How to Make a Knitting Chart from a Picture

1. Reduce the drawing to its essential shapes

Use your own simple sketch, such as a leaf, a house or a geometric shape. Start with a background and one contrasting colour. Set aside pencil shading, paper texture and tiny decorative marks; decide which outline and gaps make the subject recognizable.

On paper, draw a grid over a copy of the sketch, or redraw it on graph paper. Treat every cell as a whole stitch: choose either the motif colour or the background. Where an outline crosses a cell, use a consistent rule, such as filling cells that are mostly inside the shape. Then adjust awkward corners by eye.

2. Set up a blank chart before painting

Open the knitting chart maker page and select “Open the chart maker”. In the editor, open “My designs” and choose “New blank design”. Under “Size”, enter the panel’s “Stitches” and “Rows”, including the background around the motif. Set both “× repeats” fields to 1 for a single drawing.

Under “Yarn weight”, choose “My own gauge (swatch)” and enter your measured stitches and rows per 10 cm. Use a sample made in the fabric you plan to knit. Keep the chart within the space available in your project; a colour chart does not supply garment shaping or construction instructions.

3. Transfer the outline, then fill the shape

Keep the paper drawing beside the editor. Select a yarn in “Yarns”, choose “Paint”, and place the shape’s top, bottom and widest points first. Connect them with stepped edges, working across one chart row at a time. Compare both sides with your reference before filling the middle.

Use “Fill area” only after the outline is closed, or the fill can spread into the background. To remove a stray motif cell, select the background yarn and paint over it. “Undo (Ctrl+Z)” reverses a mistaken edit. Review tiny gaps and isolated cells deliberately: keep a cell if it defines the drawing, and remove it if it is only clutter.

4. Try a fully counted diamond

Set “Stitches” to 13 and “Rows” to 15. Leave rows 1–3 as background. Counting from the bottom of the chart, paint centered runs of 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 7, 5, 3 and 1 contrast stitches on rows 4–12. Leave rows 13–15 as background. All cells outside those runs remain background.

The widest run has 2 background stitches on each side. Each motif row totals 13 stitches; for example, row 8 is 2 background, 9 contrast, 2 background. Adding the contrast runs gives 41 motif stitches. The panel contains 195 stitches altogether, leaving 154 background stitches. These are calculated counts for this drawing, not yarn estimates.

With an example gauge of 20 stitches and 30 rows per 10 cm, the panel’s calculated dimensions are 6.5 × 5.0 cm: 13 ÷ 20 × 10 across and 15 ÷ 30 × 10 high. The motif itself spans 9 stitches and 9 rows, so its calculated dimensions are 4.5 × 3.0 cm. Equal cell counts do not necessarily mean equal physical dimensions.

5. Check proportions and knitting warnings

The editor’s knitted preview helps you inspect the drawing, but its stitch proportions stay fixed when you change gauge. Your gauge updates the finished-size calculation; it does not reshape the preview. For a shape whose proportions matter, sketch it on a grid matched to your stitch and row gauge, then knit a sample before committing to the project.

Set “Knit in the round” to match your construction and review “Details” for the selected technique. Investigate any warnings before knitting. A recognizable picture may still need changes to make it practical to work; a chart check cannot confirm how your own fabric will feel. After changing cells, check that the drawing still reads clearly.

6. Save the design and export usable instructions

Give the design a descriptive name, then open “My designs” and choose “Save current design”. Saved designs live in that browser. Keep a separate download if you need a copy outside it, and record the yarns and gauge you intend to use.

The arrow beside “Download image” offers “Chart table (CSV)” and “Written instructions (TXT)”. The CSV contains stitch colour numbers and a yarn key; the TXT lists colour runs by row. “Download image” saves the knitted preview as a PNG. Choose the table or written instructions when you need stitch counts to work from.

Before you continue

1. Keep the silhouette and defining gaps visible at the chosen stitch count.
2. Include background margins in the chart dimensions.
3. Count every example row back to the full panel width.
4. Check physical proportions using both stitch and row gauge.
5. Review warnings, save the design, and download the format you need.