then it just has a little note not to join. So round number two, we have brackets once again. So we've got extended single crochet in the next stitch, skip the next three stitches, front post trouble crochet in the next three stitches working behind the stitches just made, front post, trouble crochet in three, skip stitches slip stitch in, in space between the last stitch and the next stitch slip stitch does not count as a stitch. Skip the next three stitches. Front post Treble crochet in the next three stitches working in front of the stitches just made front post treble crochet in three skip skip stitches extended single crochet in the next zero or one or zero or one stitches depending on your size and then everything that's in that bracket all the way from here, from here at the beginning to the end, you're going to do that either 556 or six times depending on your size. So you're repeating what's in that bracket in those brackets, the number of times that it tells you to right after the brackets. I hope this is making sense to everybody. Ok. We have a high from India and from Jordan. Wow, you guys, you guys are from all over the place. This is very exciting. Um, and someone is saying they have the most trouble with increases and decreases in a written pattern. Ok. Let me think about that. Um, when you have increases and decreases, I wonder if they say like increase six times or increase at the end of this row or something like that, maybe it's hard for you to know exactly where to put your increase or maybe you somehow get off on your stitch counts when you're doing increases or decreases. Um, if you could clarify just a little bit more with what you're having trouble with the increases and the decreases, then I might be able to answer your question or help you out anyway. Ok. So after we, we worked through this whole section, um, rounds three through five, again, there's more instructions in those brackets, tells you how many times to work. What's in those brackets right there, how many times to do it? And then we have this broken down into just information for the adult size or the adult large size. Ok. So you work rounds two through 51 more time for those two sizes and then we're back to for all sizes. So no matter what size you're working on, you're gonna be working this set of instructions. So again, it'll say round six through 76 through 7, 10 through 1110 through 11. So this for size for the baby size, you would be working rounds six through seven for the child. You'd be working round six through seven for the adult 10 through 11, for the adult large 10 through 11. Repeat, rounds two through three and then round eight. So this, now we're seeing parentheses within that heading of telling you what round you're working. So this is always just helping you keep track of what round you're working or what row at the beginning before the colons. Um, this says round eight and then in parentheses 8, 12 and 12. So that's because if you were working the smaller two sizes, you'd be working round eight here. If you were working the larger two sizes, you'd already be on round 12. So this is just a way to help make sure that you know what round you're working on that way. If you set your hat, if you set your hat down and you come back and you're like, uh, I don't know what instructions I'm working on. You can count your rounds or count your rows and then go back in here and figure out where your instructions are for the next round that you're about to do. Ok. So this is kind of a similar thing. We've got a bunch of information in those brackets. Ok? And you're repeating it either five or six times and after the period, then there's these numbers here once again. So these numbers, this is not a additional instruction. What this is, is a checkpoint. It's telling you how many stitches you have in your hat at this point. So if you did the baby size, you'd have 45 stitches around the child size has 50 adult has 54 adult large has 60. So these again pertain to those sizes from the beginning of the pattern and it's just a little checkpoint at the end. So if you ever have like a bunch of instructions, then a period or a dash or a slash or something in italics or maybe it's in bold, some kind of numbers in a sequence and there's parentheses pertaining to different sizes that's not telling you to do another thing. It's just saying, hey, this is a checkpoint. This is how many stitches you should have. Patterns are supposed to tell you at the end. They should have a list of num, you know, all the, the stitch counts if the stitch count changed from the previous round or previous row. So if it's the same, even if you're doing different types of stitches, if you're doing, you know, maybe you're doing some post stitches in this round and the round before you didn't do any, but you still have the same number of stitches. You don't have to record your stitch count because it didn't change. But if you did some increases or decreases at the end of that line, it should say what your stitch count is for every size or every size that pertains to that line. Um It might also say something like six stitches increased which a lot of times is abbreviated six and then sts and then inc so that would mean during that round, you added six stitches or it might say 66 stitches decreased. So it could, it might look like the number six and then sts and then dec which is for decreasing. OK. So there, there should be like a little checkpoint. If the stitch count changes, there needs to be a checkpoint where the, the designer can tell you. Hey, we have a different amount of stitches. Now, it's a good time for you to just check and make sure that you're, you know that this is making sense. All right. So kind of more of the same