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I almost never see patterns sold with yarn or those online using the long forms of stitch and technique names.

Yes, most proper beginner tutorials almost always have a legend for this sort of thing but not always. The intermediate to advanced ones I would think expect you have learned this by now.

What are the common stitch and actions abbreviations that are found in patterns and what are the long forms of them? Are there any distinctions when it comes to US/UK?

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  • 1
    This is not concrete enough. Questions should be concrete, real questions that occur during your crafting.
    – Keelan
    May 3, 2016 at 19:54
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    This is a real question that people will have. I keep a small series of documents on my phone for this. If I just have a question about 1 abbreviation then that makes for a terrible question. Would you prefer I put up one pattern and someone translates that for me? That still is not useful to others I think. Can you think of a better example that would have the same useful yeild?
    – Matt
    May 3, 2016 at 20:00
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    @CamilStaps Not if your goal is to create a FAQ that will help people without having to have every single question ever asked.
    – Catija ♦
    May 3, 2016 at 20:02
  • How is this too broad exactly. There is a finite number of stitches I would think for this.
    – Matt
    May 3, 2016 at 20:03
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    If people would prefer I can add a list of these commons stitches and actions here then. Yes this list is standard would be hard to crochet if it wasn't.
    – Matt
    May 3, 2016 at 20:16

1 Answer 1

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There are about nine or ten main stitches that are the most commonly used and, of them, four or five are probably used the most.

Most common US stitch abbreviations:

  • ch - chain
  • bpsc (or bpdc, bptc) - back post single crochet (double crochet, triple crochet)
  • dc - double crochet
  • dtr - double treble crochet
  • hdc - half double crochet
  • fpsc (or fpdc, fptc) - front post single crochet (double crochet, triple crochet)
  • sc - single crochet
  • sl st or ss - slip stitch
  • tc - treble crochet
  • trtc - triple treble crochet

Most common UK stitch abbreviations:

  • ch - chain
  • dc - double crochet
  • dtr - double treble crochet
  • htr - half treble crochet
  • rtrb - raised treble back
  • rtrf - raised treble front
  • ss - slip stitch
  • tr - treble crochet

Other standard, non-stitch related abbreviations:

These may be used on their own or in conjunction with the abbreviations above.

  • bp - back post
  • dec - decrease
  • fp - front post
  • inc - increase
  • rep - repeat
  • rnd(s) - round(s)
  • RS - right side
  • st - stitch
  • tog - together
  • WS - wrong side
  • yo/yoh - yarn over/yarn over hook

Also, many patterns use an asterisk (*) to mark a repeated section of work.

There are other terms that some sites may define like pc (popcorn) or cl (cluster) but these should be defined in your pattern because what each pattern considers a popcorn stitch or cluster will vary greatly. They are non-standard, so look for a section in the instructsion that breaks up these terms into their smaller parts for you.

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