How to Read C2C Crochet Patterns (Charts, Written Instructions & Color Blocks)

The first time I opened a C2C pattern, I stared at it for a good few minutes. A grid of coloured squares, numbers running up all four sides, little arrows pointing in different directions, and a written pattern with strange arrows and things looks like coordinates [WS]:(Y)x1,(R)x4, (Y)x1.

It looked like a code I hadn’t been given the key to.

It isn’t. Once someone explains the four or five things a C2C chart is actually telling you, it becomes one of the easiest pattern formats to follow — easier than long written instructions, because you can see your progress against the picture as you go.

This guide walks through all of it: what a block is, how the grid works, why the rows run diagonally, what RS and WS mean, what the arrows are for, and how to read all three formats you’ll meet (the diagram, the written pattern, and the colour blocks). At the end you’ll find a step-by-step tutorial with photos for your first few rows to start with.

How to Read a C2C Crochet Pattern at a Glance?

Start with Row 1 in the designated corner (usually the lower-right), follow each numbered diagonal row in order, crochet one block for every square on the chart, and change yarn colors wherever the chart or written instructions indicate.

Ready to Practice Your C2C Skills?

Now that you know how to read C2C charts and written instructions, try this beginner-friendly C2C Heart Potholder. This small project is a great way to practice following a graph, changing colors, and working through a complete C2C pattern.

It includes a simple 9 × 9 heart graph, color block instructions, a row-by-row written pattern, and an interactive Graph Ruler.

Make the C2C Heart Potholder →

What Is C2C Crochet?

C2C stands for corner to corner. Instead of working in straight rows from side to side, you start with a single small square in one corner of your project and work in diagonal rows, adding one square to each row as you go. The piece grows as a triangle until it reaches full width, then you start taking squares away until you close off the opposite corner.

Each of those little squares is called a block (some patterns call them tiles or pixels). Because every block is the same size, they behave like pixels on a screen – which is why C2C is perfect for picture blankets, or graphgans.

A standard C2C block is worked in double crochet: a chain-3 and three double crochet stitches. Are you a fan of granny squares or granny-style crochet? I’m absolutely sure you will love 3DC repetition of C2C block. There’s also a smaller version called mini C2C, worked in half double crochet (hdc). The technique is the same, with one main difference: because an hdc block is shorter, its height is made with ch 2 instead of ch 3. When increasing and making a new block from scratch, ch 5 instead of ch 6. Mini C2C creates smaller blocks, which can give your design a finer, more compact look.

What You’ll Need

• Yarn – any weight. Worsted/aran is the easiest to learn on and works up quickly.
• A hook to match your yarn – check the ball band. For worsted, a 5.0 mm (H-8) is a good starting point.
• A stitch marker – Mark the front of your very first block to learn which side is right. In bigger projects, when taking a break, mark with a piece of paper the number of rows you’ve just made.
• A chart – either from a pattern, or one you’ve made yourself. Don’t have a chart yet? You can create your own from a photo, pixel art, or a custom design using the free C2C & Graphgan Blanket Pattern Maker. It automatically generates both the chart and the written row-by-row pattern.

�� Tip: Practise on a small 10 × 10 grid in a light, smooth yarn before starting a blanket. You’ll learn the rhythm of the increases in about twenty minutes. A 10×10 grid is perfect to make a swatch to calculate the actual size of your project. (If you are lazy, make a swatch of at least 5×5 blocks…)

The Building Block: One C2C Block

Everything in C2C is built from one repeated unit. Learn this and you’ve learned the technique.

One block = ch 3 + 3 double crochet (dc).

The chain-3 forms one side of the little square and creates a ch-3 space – the gap you’ll work your next row into. The three double crochets fill out the square.

That ch-3 space is the single most important thing to be able to spot. Most of the block you add in later rows gets worked into a ch-3 space from the row below. If you can find those spaces, you can do C2C. Although most of the block has 3 chains, the first and some of the blocks on the edge requires 6 chains instead of 3. That’s because there’s no ch-3 space beneath it to work into — you’re building out past the edge of the row below. Those 6 chains do two jobs: the last 3 become the ch-3 space of your new block, and the first 3 act as a foundation for the 3 double crochet to sit in.

The diagram below shows how C2C blocks join together. Although it is not common to see the pattern in that form, it will allow you to understand the technique better.

