I found the Haas Design website was very help - it has a stitch legend, instructions and even video clips for basic crochet stitches. The first thing I recommend is familiarize yourself with the different symbols in the japanese crochet pattern and what stitch each symbol represents. (The second picture is what the finished project would look like!) The hat pattern I'm going to use in my example is the picture at the top of this post. For me, what's great about chart patterns is that if I lose my place, I can look at my stitches and compare it to the diagram to figure out where I am. Japanese craft books use international chart patterns, which look like the picture at the top left of this post.

One reason is because every time I look away from the book to look at the stitch I'm making, I lose my place. I've always had a hard time following those traditional (non-charted) crochet patterns. Rnd 2 Ch 1, 2 sc in ea sc around, sl st in first sc to join. Rnd 1 Chain 2, work 7 sc in 2nd ch from hook, sl st in first sc to join. Until I discovered Japanese craft books, I've always seen crochet patterns written out, like this:

I welcome any corrections or tips too (just tell me in a nice way so you don't hurt my feelings! LOL) But if you have any questions or comments I will try my best to help. I would say I'm at a novice/intermediate level. It took a little bit of time for me to figure it out, but I did it! In case anyone's interested, I wanted to share my experience with other new japanese crochet pattern chart users :)ДЇirst things first, I should mention that I'm not an expert in japanese crochet patterns, and I'm not an expert crochet-er either! I learned to crochet from my grandmother when I was very little, and then recently picked it up again. In a recent post I mentioned how I tried a japanese crochet pattern for the first time.

How to read crochet chart