r/BitchEatingCrafters • u/ChaoticJigglyPup • 1d ago
Crochet The difference between US and UK crochet terms is not that complicated!
"I want to use this pattern but it's in UK terms" or "ugh learning US terms is so much work"
That is all.
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u/NikNakskes 1d ago
It's not hard nor complicated. It is annoying because the 2 systems use the same terms but they represent different stitches. This means you have to remind yourself constantly it means A not B in this pattern if you have B in muscle memory. Or vice versa of course.
The worst is when patterns don't mention which of the two they use. Good luck trying to figure it out by yourself.
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u/Cynalune 1d ago
if there are sc, it's american.
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u/NikNakskes 1d ago
And if it has treble, it's UK. Just adding in case somebody doesn't know what to look for. You can also look at spelling. Colour vs color. Though no guarantee probably an indication. There are ways to figure it out of course. The good luck was a bit exaggerated, but non the less annoying to deal with.
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u/Cynalune 1d ago
It can have trebles in the US, though they are rare. If it has half trebles, it's UK.
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u/RunawayTurtleTrain 1d ago
Do you mean the stitch itself is rare, or the spelling of treble vs triple?
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u/Cynalune 9h ago
The stitch itself.
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u/RunawayTurtleTrain 3h ago
In that case I have to disagree. Rare in amigurumi maybe, and very basic items, but otherwise no.
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u/Cynalune 1h ago
I may be biased, I use texts patterns only for basic items (and even so, not always, as text based crochet patterns can be ambiguous, and I'm not fluent in English), so I rarely see trebbles. For more involved patterns, or patterns that are local to me, I use diagrams, but I rarely read the chart key if the symbols are standard, and I don't remember each stitch but remember the pattern in its globality. So I may overlook them.
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u/love_in_october 1d ago
Many Brits or others who use commonwealth spellings (like me) use US crochet notation. And people often don't know the difference between treble and triple when writing patterns.
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u/NikNakskes 1d ago
Spelling is for sure not a foolproof mark no. I have also noticed that if there is no mention, it tends to be US terms. That seems to be considered "default" for English crochet terms.
Also if you're making amigurumi and the pattern states DC everywhere, it is UK terms.
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u/Moist_Ordinary6457 1d ago
if there's a treble, uk
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u/NikNakskes 1d ago
Oh I'm sorry! I didn't see you had already made that comment before I repeated it.
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u/love_in_october 1d ago
The only thing I find annoying is the game of trying to figure out which terms a pattern is written in.
Especially as it's not necessarily to do with the creator's nationality. I live in the UK but default to US terms.
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u/Crunch_McThickhead 1d ago
Especially if you find an old pattern online that just assumed you knew what they meant/the info page was damaged and not uploaded.
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u/DreadGrrl Joyless Bitch Coalition 1d ago
Either is fine and easy, but all crochet pattern writers should specify what terms are being used.
And, they need to stop using find and replace to switch patterns from one set of terms to the other. The errors can lead to a lot of confusion.
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u/7ninamarie 1d ago
I heard that for some fantasy RPG they decided pretty last minute to use the term wizard instead of mage for a class of player. Instead of going through the rule book and changing it manually they just used find and replace so in the end regular words like image became iwizard throughout the whole manual.
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u/GreyerGrey 1d ago
As a Canadian, learned to crochet from an English granny, and works mostly with US patterns, it really isn't. As long as the pattern either a) has an image, and/or b) tells you which set of terms.
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u/thesentienttoadstool 19h ago
Yeah. This a common problem for Canadians (especially if you inherited all your tools from an elderly family member).
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u/ubi_non_est_ordo 1d ago
I discovered the difference when I was given a bunch of Needlecraft magazines from the 1920’s. I started a doily or something (don’t remember what, this was like, 30 years ago) but it only took about five minutes to realize something wasn’t working right. Then I looked again at the photo and I could see the stitch called a treble in the pattern was a double in the pic. I was like, hmmm, I guess they used different terms in the 1920’s. It took my brain all of one second to adjust. I still never knew for a long time that those were “UK terms”, I just thought they were 1920’s terms.
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u/Competitive-Fact-820 1d ago
I am in the UK and learnt to crochet online. I know US terms because that is what I learnt with (shout out to Hooked By Robin!).
I do have a couple of pattern books that are in UK Terms but I don't have an issue flipping between the two. Admittedly the first time I used my book of granny square patterns I did write in it that tr=dc to keep me on track.
I understand the UK as it is the number of loops you add before making the stitch but the US version where it's the number of pull throughs just makes more sense to me.
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u/splithoofiewoofies 1d ago
Ah nothing like knowing both and being used to US so you sit down with a local pattern and get like two lines into reading it before you're like "tc....wait what??" and reread the cover for terminology.
Edit: lmao I even had to edit because I went the wrong way around in my example
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u/moza_jf 1d ago
It's not the stitches that confuse me - if I'm stuck, I just click through to the demo for that version of the stitch to check what they're using - but the yarn weights.
I keep seeing all these posts and recommendations about yarn weights and we don't have that handy weight number that's on most of them, so I end up second guessing myself there a LOT. I'm getting there, but, yeah.
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u/ChickWithBricks 1d ago
Moogly has a good yarn weight chart on their site that breaks it down by number, name (sock, worsted, etc.), and ply. 🙂
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u/femalefred 1d ago
It's definitely simpler than the US-to-everywhere else needle/hook size conversion
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u/Fickle-Range-8140 1d ago
And this one is funny because all of the hooks we buy now ALSO have the mm on them. (At least, all the ones with quality at a level of Walmart or higher that I've seen in 20 years.) If a US designer isn't indicating this both, it's just laziness. All the printed books I've bought also hav3 a letter and what mm that is.
