Knitting colourwork chart tools

Colourwork knitting, briefly

Colourwork knitting uses two or more colours to make a picture or pattern in the fabric. In stranded knitting, sometimes called Fair Isle style, you carry the colour you are not using across the back of the work as a float. In intarsia, each area of colour has its own length of yarn and nothing is carried behind. Both are worked from a chart where each square is one stitch.

These tools are for knitters who want their own motifs: a pet on a jumper front, initials on a hat, a geometric repeat for a cowl, or a picture panel for a blanket square. They are equally useful for designers drafting charts to share, because the charts print cleanly with written rows.

The gauge problem, solved

Ordinary graph paper has square cells, but most knitted stitches are wider than they are tall. Chart a circle on square paper and you knit a wide, squat oval. Here, each cell is drawn to your gauge. At the default of 20 stitches and 28 rows per 10 cm the cells are about 7 wide for every 5 tall, so what you draw is what you get. Change the gauge to match your swatch and the chart reshapes itself.

Choosing size, colours and yarn

Stitches and rows. Start from the number of stitches you have available: a hat band, a sweater front or a sock leg. Charts can run from 10 to 300 stitches wide, with 60 as the default. Height follows from the image and your gauge.

Colours per row. For stranded knitting, most knitters are comfortable with two colours in any single row, and some manage three. A design can use more colours overall as long as each row stays manageable. For intarsia, the limit is how many bobbins you are happy to juggle. You can choose from 2 to 20 colours, with 6 as the default.

Float length. Long stretches of one colour in a stranded row create long floats that snag. The knitting floats guide explains how long is too long and how to catch floats as you go.

Yarn. The palette is a set of generic yarn shades, so pick the closest and then match to the yarn you actually own. Yarn estimates are given per colour and depend on your gauge.

How the tools help

• Photo to knitting chart reduces a picture to a small number of yarn colours, drawn at your gauge, with a realistic preview of knitted V stitches next to the chart.
• Text to knitting chart sets names, initials and short words in six pixel fonts, with borders if you want them, which suits hat brims and stockings.
• Knitting chart editor is where repeats, borders and corrections happen. Draw one motif, mirror it left to right, and check the Colour view for rows that carry too many colours.

Every chart can be downloaded as a PDF with numbered rows, a colour key and written row instructions, with right-side rows read right to left and wrong-side rows left to right. You can also export a PNG or SVG to drop into your own pattern layout.

Mistakes knitters commonly make

• Charting on square grids. Shapes come out squashed: wider and shorter than you drew them. Use a gauge-correct chart.
• Skipping the swatch. Colourwork gauge is often tighter than plain stockinette in the same yarn, so swatch in pattern and enter that gauge.
• Too many colours in one row. Three or four carried yarns make thick, stiff fabric. Simplify the row or switch to intarsia for that section.
• Ignoring floats. A chart that looks fine can still have a 15-stitch run that leaves a long float. Look for long single-colour runs before casting on.
• Starting a photo chart too small. Faces and fine details need stitches. If the motif is unreadable at your stitch count, choose a simpler subject.

Getting started

1. Knit a swatch in your colourwork yarns and measure stitches and rows per 10 cm.
2. Decide how many stitches the motif can occupy.
3. Upload a photo or type your text, set the width, and enter your gauge in the craft settings.
4. Reduce colours until each row is comfortable for your chosen technique, then tidy in the editor.
5. Download the PDF and work from row 1, reading right-side rows from right to left.