throughout here. Um Let's see if there's anything different I need to tell you about here. Again, we broke this out for child, adult large sizes, so only pertains to those two sizes and now we're grouping child and then adult information is in parentheses. So if you were working on the child size, you'd be on round 17. If you were working on the adult large size, you'd be working on round 22 here. And there's your information. Ok. So this five pertains to child, six pertains to adult large only and there's a period and so here's your stitch counts right there. That's what you should end up with when you're, when you have completed that row around you. That's what you should have when you're done. All right. And then we're back to all sizes. Um Just more information on how to finish up this hat. Uh Let's see. Yep. Just basically like more directions on how to finish um and finish up the top of the hat. So then usually there's a section that's called finishing at the end and a lot of times it looks just like this, it'll say we and ends black. Um So what that means is just, you know, you're just finishing up your project. It's just telling you you got to weave in all your ends and the blocking part if you don't know what blocking is blocking is just a way to kind of neaten up your stitches, make everything look neat and tidy. So you can do we blocking method where you get something all wet and you squeeze out all the water and you lay it out and kind of even out all your stitches and let it dry or you can do a steam blocking. Um which is really great for acrylics and fabrics like that. When you want to give them a little extra drape, you can steam block something. Um There is, there is a video on the creative Crochet corner website about steam blocking. It's up now. I'm pretty sure it's a free video and there will be one I think for wet blocking soon. I don't know if there's one already. Um But in a lot of my lives, I talk about blocking at the end of the live and I uh kind of give you tips or hints on how I blocked my piece or how I suggest that you block your piece. Um OK. And then there was just like this extra little information. Sometimes after finishing, there might be something like, you know, tie the top of the bag and put the clips on or something like that. Like it might not really be finishing of the piece but just like a little bit of information at the very end um to finish up your piece. OK. So the next thing I wanted to talk about, so that's, that's the directions. Um Let me know if you guys had any questions on that. So let's talk a little bit about charts. So here we have these, there are actually two charts here. Um But there, you know, it just depends on the size that you're working. So I can actually show you the difference between them. If you just take a look at these 22 charts, one of them has these symbols along just one side and one of these charts has them on both sides here. So that is you can see just by looking at these charts that there is an extra column of stitches here. So the thing I love about charts is once you understand what the symbols mean, and maybe sometimes, you know, you will have to look up what certain symbols mean because you've never seen them before or, you know, you haven't used them very much. Um But once you understand what they mean, it is such a great tool to know how to look at a chart because it really helps you to visualize where your stitches connect to each other, especially in something like a cable chart like this, what this is telling you. So if you have a chart, there should be a key. So the key for this chart is down here. It's just basically like showing all of the different symbols that are represented, represented in the chart and it tells you what they mean. So these two symbols which look exactly the same, we have a black one or a blue one. That's the front post, double crochet. So if you're looking for that, you can see them all. Here, here's the blue ones, here's the black ones, here's the black ones. So it's important to note that this symbol looks very similar to this symbol here, except that this symbol has two hash marks and this one only has one. So this is a front post treble crochet. This is a front post, double crochet. So there's little things like that that make your symbols different. So make sure that you're taking your time and looking at, you know, the whole symbol and making sure that it's really matching with the symbol you're looking at in the key. All right. So here we have extended single crochet, stitches all the way up the side here. And then we have these front post, double crochets on this row. This is where all the fun stuff happens, right? So if you've ever worked in a cable pattern before, you might know that your stitches are worked out of order. So as you're working across, um and you're reading this chart if, oh, I have a note for left handed people, if you are left handed and you're reading a chart, make a mirror image copy of your chart so that you can work it in the same direction as you crochet. So for example, I'm right handed, this chart is made for a right handed crochet. You would start on this side, work an extended single crochet, then you would work all these front post, double crochets OK across. And because this has worked in the round, we're gonna come back here. So we're gonna work that and then repeat that section all the way around the hat. And then in the next round, we would start here round number two with an extended single crochet into our extended single crochet. And then we'd be working these front post Treble crochets and then crossing over behind the stitches that we made and working these front post treble crochets. This is a tiny little slip stitch, we slip