The standard start is the lower-right corner. We ch-6 and make 3dc into ch4,5,6 from the hook.
Moving farther is confusing as we rotate work every row – we will rotate square 1 to make row 2 (blocks 2 & 3 on the diagram), then we rotate again to the RS to make row 3. While we making 2-nd block we are on the wrong side (WS) and block 2 it will be on the top of the block 1 in our hands, but after rotation to the RS it will actually be on the left to the block 1.

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How to Read C2C Crochet Patterns

Most C2C patterns give you the same information in more than one format. Use whichever suits how your brain works – or all three together.

1. The chart (diagram) The picture itself. Best for seeing where you are and spotting mistakes early. Many experienced C2C crocheters work almost entirely from the chart, ticking off rows as they go.

2. The written pattern Each row spelled out in words:

3. The colour blocks: a visual shorthand: each row shown as a strip of coloured boxes with the block count inside.

Color blocks are especially helpful for color-heavy rows, because you can see the sequence at a glance without reading colour names. It’s the same information as the written pattern, just faster to scan.

How to Read a C2C Crochet Chart

A C2C chart looks like a piece of graph paper with a picture coloured onto it.

Each square on the chart = one block you crochet. A square’s colour tells you which yarn to use for that block. That’s the whole idea – there’s no stitch information hidden in the grid, just colour and position.

Why the numbers run around all four edges

This is the part that confuses most beginners, and it’s the key to the whole system.

The numbers around the outside are not rows and columns like a spreadsheet. They are diagonal row numbers. Each number marks where one diagonal row begins or ends.

Because the rows run diagonally, each row touches two edges of the chart – so the same row number appears twice, once on each edge it touches. Row 4 starts at the “4” on one edge and finishes at the “4” on another.

On a chart that is 9 blocks wide and 9 blocks tall, you don’t get 9 rows – you get 17. The maths is simple:

Total rows = width in blocks + height in blocks − 1

So a 9 × 9 chart has 9 + 9 – 1 = 17 diagonal rows. A blanket that’s 40 blocks wide and 50 tall has 40 + 50 – 1 = 89 rows.

How many blocks are in each row?

While you’re increasing, it’s beautifully simple:

• Row 1 = 1 block
• Row 2 = 2 blocks
• Row 3 = 3 blocks
• Row 4 = 4 blocks

Row 6 has 6 blocks: (yellow) x1, (red) x 4, (yellow) x 1

…and so on. The row number is the block count. Once you reach the widest part of the design the count holds steady for a while (on a rectangle), then starts shrinking by one each row as you decrease toward the final corner.

Which Corner Do I Start In? Where to join the squares?

The standard start is the lower-right corner. The great majority of C2C patterns, including every pattern from Crochet Frog, begin with the bottom-right block and travel diagonally up to the top-left. This is true whether you’re right- or left-handed.

Start in the lower-right corner. The first block is on the bottom right. It is on the right side (RS) – facing up. This is Row 1.When making the 2nd row, we’re working on the wrong side (WS) botom-up.

Some designers do start from the lower-left instead – it isn’t wrong, just less common, and a few left-handed tutorials prefer it. In that case, the entire pattern is mirrored. I want be explaining aining this chart in details, but below is how it looks on the diagram.

Why it matters more than it sounds

If you follow written instructions that were designed for a lower-right start but you begin in the lower-left corner, your finished blanket comes out mirror-imaged.

For a symmetrical design like a heart, nobody will ever know. But if your design has a ball of yarn on the right-hand side, it’ll end up on the left. And if it contains any lettering, numbers or a date, it will come out backwards and unreadable.

So: check which corner your pattern uses, and start there.

✅ Rule of thumb: If you’re only following the chart, you can start wherever you like – the picture works out either way as long as you’re consistent. If you’re following written instructions, you must start in the corner the designer intended.

Right Side, Wrong Side, and Those Little Arrows

RS and WS

Every row in a C2C pattern is labelled [RS] or [WS]:

• RS = right side – the front of your work is facing you
• WS = wrong side – the back is facing you

The first row contains one block and is worked with the right side facing you. Because you turn your work at the end of every single row, the sides alternate automatically:

• Odd rows (1, 3, 5, 7…) are RS
• Even rows (2, 4, 6, 8…) are WS

This holds no matter which corner you start in, because it describes which face of the fabric is toward you, not which direction you’re travelling.

