Brackets and asterisks

Symbol	Meaning	Example
()	(curved brackets)Groups stitches that are worked into the same stitch or space.	(2 dc,ch 1, 2 dc) in next st
[]	(square brackets) Indicates a set of stitches to be repeated as a unit, often followed by how many times to repeat.	Repeat [sc, ch 1, skip 1] 5 times
*	(asterisk) Marks the beginning of a sequence to repeat later in the pattern.	*dc in next 3 sts, ch 1; repeat from * across