Vintage Japanese machine knitting diagram showing traditional notation symbols and pattern layout

Japanese Notation for Machine Knitting

When knitting with Japanese knitting patterns or vintage machine knitting patterns, you'll often be presented with a diagram and some cryptic notations.
Learn to understand and apply 2-4-10 for your knitting.

japanese notation knitting instruction

Japanese Notation (Garment Notation) displays abbreviated knitting instructions on a visual diagram of your garment piece. It can be used for increases, decreases or short row shaping.

Unless otherwise noted in your pattern, (not all designers use the same convention) the numbers are referring to stitches / rows /times

An instruction of 1-2-9 means (decrease, increase or hold) 1 stitch every 2 rows 9 times.

This example is from a pattern that is written in only 1 size

Knititnow.com/PATTERNS

Knit it Now patterns don't use cryptic abbreviations. We spell it out so you don't have to translate! (and we only show 1 size at a time)

This example has multiple sizes and can be a bit confusing. The numbers in parenthesis (brackets) reflect alternate sizes.

The yellow highlighted instruction would read:

Size 1:
(1-9-4) Increase 1 stitch every 9 rows 4 times

Size 2:
(1-9-0) Increase 1 stitch every 9 rows 0 times

Size3:
(1-9-0) Increase 1 stitch every 9 rows 0 times

In other words, size 2 and 3 only use the first 3 lines of the shaping instructions.