How to read an amigurumi pattern, line by line

Updated 13 November 2026 · 6 min read · by FamCraftsShop

What every part of a round means — the label, the stitches, the brackets and the number at the end — with a worked example you can open and check.

Amigurumi patterns look like code the first time you see one. They are written in a very compact shorthand because a small toy can have sixty or more rounds, and writing each one out in full sentences would fill pages. Once you know the five or six pieces that make up a line, every pattern reads the same way.

The anatomy of one round

Take this line from a typical ball or head:

R4: (2 sc, inc) x6 (24)

• R4 is the round label. "R" or "Rnd" means round. Some designers write "Row" even when you work in the round. A range such as R5-9 means "repeat the same instructions for rounds 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9".
• 2 sc means work one single crochet into each of the next two stitches.
• inc is an increase: two single crochet into the same stitch. It uses one stitch from the round below and makes two.
• ( … ) x6 means work everything inside the brackets six times in a row. Square brackets, asterisks (*2 sc, inc* repeat 6 times) and "rep from * around" all mean the same thing.
• (24) at the end is the stitch count: how many stitches you should have when the round is finished.

That last number is the most useful thing in the whole line. It is your checkpoint. If you count your stitches at the end of the round and get 24, you are almost certainly on track. If you get 23 or 25, stop and find the mistake now — it only gets harder to fix later.

Stitches in, stitches out

Every instruction does two things: it uses stitches from the previous round and it makes new ones. Keeping those apart is the key to reading any pattern.

So in (2 sc, inc) x6, each repeat uses 3 stitches and makes 4. Six repeats use 18 and make 24. The round before must therefore have had 18 stitches. That is exactly how StitchCheck tests every line of a pattern: the stitches a round uses must match the count of the round below, and the stitches it makes must match the count the designer wrote.

The start: magic ring and round 1

Most amigurumi start with MR 6, sometimes written "6 sc in a magic ring" or "6 sc in MR". You make an adjustable loop, work six single crochet into it and pull it shut. Round 1 has no round below it, so it uses nothing and makes 6. Some designers start with "ch 2, 6 sc in the second chain from the hook", which does the same job if you can't get on with the magic ring.

Spirals vs joined rounds

Unless the pattern says "join", amigurumi are worked in a continuous spiral: you finish round 4 and go straight into the first stitch of round 5 with no slip stitch and no chain. Put a stitch marker in the first (or last) stitch of each round and move it up as you go, because in a spiral there is nothing else to show you where a round begins.

When a pattern does say "join with a sl st, ch 1", the slip stitch and the chain are not counted as stitches. They only move you up to the next round. This is the most common reason people end up with one extra stitch per round.

Plain rounds and "around"

R5-9: sc around (24) means one single crochet in every stitch, for five rounds, with no increases or decreases. These plain rounds make the straight sides of a ball or the long part of a body. You will also see "sc in each st around" or simply "24 sc".

Colour changes, back loops and other notes

Notes in the middle of a line usually apply from that point on:

• BLO / FLO — work into the back or front loop only. Working a round in back loops makes a sharp ridge, used for the flat bottom of a cup or a foot.
• change to white — finish the last stitch of the old colour with the new yarn, so the colour change sits cleanly.
• stuff — add filling now, before the opening gets too small.
• FO — fasten off: cut the yarn and pull it through the last loop.

A worked example to try

Here is a small ball, written the way most designers would write it. Open it in StitchCheck and you can see each round checked, the counts added up and the shape built in 3D, round by round.

R1: MR 6 (6)
R2: 6 inc (12)
R3: (sc, inc) x6 (18)
R4: (2 sc, inc) x6 (24)
R5-8: sc around (24)
R9: (2 sc, dec) x6 (18)
R10: (sc, dec) x6 (12)
R11: 6 dec (6)

Try changing round 4 to (2 sc, inc) x5 (24) and you will see the checker flag it straight away: five repeats only use 15 of the 18 stitches and make 20, not 24.

When the pattern is in UK terms or another language

If a pattern says "dc" where you expected "sc", it is probably written in UK terms — see US vs UK crochet terms. If it is in French, Spanish, German, Japanese or another language, the abbreviations by language guide has the common words side by side.