Difficulty Ratings on Crochet Patterns

I have decided to add a difficulty rating to all my patterns to make it clear what stitches or techniques you will need to know to complete the design. Not every pattern will require you to know all the stitches within each rating but it just gives you an idea of the difficulty of the stitches involved. I will rate my pattern from 1 to 5, with one being the easiest and 5 the most complex. These are all based on UK crochet language.

Here are the stitches/techniques you should know for each rating:

slipstitch (sl st)

chain (ch)

double crochet (dc)

increase (working two double crochets into same stitch), 

decrease - double crochet two together (dc2tog)

basic sewing

stitches for rating 1

half treble crochet (htr)

treble crochet (tr)

stitches for rating 2

double treble crochet (dtr)

triple treble crochet (trtr)

stitches for rating 3

using only front loops 

using only back loops

picot (p)

awkward or fiddly sections in pattern

stitches for rating 4

cluster (cl)

popcorn (pc)

complex assembly of pieces of the pattern (eg for a toy)