Yarn Diary

Checking your stitch counts

Last updated 15 August 2026

The number in parentheses at the end of a round is a checkpoint, not decoration. "(18)" means: when this round is done, you should have 18 stitches. Check it every round and mistakes stay one round deep. Skip it and a missed increase at round 9 surfaces at round 20, as an ear that won't close — with eleven rounds to frog.

The arithmetic

Round counts follow from two rules:

Everything else keeps the count where it was. So the new count is the old count, plus the increases, minus the decreases. (sc, inc) x6 works 6 plain stitches and 6 increases over 12 stitches and produces 18 — the classic sphere progression: 6 in a magic ring, inc around to 12, (sc, inc) x6 to 18, and so on, one extra plain stitch per repeat each round.

Counting the stitches in the work

Looking from above, each single crochet's top is a "V". Count the Vs around the edge, and don't count the loop still sitting on your hook — it isn't a stitch yet. A stitch marker in the first stitch of the round gives the count a start and end point; if you reach the marker with stitches left over (or run out early), this round went wrong, and you only have one round to check. More on that in keeping track of rounds.

When your count disagrees with the pattern

Three possibilities, in rough order of likelihood:

  1. A missed or doubled stitch. Usually at the round's edges — the first stitch skipped, or the last one worked twice. Recount before frogging; sometimes the error is in the counting, not the crochet.
  2. A misread repeat. "(2 sc, inc) x6" worked as "(sc, inc) x6" produces the right shape-idea and the wrong number. Reread the formula, not just your stitches.
  3. The pattern itself. Published patterns contain typos — a printed count off by one, a repeat written once too many. It happens more often than beginners assume, and it is the possibility people check last, after frogging the same round three times.

Checking the pattern before you crochet it

Because the arithmetic is mechanical, it can be done in advance for the whole pattern — that is precisely what Yarn Diary does when you scan or paste one. Every round's count is re-derived from its instructions and compared with the printed number: 

Rnd 3: (sc, inc) x6 (18)   ✓ instructions make 18
Rnd 7: (sc, dec) x6 (11)   ⚠ instructions make 12 — check this round

A flagged round means the pattern disagrees with itself, and you find out at the sofa rather than mid-ear. Rounds whose count can't be derived — "repeat around", several sizes in one line — are marked honestly as unconfirmed instead of silently trusted, and when a pattern prints no count at all, the derived one is filled in with a question mark for you to confirm. While you crochet, the same number drives the in-round counter: it counts up to the round's target, so the checkpoint checks itself as you go.