Writing overlay crochet patterns can get pretty messy pretty quickly.
Petranese is a way of easily describing the nature and placement of a stitch in an overlay crochet pattern.
Knowing how to count stitches and rounds is the simple but essential secret to making Wrapped in Jamie and Heirloom squares
Stitch definition abbreviations consist of 3 parts:
stitch _ horizontal placement – round
The stitch description gives you details for each of those three parts in plain text:
- stitch type
- exact horizontal placement (stitches ahead or behind/backwards)
- round placement
Stitch type defines what kind of stitch is going to be worked, whether it is a simple stitch, a front post or a back post stitch or a stitch just in one specific loop.
The placement definitions are added as numerals after the type of stitch and “_”:
- the first numeral always gives the direction and the number of stitches you have to count, starting from the next stitch:
“+” means: count ahead; +3 i.e. means it is the 3rd stitch after the next stitch
“–” means: count backwards; -3 i.e. means it is the 3rd stitch counted backwards / behind the next stitch
- the second numeral always indicates the round where the stitch has to be made, starting from the current round:
-1 means: the last round that you made, the one you would now “normally” crochet into = 1 round below the current round
-2 means: 2 rounds below the current round
-3 means: 3 rounds below the current round
Special Stitches - combining stitch and round counting
This is a tr_-3-3 in FLO/tr_+1-3 in FLO/<2tog, meaning 2 tr are worked together with
- the first leg worked as a tr in the front loop only of the st 3 behind and 3 rounds below the next stitch (red dot) and
- the second leg worked as a tr in the front loop only of the st 1 ahead and 3 rounds below the next stitch (blue dot)
You can find a post about counting stitches and rounds here: