We'd like to use analytics cookies to understand which symbols people look up, so we know what to research next. They are not used for advertising and we set none of them unless you say yes. What we store.
Two related notations for the same craft, and they work differently. A knitting chart is a grid — one square per stitch — read bottom-up and in alternating directions, and it shows the fabric as seen from the front, which is why a symbol means one thing on a right-side row and its opposite on a wrong-side row. A crochet diagram is not a grid at all: the symbols are laid out in the shape of the finished piece, so a doily diagram is round. Two cautions run through every record. The pattern's own key governs, because the published standards are widely followed rather than universal. And British and American crochet names conflict outright — a British double crochet is an American single crochet — which is a difference of fabric, not of spelling.
The grid of symbols that represents a knitted fabric one stitch per square.
A blank square in a chart, the default stitch.
A dot or short horizontal bar in a chart square.
Slanted lines showing two stitches worked into one, and which way the result leans.
A circle or short bar showing a stitch added.
Crossing lines spanning several squares, showing stitches worked out of order.
A greyed or shaded square standing for a stitch that does not exist yet.
A vertical line or symbol in a chart marking where a marker is placed.
Brackets and asterisks marking a section of a pattern to be worked again.
A numbered skein icon giving the thickness category of a yarn.
A diagram of stitch symbols arranged in the shape of the finished piece.
Vertical strokes whose crossbars count the height of the stitch.
A small oval, the foundation of crochet.
A filled dot, the shortest crochet stitch.