Iāve been poking through xiaohongshu (an app kinda like instagram or pinterest) collecting crochet patterns that i may or may not make lol, but the way that patterns are written is pretty different from us or uk terminology. If anyone else wanted to try some Chinese crochet patterns from that app (which is free and downloadable from the usa and probably other places), thought I might share how some terms translate over.
(As a note, neither my Chinese level nor my crochet skills are very high, so I only know some of the basic stitches and terms)
(From US terms)
Single crochet: X
Half double crochet: T
Double crochet: F
Treble crochet: E
Increase: V (if for a non-single crochet stitch, follows the symbol, like FV for dc increase)
So something in US terms like ā(sc, inc) x 6ā would be written something like ā6(x, v)ā.
I thought it was pretty neat that rather than using letters that represent the word, they mainly use letters that represent the symbol like in crochet diagrams. Youād still need to be able to read some amount of Chinese to be able to fully understand patterns written this way though but i thought itād be something cool to share, and google translate might help carry you the rest of the way.
Heyo! I sent a reply to your message but just in case anyone else needs it, M is triple decrease and W is triple increase, so theyāre like A and V but with 1 more stitch. Similarly, if you see something like FW, that means you do 3 double crochets into 1 stitch.
Iām not sure what MR since since I donāt think Iāve seen it before, but it could just be magic ring, depending on where you might have seen it.
And thereās no difference between X and x, since uppercase and lowercase donāt make a different. Similarly, you might see t, f, e, instead of T, F, E, but theyāre the same thing. Uppercase just makes the letters look more like the crochet diagram symbol. Hope this helps!
I donāt know if I can edit the original post anymore, but I found another stitch that I missed the first time: G: quadruple crochet
I had to use this one recently haha so adding it now
Additionally, parentheses can either mean that you repeat whatās inside for however many times it specifies, or it means you do all the stitches in one stitch. For example, if you see (2x, v)6, that would mean you do (2sc, inc)six times, going from 18 stitches to 24. But if you see something like (FV, ch5, FV) with no number attached to the parentheses outside, then that means you do dc inc, ch5, dc inc all in the same stitch. Itās a little confusing but after a while itās relatively easy to tell the difference, I think. They might also use brackets like [] or {} or ććinstead idk
Thatās interesting! I am very unfamiliar with Chinese, but I do know some French, and Iāve been thinking about branching out into some French patterns. I can see with the Chinese how some of it relates to the symbols for crochet charts, though!
wow!!! this is such an amazing resource! thank you for creating this list, i always wanted to try a chinese crochet pattern since thereās such cool patterns out there >w< thx again for sharing!
I might check that out, thanks! I have never looked at chinese patterns, but I know Ive seen a bunch of japanese pattern books Id love to get my hands on!
Just so everyone is aware, a lot of the patterns on there are taken from the original creator (usually paid) and sharing it without their permission. If you see something you really like, plz consider checking the original creator and buying the pattern (if you can).
but i thought itād be something cool to share, and google translate might help carry you the rest of the way.