stitch just right down here in between these stitches. And then we work some more front post Treble crochets and some more front post treble crochets. So one thing to notice on a chart like this, often times if you see two different colors like these symbols that go in this direction, are darker than the ones going in this direction. What this is telling you is the darker ones are the ones on the front of your work and the lighter ones are behind. So when you're working these stitches, you work them as they come up as you work across. So you're not working from the bottom, you're always looking at the tops of the stitches. So you make your extended single crochet. The next stitch you do is here and you're hooking the stitch into a stitch over here. You're skipping these stitches, see how this one connects over here and then this one goes into the next one, this one goes into the next one. Here's the top of the following stitch and it's lighter in color. That's because it's showing it behind these darker stitches. So your stitch goes behind those stitches and connects down here. OK. This stitch goes behind all those stitches and connects down here. So in the pattern direction, it, it'll say like working behind the stitches, you just made, you know, front post treble crochet into each of these skipped three stitches because you skip these three stitches to start. Ok. So this is like a little mini crash course and making cables as well here. But I think that that's one of the things about charts that could be a little confusing if you look at something, it just looks like a big mess and it's just like overwhelming. Try to look at just the tops of the stitches and then see where they connect to. So this would be, you know, the first stitch around two is here going along the tops of the stitches in that row. This would be the next stitch you make and it connects down here to the fourth of these front post, double crochets. So, you know, you have to skip these three and you're going to work that stitch into the stitch here. This one gets worked into the following stitch. This one gets worked into the following stitch. Then we gotta go back and get those skipped stitches. But like I said before, these are lighter. So we're working behind in this section of cables. We start out here and we're because we're still working along the top. We go to this one, this one, this one, we're working here at the top of that stitch. We skip those three stitches and we're working into these three stitches. Then we go back to get the stitches, we skipped when we're working that cable we're crossing over in front because you can see these stitches are darker than the ones behind. So a good uh pattern will have a note that tells you that that there's a difference. So this is a front post trouble in front. So it's darker and this one's lighter, front post trouble behind, but they might not all say that, but that's just um I don't know, it's just something that I find a lot in crochet in, in cable charts that the stitches that are behind, that are recessed that are, you know, behind whatever is going on in front. Those are often times lighter. Sometimes they're even a different color. All right. So I hope that that makes sense. Let me know if that did not make sense. Um I'm gonna be showing you, let's see, I'm gonna be showing you one more example of a cable chart. So this, so that cable chart, this is pretty simple. And if you guys are interested in making this hat, it's a really fun project. Um Even if you're newer at crocheting cables, it's a really great exercise in learning how to work behind your stitches and working in front of your stitches and what the difference is. Um And there is a live video tutorial on on this entire project in case you guys are interested um and working from that pattern and you need a little extra help. Um But I just wanted to show you this, this cable chart. See, look at how there's a lot going on here. This is from a class that I teach um all about making cables on the round. So it's on the creative crochet corner website and also on the craft C website. Um And in this case, it is super, super helpful to have these instructions written up in chart form as well as in the written directions, especially for me, I'm a very visual person and you can just see there's a lot going on here and you can just look at this and kind of see those cable shapes, how things are crossing where they're going. So you kind of know what your piece should look like it, you know, as you crochet it up, it should mirror this picture. Um And it, it's just very, very helpful. I find it's very helpful to have that. Um In this chart down here, I'm telling you, the child large, adult small version is these stitches right here. And the adult medium goes from this stitch all the way over there and the adult large is including this. So, what I'm telling you in this chart is if you were making the, the child large or the adult small, you would not work these two stitches at all. You could just cross them off because you, it only pertains to these stitches and you repeat them like this. OK? So if you're working in the round, you're always gonna start on one side of the chart and work your way across and then it's like you work your way all the way around and then you're still working in the same direction when you come around to round. Number two, if you were working something back and forth in turn rows, often times what you would see. Like, let's just say this cable chart was worked back and forth in turn rows instead of in the round. Um You would see a one starting from, from like whatever end you're starting your row on, that's where the number is gonna be labeled. So you'd see a one here, you'd work across there and then if this was the second row, you would have a two on this side over here telling you to work back this way. But because we're working in the round, all of our numbers are along that one side. So it's telling you, you always need to read the chart from this side to that side. And this is why for left handed crochets, I really recommend making a horizontal co uh uh making a horizontally flipped a mirror image sorry of the chart. So that way you can always just be working in the direction that you're crocheting in. It just makes things easier. Um What you end up with is a, a project that is an exact mirror image of what the right handed person would be making, but that almost never matters. OK? Unless there's something about overlapping buttonholes or you're crocheting with color work and it's an image that only it's not reversible like words or something like that. Um But for the most part, things like cables, you know, Lacy stitch patterns, it doesn't matter if you make a mirror image, it'll still be just as lovely. It's just like you're looking at it in a, in a mirror. So I always recommend you just take the chart and flip it um mirror the chart. So that way you can work across the chart in the way that you crochet. All right. Um Another kind of chart that is pretty common. Speaking of color work is this one. So this, sorry, this is not a chart, this is just a picture. Um This is something that I designed for the creative crochet corner website. And I wanted to showcase some really fun color work. And so if you are working from a a pattern that somebody else did, sometimes they don't even have much for written instructions. They will just have charts, they'll say something like, you know, single crochet in the round for 30 rounds and follow this chart or something like that. So in that case, you're going to be working, you know, these squares and every square will represent usually in the in the pattern, it should tell you what the squares represent. But if you're working a color work chart, pretty much always, each square represents a, represents a stitch. So in this particular project, we're working a single crochet through the back loop only. So the first stitch would be made in green, the second stitch, you know, and all these stitches are made in pink, switch yarn and go back to the green. And because this has worked in the round, we're gonna start here again and work our way across and keep going. Um This, it will tell you also how many repeats you need to do of your chart. Sometimes you're just working one column of whatever that is, you know, you're just working one repeat of the chart. In this case, in the pattern, I direct you to make a certain, you know, you have a certain amount of stitches and you can see here we repeat the chart a number of times. I think it's eight times around or something like that. Um Yeah, that makes sense about eight. So you work from the chart eight times before you go on to the next round. So what that means is you start here at the bottom, you work all the way across. You do work across, work across work across. You know, you do that eight times and then you find yourself at the beginning of the round and then you go up to the next level and work across and you do your repeats, you know, eight times, move up to the next round in the chart and work that part of the chart. So it'll start um looking like the picture. And if, if you are working for something like this and you are having a hard time with doing repeats of, of that, you can make yourself a larger chart that includes all the repeats if you want to, I often use a program called Stitch Fiddle and it's, it's free. Um But there are like paid options as well, but it's how you can make your own charts like this. And you can go ahead and plug that, you can, you know, copy this down into your um into your grid and then you can copy and paste a bunch of them. So you can look at what it looks like to make the whole piece of whatever you're working on. If that makes it easier for you. Instead of just seeing this one little thing you repeat over and over, sometimes it's easier for people to see the whole, the whole project with all the repeats and it might make it easier. So that's just another love tool. Um And let's see, I think that was it for this pattern. Um But there's one more thing I wanted to talk about and this kind of loops back to the beginning where you're choosing your sizes. So this is a pattern for a garment that I designed. Um It's for an upcoming class on crocheting a top. And in this pattern, there are, there are not only, you know, um stitch diagrams here, this kind of chart, but there's also these are called schematics. So you can see, um let me pull out, let me get one with more numbers in this pattern. Um The sizes are written sizes one through 10 and the numbers don't correspond to dress sizes, they don't correspond to it. They're just, it's just a way to designate the directions for all those different te you know, sizes, the smallest size is size one, the largest size is size 10 and all the the um let's see, all the measurements for the sizes are written in the beginning of a pattern right here. Sorry for the wrinkles. Um but it's been graded for 10 sizes and it's telling you all the sizes and they have finished chest measurements of these sizes, right? So they're all listed out. And like we talked about before, if you wanted to make the chest, you know, fin something with a finished chest measurement of 42 which is the second number in the parentheses here, you would be working on size three. Ok. And so another thing I wanted to note because this pattern just gonna erase this so that it's a little less confusing because this pattern has so many sizes. It's