Article by Leslie Shelor
Seine Scarf, pattern by Ann Budd in Interweave Knits
Weekend 2009
I've only been knitting for a couple of years now, but I've crocheted since I was eight years old. Until I got into my teens I was happy to make simple afghans that were really just made by repeating a stitch pattern row by row. I doubt I even saw a written pattern until I was in my teens, and when I did finally have access to a pattern for a crocheted toboggan, I had no idea how to read the pattern or understand what was meant by gauge. That adult hat turned out to be too small for even the infant across the street!
Gauge is another matter...very important but a subject for another article. I determined at that point, after the disaster of the hat, that I would have to sit down with a crocheted book or magazine and learn just what is meant by all those symbols, punctuation marks and phrases. If I could do it with a crochet pattern at the age of 13, you can do it, too, with any knitting pattern.
I hear so many people say that they don't know how to read patterns. All it takes, however, is an investment of a little time to learn a few knitting terms and some study to understand how a pattern is written. There are certain standard abbreviations and symbols that every pattern writer should use to make her intentions clear as to what you should do when as you work with a pattern. In most patterns there are only a few terms...once you figure out what is meant by each, your knitting needles will soon be working away at a pattern that once seemed like an impossible challenge!
The symbols used in most knitting pattern are an asterisk *, parentheses ( ), and brackets. The asterisk simply marks a place in a pattern that starts a repeat. For example, if I were to write, *k3, p2, k1, p1, repeat from * 3 times, it would mean that you knit three stitches, purl two stitches, knit one stitch, purl one stitch, then repeat these seven stitches two more times. Sometimes you will see that you repeat the stitch pattern until the end, then you will be told what to do with the last stitch or so.
The parentheses and brackets are used to indicate that you will work a specific set of stitches as a group, for the number of times or where the next instruction tells you. So if you see (k3, p2, k1, p1) three times (k3, yo, k2tog) 4 times, you know that you work the first group of stitches three times, then the second group four times. See how easy this is? Occasionally you'll see parentheses used to indicate that the stitches in the group should all be worked in the next stitch on your left needle. This makes popcorns, etc.
The most common abbreviations I've run across in knitting are simply k for knit, p for purl, dec for decrease, inc for increase, ssk for slip, slip, knit, and k2tog for knit two stitches together. ssk threw me for a bit, until I got a more experienced knitter to show me that it simply meant to slip two stitches, one by one, over to the right needle and then knit the two of them together. Patterns will usually tell how the increase or decrease should be done, such as ssk or k2tog for an increase and m1(make 1) for an increase. To make a stitch is also usually shown to you somewhere in the book or magazine, but it usually just means pulling up a loop from between two stitches in the row before.
Charts are also easy; in fact sometimes I find that reading a chart is easier than reading all the instructions that would have to be written out for each row. Look at the legend for the chart - there will be symbols that represent the stitches you will be making. In most charts you will start from right to left with the pattern on the first row, working the stitches in order as you come to them on the needle. Then you work the next row from left to right. Often in lace this row is a purl row.
My advice first of all when you see a pattern in a magazine that you really like and think you want to make is to sit down someplace quiet with the pattern. Read it through carefully, and see if you can't figure out before you start what it's going to take to make that smashing sweater. Read the
