Amigurumi - how to make and design Japanese crochet toys

English amigurumi patterns follow the same conventions as other English crochet patterns. Some people may use different abbreviations, which can be confusing sometimes. Generally, 'sc' means single crochet, while increases may be indicated by 'inc', 'sc2 in same/next st', decreases by 'dec' or 'sc2tog'. Most patterns will include a list of abbreviations used.

Reading Japanese patterns may seem more challenging for those who don't read Japanese, but is in fact more straightforward. Japanese knit and crochet patterns are much more staandardised than English patterns, and you can be relatively confident that the same symbol will be used for the same stitch in pretty much any Japanese pattern. Japanese patterns are either charted, or row-by-row instructions - usually both. Lets have a look at how to read the two formats. This picture shows part of a Japanese pattern for a snake amigurumi. You can see the chart, in circles, and to the right, the numbered row-by-row instructions. The chart is read from the centre, going in an anticlockwise direction (the same way you crochet). Single crochet stitches are marked by 'x' and increases and decreases indicated by V shapes. (decreases will be an inverted V). The loop-with-a-black-dot is a slipstitch followed by a chain stitch, used to join one round and start the next. Many people prefer to omit these stitches and work in a spiral instead, marking the start of the round.
Looking at the chart and the round 1 instructions, we can see we need to start by working 8 stitches into a magic ring (in the instructions we can see the kanji for 'stitch' - the rectangle with two horizontal lines inside).

Rows two to seven have a string of numbers - '1-4-6' followed by the kanji for increase. This means to increase by onestitch four times per round for six rows. Reading round the chart tells us the same thing, as each V is an increase.

Rows 8-12 we are told 'increase decrease nashi, 32 me' (compare the kanji in that section to the ones in the decrease section above and the decrease section below). In other words, single crochet rounds 8-12 plain, neither increasing or decreasing. Each round should have 32 stitches. The chart shows rows of plain 'x's.

Rows thirteen and fourteen tell us '1-8-2 decrease', or in other words, decrease by one stitch every eighth stitch for two rows. You can see the corresponding decreases in the chart as inverted Vs.

Finally row 15 tell us to crochet plain once again, and that the round should have 16 stitches.

These five symbols (x for sc, V and inverted V for increase and decrease, loop for a chain stitch and heavy dot for a slipstitch), knowing that the string of numbers can be read as 'number of stitches to inc/dec by--how many per row--how many rows' and three kanji (increase, decrease, stitch) should allow you to read most Japanese amigurumi patterns with ease. Though not strictly true as it's part of another radical, you can remember the difference between the increase and decrease kanji because increase looks like it has a plus sign on the left hand side.