The sideways ovals are a chain stitch. A line with one cross-hatch is a single crochet, two cross-hatches is a double crochet. X means skip the stitch below and crochet in the next stitch.

This kind of pattern is the modern way to show crochet instructions, and it is vastly better than the old way. If your local yarn store has any books on learning to crochet, pick one up as it will show you what you need.

That oval in the center is where you start. You'll want to chain four or five, then join the chain with a slip stitch, and proceed to make all those double crochets into the hole. It will give you a VERY round shape to start with.

You might also want to go to Ravelry for more help. It's possible someone there will have this pattern with some English instructions.

Good luck. It's an adorable hat.

I have looked up the symbols, so I understand the diagram, but what I am wondering about is that big oval on the right, next to the words which I can't read because the print is to small, it is in a language I can't read, and I suspect it's printed backwards anyway!! It looks like several rows in that one spot shoul have 5, then 6 consecutive double crochets, but that makes no sense at all.

I will check on Ravelry. That's a great idea!

Looking at it, I'm not sure. It's almost like an enlarged version of that part of the pattern. I do hope Ravelry is helpful.

as you work outward from the center. It shows you where to put the increases and where to connect the chain stitch to get to the next row of increases and so forth.

Ravelry is a super source. I know I've learned a lot and gotten rid of a lot of dumb habits because of them.

great

like it

to be vastly easier to understand. If I see a long, long paragraph with "row 1 ... row 77" or some such, forget it.

In the 1970's I bought a book I call The Hippie Dippie Book of Crochet. It's real title is "Contemporary Crochet", copyright 1972. It starts with very clear line drawings of how to crochet, starting with how to hold the hook, how to make the slip not, how to chain, and so on. Back then crochet books did not have such good drawings. Anyway, it goes on and in plain language explains how to make shapes, then how to combine them to make various things. There's even a section on how to make garments. Again, everything is in plain, easy-to-understand language.

After I'd read this book and made a few things from it, I discovered I could look at various crocheted items and figure out how to reproduce them on my own. It was wonderfully liberating.

I'm sure it's no longer in print, but if you could possibly find it in a used book store or on line, it would be worth getting. It's extremely dated, no surprise, but would still be a useful resource.

One of these years I'm going to once again make some hand puppets they have in the book.