How to Read Knitting Patterns: A Quick Guide for Beginners

When you’ve learned how to knit and eagerly start new projects, eventually, you’ll stumble upon knitting patterns. Knitting patterns turn many beginner knitters off as they seem to be written in an entirely different language - but not you!

In this quick guide, I’ll tell you all about what knitting patterns are, what elements they have, and, most importantly - how to knit from patterns. With this guide, you’ll confidently tackle knitting patterns for your following projects.

This post may contain affiliate links that support the content on this blog.

PIN IT NOW & READ IT LATER!

how to read knitting patterns a quick guide for beginners

What Is a Knitting Pattern

A knitting pattern is a written instruction for knitters to complete a specific project. It should give you complete information - from what you need to knit the design (supplies and skills) to step-by-step instructions in a succinct form.

Elements of a Knitting Pattern

While there isn’t a set standard of composition for a knitting pattern, a few essential sections should be present in every one of them. Let’s go through the elements of a knitting pattern!

pattern name

First up, a pattern name. This can be either an exact name of a project (like Simple Ribbed Beanie) or a more imaginative and whimsical one (like Snapdragon Socks), depending on the designer’s style.

image

Every pattern likely contains an image of the knit item. The purpose of the image is mainly to show how the finished piece looks - to encourage you to knit it and give you a reference to compare your in-progress knit as you work.

about the pattern

Sometimes as a first thing in the pattern, you’ll find a few sentences on the design - possibly the inspiration for it, styling recommendations, and a quick overview of the construction or particular elements.

sizes and measurements

Here you’ll find listed all the sizes the pattern is designed for. This can be either a one-size (for items like tea towels, possibly pillows, scrunchies, etc.) or a range of sizes - usually for wearables like sweaters, socks, and so on. For wearable pieces, either body and item measurements or item dimensions together with recommended ease will be listed.

Ease is the difference between your body and garment measurements. Positive ease means that the garment is larger than your body, giving an extra room like for oversized sweaters. Negative ease means the item is smaller than your body measurements - that’s often the case for hats or socks - it allows them to stay put on your body without dropping down.

The sizes and measurements should help you choose the best size for you! Pick the size that matches best based on the listed finished and blocked dimensions of the piece and additional pointers from the designer on the ease.

Sometimes you’ll find a schematic in the sizes section - a simple drawing of the item with a few measurements shown. It’s most common for garments - so that you know what exactly to expect regarding the circumference, neckline depth, length, and other measures.

materials

This section of the pattern lists the supplies you’ll need to complete the design, with details to help you choose the suitable materials.

Yarn

The pattern should list the amount of yarn needed to complete the pattern in all sizes. Best if it’s given as length - in meters or yards, instead of a number of yarn skeins and other details on the yarn: name and brand, along with the fiber composition, yarn weight, and colorway. This will let you choose the same yarn as the designer or have enough information to find a suitable yarn substitution.

Needles

This part will have information on what needles you should choose for this project - size, listed in mm, US, or UK number, and details if these need to be circular knitting needles (with specific cable length), Double Point Needles, or straight needles.

Notions

If there are any other tools needed to complete the project, you’ll find them here! Usually, it’s a tapestry needle, stitch markers, cable needles listed in this section, and so on.

gauge

Gauge is also sometimes called tension. It’s measured in the number of stitches and rows per 10cm (or 4”) in a specific stitch. Tension significantly impacts both finished item dimensions and yardage - so it’s important to compare your tension to the designer’s to avoid any unpleasant surprises!

To check your gauge, make a gauge swatch. Use the yarn you want for the project and knit a square in the stitch pattern listed by the designer.

While the gauge is measured over 10cm (4”), it’s essential to make a gauge swatch a bit bigger than that - so you can measure tension over an inner part of the swatch, as the edges may impact the measurements a bit. Block the swatch as you would the project and check how many stitches and rows you get per 10cm (4”).

If you match the designer’s gauge on the first try - that’s great news! Otherwise, you may need to re-swatch using different needles to get as close as possible to the target gauge. As a rule of thumb, if you get too few stitches in your swatch, go down a needle size, and if you get too many stitches in the swatch, go up a size and try again.

While you may be super excited to dive into a new knitting project and skip gauge swatching - I genuinely advise you to always swatch before a new project.

It’s a short-time investment when compared to the risk that after hours, or tens of hours of knitting, you’ll run out of yarn or find out that you can’t wear the project as it’s far too small or big. The different gauge also means that the knit’s texture and drape may differ from the sample in the photos.

abbreviations

Patterns are written in the shortest way possible, which includes using abbreviations! While there are some commonly used abbreviations for the basic techniques, it’s still best practice to list all abbreviations used in a pattern with an explanation! Think of it as a small ‘dictionary’ for the design.

charts

In some patterns, you can find charts for stitch panels or even parts of garments or shawls. They would usually be included for more complex stitch combinations for several reasons.

One, they give an excellent visual cue on how the stitches will be laid out - it is almost like an image you can process quickly. The second reason is - for some knitters (me included!), following a graphic instead of a written instruction can speed up the work and is easier to navigate.

Often, charts are accompanied by written instructions so knitters can choose what works best for them! If you find a knitting pattern without written instruction, you can learn more about how to read and knit from knitting charts in this post!

pattern notes

The last section of the informative part of the pattern is the notes. These are additional tips on knitting from the pattern, possibly some tutorials, special stitches information, or a brief construction outline.

How to Read Knitting Pattern Instructions

Instructions in knitting patterns are row-by-row or round-by-round directions to knit the particular design! They are divided into sections in the order of work, so you follow the project from start to finish. That would be, for example, cuff, leg, heel, foot, and toe for socks, or front, back, sleeves, and neckline for sweaters.

As I mentioned, the instructions will be condensed because of abbreviations and particular punctuation. Let’s break it down!

parentheses

Most commonly, parentheses separate sizes. If there are multiple listed in the pattern, for example, sizes 1 (2, 3) - you can expect that the size-specific instructions in the pattern will follow the same format.

Parentheses can also indicate repeats - especially in more complex stitch patterns in combination with brackets - more on that in the brackets section!

commas

Commas separate essential information - apart from their regular use in sentences, they also differentiate the following:

Sizes - 1 (2, 3) - apart from parentheses, the comma separates sizes 2 and 3. In the instructions part of the pattern, they will separate size-specific instructions similarly. So k5 (6, 7) will mean knit 5 stitches for size 1, 6 for size 2, and 7 for size 3.

Stitch instructions - commas separate specific stitch instructions within a row or round to show sequence. As an example, we’ll take the following instructions:
Row 1: k4, p2, k1, p until 2 sts left, k2.

This reads: knit 4 stitches, then purl 2 stitches, then knit 1 stitch, then purl the stitches until you only have 2 stitches left on the left needle, then knit 2 stitches.

asterisks

Asterisks are used to indicate portions of the pattern to repeat. Most commonly, they’re used in two formats:

k2, *p1, k2; rep from * until the end of row - indicating the portion to repeat between an asterisk * and a semicolon;
k2, *p1, k2* until the end of the row - indicating the portion to repeat between two asterisks.

brackets

Brackets are often used instead of parentheses to indicate repeats or together with parentheses to indicate more complex repeats. Let’s have a look at an example!

Row 1: k2, [p3, (k2tog, yo) 3 times] until end of row

That would mean: knit 2 stitches, then start the bracketed instruction - purl 3 stitches, then complete instructions in the parentheses 3 times, and start the instruction from the beginning of the bracket again - until you reach the end of the row.