What's so important about using the right words, yo?

YO!  It's a gangsta thing.

YO is part of every stitch in crochet.  It's an abbreviation, yo.  You can't do a stitch without it, yo.  I'm not talking about the Grammy award winning cellist, yo.  I'm not talking about the childhood toy on a string, yo.  I'm talking about the most important part of every crochet stitch, yo.  I'm talking about the abbreviation, YO, yo.

YO is the abbreviation for "Yarnover." It refers to the action of drawing the working yarn over the top of the crochet hook from the back of the hook (away from you) to the front of the hook (toward you).  Seems simple enough, yo.

But students have made comments such as, "My grandmother never said 'yarnover.'  She just said you wrap the yarn around the hook.  Well, yeah, you wrap the yarn around the hook, yo.  Front to back?  Back to front?  Left to right?  Right to left?  Once, twice?  Six times?  I can explain my patterns in the words each student uses, but what happens when she's trying to decipher a pattern?

Whether your pattern is written or charted, you won't be able to make any sense of it if you can't interpret the instructions and understand the language of crochet.  Even if you take a crochet class, your teacher can't follow you around the rest of your life, translating patterns.

So, for everyone's edification (and I'm sure you can hardly wait), here's a graphic to illustrate my point.

The first diagram shows a line from a pattern, and how it would be charted.

The next three diagrams show various versions of the same written pattern instructions that I've heard, and how their charts would look.

See what you think.  If you look at the last example, you'll see that it would be impossible to stitch Row  Two.  It's all chains, yo!

Note:  You can purchase this crochet symbol font at this link:  Stitchin' Crochet Font.


And in case you're wondering, here's a photo of the project from which this instruction was taken.  This is the sample of the beginner's ruffled scarf.  It's modeled here by the lovely Mandy Petersen, owner of Windy Knitty, a wonderful yarn store in the Andersonville neighborhood of Chicago.