This is what the stitch marker is for. Pop a marker on the front of your first block. Whenever the marker is facing you, you’re on a right-side row. You may repin the marker to each RS row while you make it, which may save you counting the rows and mistakes with the chart.

The arrows

The arrow at the start of each written row tells you which direction that diagonal travels. Since you turn at the end of every row, the direction flips every time – so the arrows always alternate.

For a lower-right start (the standard):

For a lower-left start (mirrored):

Notice the arrows sit on a completely different diagonal axis. That’s not decoration – starting bottom-right, your rows lie along the ¨L¨J line; starting bottom-left, they lie along the ↖↘ line. The two are mirror images of each other.

C2C Graphic Chart – Pattern Starts in the Lower-right Corner graphic_5

C2C Graphic Chart – Pattern Starts in the Lower-left Corner graphic_6

⚠️ Heads up: Arrow symbols aren’t standardised across designers. Some use ¨L and ¨J, others use plain → and ←. Always read the words [RS] and [WS] – those are consistent everywhere.

How to Read a C2C Written Pattern:

Reading it piece by piece:

• ¨J – the direction this row travels
• Row 6 – the row number
• [WS] – wrong side facing you
• (Yellow)x1 , – work 1 block in yellow
• (Yellow)x1 , (Red)x4, (Yellow)x1 – work 1 block in yellow, then 4 blocks in red, then 1 block in yellow
• [6 blocks] – the total for this row

Always add up the colour counts and compare them to the total in brackets. 1 + 4 + 1 = 6 ✓. If your numbers don’t match, you’ve miscounted somewhere.

How to Read a Color Block Instructions:

Color block instructions are a simplified version of the written pattern. Instead of listing every individual C2C block, they group consecutive blocks of the same color together, making the pattern much faster to read while crocheting.

For example:

¨J Row 6 [WS]: [1 Yellow] [4 Red] [1 Yellow]

This means you’ll crochet:

• 1 yellow block
• 4 red blocks
• 1 yellow block

The number always refers to the number of C2C blocks, not individual stitches. Simply complete each block before switching to the next color.

Many crocheters find color block instructions easier to follow than written patterns because they provide a quick visual overview of the row without repeating color names.

Tip: Before starting each row, compare the color block instructions with the chart. It’s an easy way to catch mistakes before you’ve crocheted the whole row.

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C2C Crochet Tutorial for Beginners

Here’s the actual crocheting. We’ll work the first four rows of a lower-right-start project. Everything below uses US terms, but if you prefer UK terminology the conversion is very simple – replace DC with treble crochet (tr) stitches. The rest of the stitches and explanation are the same.

Abbreviations: ch = chain · dc = double crochet · sl st = slip stitch · sp = space

Row 1 [RS] — 1 block

1. Ch 6.
2. Dc in the 4th chain from the hook.
3. Dc in each of the next 2 chains. You now have 3 dc.

That’s your whole first row: one block. You may attach your stitch marker to the front of it now — this face is your right side, and that marker will keep you oriented for the entire blanket.

Row 2 [WS] — 2 blocks

1. Turn your work. Ch 6.
2. Dc in the 4th ch from hook and in each of the next 2 ch.
3. Now join it on: sl st into the ch-3 space of the block from Row 1. You’ll need to fold or twist the first block toward you to reach that space — this feels awkward the first time and completely normal by row four.
4. Ch 3, then work 3 dc into that same ch-3 space. That’s your second block.

Row 2 complete: 2 blocks.

Row 3 [RS] — 3 blocks

Same rhythm. One new block on the end, then one block into each ch-3 space along the row below.

1. Turn. Ch 6.
2. Dc in the 4th ch from hook and in next 2 ch. (Block 1)
3. Sl st into the next ch-3 sp of the previous row. Ch 3, 3 dc into that same space. (Block 2)
4. Sl st into the next ch-3 sp. Ch 3, 3 dc into that same space. (Block 3)

Row 3 complete: 3 blocks.

Row 4 [WS] — 4 blocks

Identical again, with one more repeat.

1. Turn. Ch 6.
2. Dc in the 4th ch from hook and in next 2 ch. (Block 1)
3. Sl st into next ch-3 sp, ch 3, 3 dc in same sp. (Block 2)
4. Repeat step 3 twice more. (Blocks 3 and 4)

Row 4 complete: 4 blocks.

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How to Continue Your C2C Blanket

Increasing Rows

Keep repeating that increase row. Each row gains one block, and each row is one number higher on your chart. Change colours as the chart tells you.

