Table of Contents

Introduction

This is the ultimate guide to crochet terminology UK vs US! This guide will explain the different stitch abbreviations, hook sizes, yarn types and more!

Crochet can be a difficult skill to learn, one reason for this is the discrepancies with crochet terminology – specifically the differences between UK and US terms.

 

Crochet Hooks

Crochet hooks come in a wide range of sizes, but you will often find yourself using the same hook sizes frequently. For standard crochet hooks, the smaller the hook size, the thinner the yarn you will use and therefore the smaller the outcome. Your yarn tension is also a major factor when it comes to stich size too.

In the UK we tend to use the mm size and the US tends to use a lettering system – US hooks tend to use a 0.25mm system rather than the 0.5mm of the metric system. This means there isn’t always a completely direct translation between the sizes but a 0.25mm difference in hook size won’t make much difference.

Which crochet hook should you use, a row of crochet hooks

UK

14

12

11

9

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

0

00

000

Metric

2mm

2.5mm

3mm

3.5mm

4mm

4.5mm

5mm

5.5mm

6mm

6.5mm

7mm

8mm

9mm

10mm

US

E/4

G/6

7

H/8

I/9

J/10

K/10.5

L/11

M/13

N/15

Crochet Stitches – Abbreviations

For English speakers there are two main text-based crochet languages: UK Terminology and US Terminology. This can become confusing when looking across various websites and creators for patterns.

I personally choose to use US terminology as I found it easier to learn – all my free patterns are written using US stitches however if you buy any patterns from my shop you will always be provided with both a UK and US version of the pattern.

UK

slst

ch

dc

htr

tr

dtr

Stitches

Slip stitch

Chain

Double crochet

Half treble crochet

Treble crochet

Double treble crochet

US

slst

ch

sc

hdc

dc

tr

Stitches

Slip stitch

Chain

Single crochet

Half double crochet

Double crochet

Treble crochet

Yarn Types

Coming soon…

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