How to Understand Common Crocheting Abbreviations

Especially when just starting out with the beautiful craft of crocheting and for seasoned crocheters, not everyone knows how to read patterns, particularly those little abbreviations. Many people learn the craft because they are taught by doing. Here are five steps to understand Twelve common crocheting abbreviations that you might come across in a pattern.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Patience
• Practice

1. PAT (s) and GRP(s) will stand for pattern stitch and group(s) respectively. Your project might require that you work in a certain Pattern for a portion of the work or require you to work Groups of stitches in a particular way.
2. You may also see PM. This stands for Place Marker. You may need to count off so many stitches and place a marker before moving on to the next stitch. By placing a marker, you will have a recognizable point that might require a special stitch, decrease or increase.
3. The abbreviation CC and MC stand for Contrasting Color and Main Color. If you are working on a project that requires multiple colors, but has one color more than the others, it will be referred to as your Main Color. If you need to use a second yarn color, the directions might say, use a Contrasting Color.
4. CH indicates to make a Chain stitch. Usually denoted in the beginning of your pattern when you are working your initial number of stitches. CH-SP will mean Chain Space. Perhaps you need to work in the Chain Space for a particular stitch, or you need to skip a stitch. The directions will depend on your pattern.
5. INC or DEC stands for Increase and Decrease a particular number of stitches.
6. SC indicates to make a Single Crochet. You may also see SC2tog which means Single Crochet two stitches together. DC indicates to make a Double Crochet. You may also see DC2tog which means Double Crochet two stitches together.
7. BL stands for crocheting in the Back Loop(s). It is a design technique in crocheting. This technique will usually give you a raised stitch on the other side of the work.