Big thank you to Alison Ellett, who took us through crochet diagrams (or charts) last week!
As Alison outlined, there are advantages and disadvantages to crocheting from a chart, but we think the awesomeness outweighs the drawbacks:
Awesomeness!
- Universal - the symbols don't vary as they do in knitting charts, plus this eliminates the US vs UK terminology disparities.
- Result actually looks like the chart
Challenges
- Good charting software is basically non-existent... yet
- Difficult for some learning styles
Free Japanese hat patterns that you can work from the chart
Simple charted pattern example
Guirlande d'étoiles French pattern
Online crochet diagram tutorials