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Do you prefer to crochet from a pattern or diagram?


squirrel

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Which type of pattern do people prefer: written or diagram, or do you experiment as you go along?

 

Personally I prefer a diagram. I find them much easier to follow than written instructions. I guess it's all that cross stitch I did. :hook

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to be a pain, I like both. when it comes to garments and such i'd just go with the written, but in the case of doilies and such i really do like both. the visual pattern makes shape so much easier to determine and the pattern stands out enough to compare, but sometimes the words help in places. Have you ever bought Crochet Monthly? They do both and I like it.

 

Sometimes in garments there is a pattern stitch, and the pic could be handy there too. It really depends what I am making. Say KristieMN's patterns, I find the words and a photo more than enough to complete the pattern. This really isn't helping is it....

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I learned on written patterns, and that's all I used for years. It was only after picking up SnB: THH that I saw a diagram and understood what it meant. Now, when I'm writing patterns for certain objects [purses and blankets] the diagrams are a huge help because I can really see what I want to do.

 

Gayle

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  • 3 months later...
  • 2 weeks later...

99% of the time I like words. The few stitch diagrams I've seen (for a patterned stich, not a chart) are mostly confusing. I've seen a few good ones, but a photo of the finished stich usualy does me much more good. I like the online patterns that are words with the ocasional tutorial photo thrown in. Maybe because I'm a lefty so everything is backwards that diagrams don't seem to help me much. I haven't tried any filet or charts yet, although one pattern I did could have easilly been charted and I would have been OK with it along with the words.

so yeah, I like words or photos best.

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I much prefer diagrams. Written patterns often seem confusing to me. I need to be able to picture in my mind the structure of what I am crocheting. Really clear photos are enough sometimes, if the pattern is clearly written.

 

I have a small collection of old Magic Crochet magazines and a few others from the 80s that have diagrams also, and I LOVE those.

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When I get confusled I like both to try figuring out what I am doing. I also like to see the picture of a finished project. I am doing an afgan and the way the picture was taken I can't see the part that I am having a problem with. It is written a diagram would be nice to help me along. Leisure arts pattern pictures do that though they will fold something in a way that you cannot see a corner or middle when you want to see it.

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I agree with you. I checked out a Leisure Arts book from the library. There was an afghan I thought was very pretty, but the best part of it SEEMED to be the edging, however, I couldn't really see the edging because of the folds. so I just took the book back to the library.

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I can do either. At first I was intimidated by the graphs, but they weren't as difficult as I had expected. Several years ago a friend talked me into thread, which I was sure I could not do. But its just on a smaller scale. Now I am a big threadie and l love the graphs now. Decorative crochet is a great threadie magazine. But I like the written patterns just as well. The best thing about graphs is that it is so visual. :hug

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me, I am a written gal, BUT, he he, I would go for the diagrams IF they made them BIGGER that this ole crow could SEE them, lol, it takes me too long to focus in my eyes on the part, then I loses where I am at, and its all over again....

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  • 2 years later...

I'm used to reading written instructions, and the first time I came across the symbol diagrams, they looked awfully complicated and I thought I'd never understand them. But the good thing about diagrams with symbols is that they're universal - there's no need to look up conversions like one sometimes has to do with written crochet abbreviations. I think I would like to have both, though - I've found that when I'm stuck on something in the written instructions, a diagram really helps me to picture how the stitches are supposed to be arranged/positioned.

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  • 4 weeks later...

As English isn't my first language I find diagrams easier for "foreign" patterns.

I usually rewrite both diagrams and English/US patterns to Swedish text to avoid doing anything wrong.

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  • Donna changed the title to Do you prefer to crochet from a pattern or diagram?

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