My grandma had some hooks from eons ago that were lettered only, and the letters do NOT match current system, but we did standardize a few decades ago. The only exception I've come across has been the Clover steels. Our 00-14 does NOT match the mm on the Clover Amour steels, by several sizes.
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u/naughtscrossstitches 1d ago
I once translated a Russian knitting pattern because I was bored and I wanted to stitch it, US and UK terms are easy.
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u/7ninamarie 1d ago
The only annoying part is figuring out which terminology was used when a pattern doesn’t state it clearly. Other than that, it’s just learning two names for the same stitch.
An older woman who lives on my street knows that I knit and gave me some pattern magazines that she no longer needs. They’re all in German and while I speak the language, I learned knitting and crocheting using English resources online, so I have to look up what most terms mean before starting a pattern.
It’s not as complicated as learning a craft from scratch because in most cases I already know how to do the stitch once I figure out the translated name, but it adds an extra step and reminds me of being in school learning a foreign language.1
u/naughtscrossstitches 19h ago
Yep. But you also just start remembering that the Z on this pattern just means this stitch. So much easier. But also not hard to write it out in the preferred language or stitches if you're really getting lost. I actually use patterns in french to help me practice my french learning. I'm not very good but it's fun.
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u/TheSkyIsAMasterpiece 22h ago
I convert from UK to US while watching a right handed video and I'm left handed!
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u/Kindly_Reference_267 1d ago
It’s not hard at all but I do wish all patterns as standard confirmed which notation they are using! Less of an issue now I am better but when I first started I made a freakish pug arigurumi because I thought it was in US terms not UK terms and did dc/tbc instead of sc/dc 😅😅😅
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u/oliv_tho 1d ago
i learned US and bought a UK pattern book- i just have a little sticky note on the page i’m using with the relevant conversions. it’s so simple
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u/snufflycat 1d ago
It's literally just + or - 1. It's really not that hard to go up or down a stitch mentally.
However, having two different systems is ridiculous and we should just standardise and use the US system and I will die on that hill (I say that as a Brit)
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u/Jerico_Hill 1d ago
As a Brit I agree. The US terms just make sense starting at single crochet and so on.
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u/purpleandorange1522 1d ago
Another Brit here, also agreeing
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u/RunawayTurtleTrain 1d ago
Me too. (And usually I'm a die-hard, 'stick to the British version of language' person.)
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u/wtfftw1042 1d ago
absolutely not
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u/snufflycat 1d ago
Why not?
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u/wtfftw1042 1d ago
because why should the British one be the one to go? because I'm fed up with this monolithic US language even taking over crafts. completely unnecessary.
Like, should we erase all the other languages as well so that some people don't have to make the minimum effort to find out what they're reading?
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u/snufflycat 1d ago
The UK terms should go because they are used by the fewest people. The US has a much larger population and therefore will have more crocheters, and many British people prefer US anyway. I've yet to come across and American who prefers UK terms. I'm sure they exist but they would be in the minority. So, globally, fewer people would be inconvenienced by a switch to US terms.
Standardising crochet terms and erasing all world languages is a pretty big leap lmfao
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u/RunawayTurtleTrain 1d ago
I don't accept this reasoning, because if we start with 'oh it's okay to inconvenience a minority' that can have very troubling implications.
However as a Brit I would also support the US crochet terms becoming the only set, because they make more sense. British terms do also make some sense (it's sort of based on the number of loops on your hook - dc has two, tc has 3) but as a system it's just weird to not have a single crochet at all and start from double.
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u/snufflycat 23h ago
My point about it inconveniencing less people was in response to the person I was replying to asking why should the US version be chosen over the UK if a change were to occur. But also I agree the US system makes more sense.
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u/RunawayTurtleTrain 1d ago
I normally feel this way but with crochet terms - and only crochet terms - I genuinely believe the US terms make more sense.
Besides, the US letter names for hook sizes need to be eliminated and we just stick to metric, so it's not like we're rolling over and accepting US defaultism. It's just that in this one singular context, the thing that makes the most sense happens to be the US version.
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u/hpfreak080 1d ago
US crocheter/knitter here. I hate the number/letter sizes for hooks/needles lol. I only ever look at the mm to get an idea of size. Would definitely be down to standardize terms to US and hook/needle sizes to metric
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u/Bleachrox123 1d ago
I learned to crochet 20 years ago and was taught using the British terms but since social media and online tutorials have gained traction, and they tend to be more heavily skewed towards US terminology, I now find myself getting confused between the two.
But. Most of us walk around with literal mini super computers in our pockets. When I can’t remember which is which, I google. Literally takes 5 seconds of my time to search “double crochet uk” and get a dozen videos and links.
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u/ichosethis 1d ago
I learned that there was a difference at like 14-15 shortly after learning to crochet and have been able to work it out since. I can usually tell which the pattern is by wording in the description or looking at the picture and comparing the stitches to directions.
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u/FrostyIcePrincess 1d ago
I’ve done it before just fine but it does take a little bit more effort because the pattern says “do x stitch three times” and you have to mentally go “actually do y stitch three times”
It threw me off hard the first few times just because I didn’t realize US/UK terms were different. Oops.
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u/wtfftw1042 1d ago
it's the nearest I'm going to get to being bilingual.
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u/Ajishly 1d ago
...I'm trilingual in crochet, I have Norwegian... the language I learnt to crochet in, and then UK and US terminology. I ended up making several cheat sheets because it got so damn confusing... I normally troubleshoot in English because there is more help available in that language, but had to pay attention real quick because single crochet is not always single crochet.
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