got 10 sizes, 10 sets of directions. Um It's, there are two groups in parentheses here and that's just to visually break it up. So if you find your size, you find the circumference you're looking for, you have to note whether it's in the first set of parentheses or the second set of parentheses here. So if I was making a 42 it's the second number in the first set of parentheses. It would be a three. If I wanted to make a chest, a finished chest measurement of 59 this would be the third number in the second set of parentheses. So 123, that would be size eight. Ok. So because um sizes are becoming more and more inclusive, which is awesome. Uh There are lots and lots more sizes within the pattern to kind of sift through. Um So it can make it a little bit trickier to read when there's just so many numbers. So I definitely recommend highlighting your size, all the information that pertains to your size all the way throughout the patterns. Um If you're working on something like that and just note that often times people will use this way of displaying the sizes in two different sets of parentheses, sometimes even three to just sort of break it up visually. Because otherwise, if this was all within parentheses, it'd be like really hard to tell exactly where your size is. At first glance, you'd have to count 1234567, you know, like counting all the way through those brackets to get to your size every time instead of just being able to look at it and knowing, oh, my size is the second one in the first set of parentheses or my size is the third one in the second set of parentheses. So that this, this is just a way that um people have started using these to just kind of try and break up your sizes just a little bit. All right. So pertaining to the sizes, this is just the last thing I wanted to talk about here. So if you guys have any questions, please get them in. Um Let's see. Ok, um If you guys have any more questions, get them in, I'm just gonna explain one more thing about the sizing. So if you are gonna be working on a garment pattern and there's a whole bunch of sizes to choose from. And you're like, oh, I can't figure out which size this is overwhelming, right? And looking at all the chest measurements, I would recommend not going off just the chest measurements. I, I mean, you can definitely be like, oh, I think that one will fit me then always flip to the back of the pattern or wherever the, the schematics are. Hopefully there's schematic, there isn't always, but this is called a schematic. And basically, it's like a blueprint of what you're making and it has measurements um for all the different areas, like, for example, when you're looking at this, you can see that this top is made with a little bit of a sleeve that comes out here's the body and this is saying, you know, here's your chest width. So that's from here to here. Sometimes if your piece is made in the round, it'll have a circle like an oval that looks like this and then a little thing like that and then it'll have um you know, whatever the 35 and whatever circumference or something like that. So just make sure, you know, whether you're looking at a width of something flat or if you're looking at a circumference of something that's made in the round. Um So if you look at this line is mirrored right here, you can see that this is the same width as that. That's telling you what that measurement is from here to here. OK. This measurement is telling you from here to here because see it's a little bit wider. This measurement is telling you from, you know, the edge of the sleeve down to the hem of the top, OK? And this is telling you how long the top of the shoulder is, this is how the width across the neck opening goes from there to there. So all these little lines are showing you different measurements on the top. So if you're trying to figure out what top to make or what kind of, you know what garment to make, if you look at the schematic, it'll tell you a lot more information for that size. And if you note there are, this is for sizes one and two out of 10 sizes. So only one and two are represented here. So this would be for size one, this would be for size two. You can see that some of the num numbers are the same, but some of them are different like this one, six inches or 6.5 inches is from here like that sleeve width there. So let's see. Yep. And so right here, I'm differentiating between the width of the sleeve and I'm also telling you what the circumference is, which is double that just because people, I think oftentimes will look at that number and think, oh it's the circumference around my arm, but it's really half of that right here. But I'm telling you both in both sets of information right here. OK. So you have to, if you were working on size one or thinking about making size one, this would be your measurement there. If you were working on size two, this would be your measurement right there. OK? So in this way, it makes it a lot easier to make sure that you are gonna be working up a size that is gonna fit you because you can look at how long things are, how wide the arm holes are, um how deep the neck is or just, you know how long the sleeves are. If there's sleeves on your guard, there's just so much more information that's just hidden into the in those schematics. So it's something you can make reference to like throughout your project at the beginning of your project, it'll help you choose your size. And as you work along, you can compare the fabric that you're, you know, the pieces that you're getting, compare them to the measurements in your schematic just to make sure that you're still on track or if you're a person who needs to make some alterations to your piece, you know, you want it to fit you a little