• For a square: increase until your row contains as many blocks as your square is wide.
• For a rectangle: increase until your row contains as many blocks as the shorter side of your blanket.

Working the Middle of a Rectangle

Once you hit full width, you stop growing in both directions.

On a square, you begin decreasing at both ends straight away.

On a rectangle, there’s a middle stage: you decrease at one end and increase at the other on every row. The row length stays the same, but the piece keeps travelling — this is what turns your diagonal into a long rectangle instead of a square. Keep going until the second dimension is reached, then decrease at both ends to finish.

Decreasing Rows

A decrease row simply doesn’t start with a chain-6. Instead we sl st across the edge, to move to the next row.

1. Turn your work.
2. Sl st across the top of the last block — one sl st into of the dc twice, then one more into the ch-3 space.
3. Ch 3, 3 dc into the next ch-3 space, and carry on across the row as usual.

Each decrease row loses one block. Row counts run backwards: 8, 7, 6… down to a final single block in the opposite corner. Fasten off, weave in your ends, and you’re done.

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Changing Colors in C2C Crochet

Use the standard crochet color-change method: work the last pull-through of the final stitch before the change in the new colour. So on the slip stitch that joins into the next ch-3 space, pull the new colour through — the change then sits cleanly at the block boundary rather than halfway through a stitch.

Don’t cut yarn every time. If a colour comes back within a few blocks, carry it along the wrong side and pick it up when you need it. For designs with lots of switching, wind small bobbins so the balls don’t tangle.

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Common Beginner Mistakes

Starting in the wrong corner. The most common one, and the most annoying to discover late. Check the pattern, then check your chart’s numbering: find where “1” sits.

Missing the ch-3 space. It’s easy to work into the wrong gap on early rows when the fabric is small and floppy. Count your blocks at the end of every row against the row number — they should match while you’re increasing.

Losing track of RS and WS. Use the stitch marker. Really.

Counting a row the wrong way across the chart. The single biggest conceptual trip-up. C2C rows always run on the diagonal, and a diagonal can pick up a run of colour you’d never predict by eye. Follow the numbers from one edge to the other and count the squares the diagonal actually crosses.

Forgetting to turn. Miss a turn and your rows stop alternating; the piece will start to curl oddly. If something looks wrong, count back to the last row you’re sure about.

Pulling the ch-6 too tight. Those starting chains form the edge of your blanket. Keep them relaxed or the edges will pucker. Some crocheters add ch more and make ch-7 when starting an increasing row, but it is rare. Generally 6 chains is enough to keep square shape is you make them quite loose.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I read a C2C chart from the bottom or the top? From the bottom corner upward. Row 1 is the single block in the starting corner — most commonly the bottom right — and you work diagonally toward the opposite corner.

Why does my chart have numbers on all four sides? Because each diagonal row touches two edges. The same row number appears on both edges it meets, so you can find where a row starts and where it ends.

Why doesn’t my row count match the size of my chart? Because rows are diagonal. Total rows = width + height − 1. A 9 × 9 chart has 17 rows, not 9.

What’s the difference between C2C and a graphgan? “Graphgan” simply means a blanket worked from a picture chart — the word is a mash-up of graph and afghan. C2C is the method used to make one: diagonal rows of blocks, built corner to corner.

Can I use any chart for C2C? Yes — any pixel grid works, including cross-stitch charts and pixel art, as long as you have one colour per square.

What is mini C2C? Mini C2C uses the same corner-to-corner technique, but with half double crochet (hdc) instead of double crochet (dc). The key difference is the height of each block:

• Standard C2C with dc: Each block uses ch 3 + 3 dc. When increasing and creating a new block from scratch, ch 6.
• Mini C2C with hdc: Each block uses ch 2 + 3 hdc. When increasing and creating a new block from scratch, ch 5.

Mini C2C blocks are smaller, giving you finer detail in your design — but you’ll need more blocks to reach the same finished size.

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Design Your Own C2C Pattern

Once you can read a chart, the natural next step is designing your own — a name, a favourite animal, a photo turned into a blanket.

I built a free C2C & Graphgan Blanket Pattern Maker for exactly that. Set your grid size, paint your design or import a photo, pick real yarn colours, and it generates your chart plus written row-by-row instructions. No account, no cost.

If this guide helped, I’d love to know — and if you make something from a chart you designed, come and show me. ��

Pin this for later! ��

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