Laydidi,

Welcome!

Yes, there is a difference between UK and US crochet patterns. It's like UK is a step up in sizes of US terms...or maybe we're a step down! LOL.

The chain (ch) and slip stitch (sl st) are the same for both.

This is a comparison:

UK                                                            US

Double crochet (dc)                                  Single crochet (sc)

Treble (tr)                                                 Double crochet (dc)

Half treble (htr)                                        Half double crochet (hdc)

Double treble (dtr)                                   Treble (tr)

As for the freePatternWizard, we sort of tried to include both, by calling it "standard," hoping there would be less confusion.

For people who are producing individual patterns, most of the time if they don't include a notation, I generally can tell the difference (yes, I have this issue, too!) if I see a lot of treble stitches. That tells me it's likely a UK pattern. Unless it's meant to be a very long stitch, US patterns don't tend to have a lot of trebles.

The other giveaway MAY be a lack of single crochet stitches, but that could also be misleading if a pattern is in US terms, but exclusively uses double crochets, sigh.

And if I've confused you more...argh! I'm so sorry. It's confusing. I much prefer it when people write their patterns and say if they're in UK or US terms. At least give us some idea! I know which it will be if I see it in a UK or US magazine, but otherwise, it can be hard to tell if a pattern is all dobule crochet...is that a UK double or a US single?

Hope that helps!