On Pattern Writing

I became aware lately that the way I write patterns is very... unique. For example, I'm making a small bear right now for a friend's baby. (I have to finish it by tomorrow, actually. I'd make up my own pattern otherwise.) I found a pattern that I think is absolutely adorable, but it's taking me forever to read it! I guess I'm too used to the way I write patterns! I've only been using my own patterns for things since... about last March or something. Maybe January - all of March and April was taken up with knitting, not crochet, so no patterns were really involved. (I made myself a thirteen and a half foot scarf.)

But here's what I mean.

Here's a snippet from the pattern I'm working with. It's a perfectly fine pattern, nothing wrong with it at all, and the woman who wrote it is actually quite nice and very smart - so I'm not going to tell you whose the pattern is and I'm not going to post a picture of the bear when I finish it.

1st round: 6 dc into 2nd chain from hook. Join with a slip st into 1st dc.
2nd round: 1 ch, 2 dc into same stitch as chain, [2 dc into next dc] 5 times. Sl st into 1st dc. (12 dc)

3rd round; 1ch, 2 ch into same stitch as chain, 1 dc into next dc, [2 dc into next dc, 1 dc into next dc] 5 times, sl st into 1st dc.

It's a normal set of instructions in a pattern. Quite normal, in fact. I'm used to my own short-hand, though, and it took me about five minutes to read my way through the above. So when I wrote this snippet down so that I could take it with me to class yesterday, this is what I actually put:

mc 6 dc
2: 2 ea (12)
3: 2-1 (18)

I dunno, it's a little worrying. On the one hand, this means I can write down my patterns very quickly and briefly and still understand exactly how to create an item. On the other hand, it means I have enormous trouble reading other people's patterns and, probably, that no one will ever understand mine. Which makes me a little sad, really.

Once this bear is finished (and the sweater I'm working on, which is a pattern from a yarn brand's site and takes a million words to describe very simple instructions), normal crochet experiments will resume. In fact, I've got about seven things I want to work on, and people are always asking for new things. It should be a fun time.