better. Um You know, maybe you always, the sleeves are always too short, no matter what you do, they're always too short. So you can take a look at the length of the sleeve and your schematic and you can just be like, well that's not gonna fit and then you know how many more inches to add even before you start your sleeve. Ok. So you can figure out where to put those extra rows. You know, if you wanna do it at the bottom, do it at the top, intersperse them. If there's increases or decreases happening, it just gives you a lot more like a much bigger picture of what it is that you are about to make and you can make better decisions. Um If you're taking a look at the the numbers on your schematic. So for this particular top, there are different, there are different shaped tops because of the way the top fits on our bodies. So for people with a much smaller frame, in order for the sleeve to come down on their shoulder a little bit, I had to add a little bit of extra past their chest measurement for the middle sizes. Um It, it was OK to just, and, and basically, I was trying to design this with some constraints. I am I'm working motifs across this little strip. You can probably see this right here, 67 or eight motifs across the strip. So because I had to work within those parameters, I had to do some shaping in order to get all of these increments of sizes in between without just making the sizes, the width of those motifs, if that makes sense. I don't know if that makes sense. But anyway, because of that, I have some different shaped schematics so that they, you know, fit all these different body types and can accommodate the the motif strip going across the top so that you can just see the outline of your piece. It's different depending on which size you're making this one right here. It kind of scoops in here at the arm's eye and comes out a little wider across the width of that. Um for the larger sizes, it was important for me to do that. So that way the motifs going across the top don't hang way down to, you know, like too far on your arm. I wanted it to be to look like the same top on all these different body types. So that's just something to think about. Most patterns probably don't have completely different looking schematics in the back. Most of them are probably just like one schematic for all the different sizes. Um But you may run across this somewhat, especially now that we're being more size inclusive and, and you have to accommodate for different proportions. So that is just something to think about. Ok, let me just jump back in here and make sure, well, I missed a lot. Um Let's see. Oh Cindy missed most of the stream. That's ok. You can al you know, you could always go back and watch it. Oh, flooded and rainy. Central Pennsylvania. Oh, no, I did not know it was flooding there. Um Oh, Cindy has a tip, import the text from the PDF pattern to a document editor and remove all the size instructions and leave only those you need. That is a good idea. Then you won't get all confused by all the other numbers. Um And she says that makes it visually so much easier to read to Ro um Let's see and Maureen found my explanation about the sets of parentheses for patterns with a lot of sizes useful. OK, good. Um Oh And, and see, wolfpack is saying, plus uh knit or crochet fabrics are very forgiving with their negative ease. If the fit isn't perfect, it'll be fine. Unlike with stiff woven fabric. Totally true. That is totally true. Yes, you do have a little bit more wiggle room with the, with the crocheting and the knitting. Let's see. Um OK. I and Brenda is saying the schematic is so helpful for understanding the shape of the item you're making. Yes, it's very, yes, I feel like I, when I first started making patterns, I just kind of thought the schematic was there to tell you, oh, here's what your piece should end up like at the end. But as I learned more about altering things and about like fit and how things hang on my body, I found that I use the schematics more and more to kind of like, problem solve before I got to the problem. You know, you can see where you're headed. You could even make like a mock up of, you know, on a, with a piece of fabric just to get the, the shape. I mean, it's not gonna hang the same way, but if you're kind of wondering how something is going to fit on your body, um, you know, they might find that useful as well. So, excellent. Well, I think I've answered everybody's questions. Um I hope this has been helpful for you guys. I've been meaning to do this for a long time. Um And I just think that once you start working on the patterns, it gets easier and easier, those abbreviations just click in and you'll just be able to um know what they mean without having to look them up every time. I mean, yes, there are going to be patterns that have unusual abbreviations. You'll have to look those up no matter what. But, um, it just gets easier and easier and then the whole thing with the brackets and the parentheses and then the, the stitch counts at the end of your row or your round, understanding what all those numbers mean and what pertains to you. I mean, that's really most, most of it, that's most of what causes those problems. I think as crochet is trying to figure out how to read a pattern um in the beginning it gets a little overwhelming. So just stick with it. It gets so much easier after you work through a couple of patterns. And if you're using other, you know, other designers patterns, just the more you are learning from different people and the way that they write things just the easier it's gonna be for you to pick up anybody's pattern and read through it. So, thank you guys so much for joining me. I hope this is helpful. I'll see you in my next live. Bye.