Free tool · knitting charts

Knitting alphabet & name chart generator.

Type a name and get a knitting chart, centred in your stitch count. It counts the floats for Fair Isle, the bobbins for intarsia and the stitches for duplicate stitch, and shows how the letters look once knitted. Download a PNG or print it to PDF, no sign-up.

Purlgrid · knitting name chart · purlgrid.com/tools/knitting-alphabet-chart-generator/

Capitals A–Z, 0–9, hyphen, full stop and apostrophe.

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  • NameEMMA · 23 × 7 sts in tall letters, 1 stitch between letters
  • Chart23 × 9 sts · the name with 1 plain row above and below. Enter your stitch count to centre it.
  • Sizename ≈ 11.5 × 3.2 cm (4.5 × 1.25 in) at 20 sts × 22 rows per 10 cm
  • FloatsLongest 5 stitches (letter colour 5, background 3). Nothing longer than 5, so nothing to catch.
Put it on a stocking
Letters
Space between letters
Plain rows above and below
Stitches across

Your cast-on, or the stitches in the round. The name is centred in them.

How will you knit the letters?
Colours
Your gauge per 10 cm

Set to our Christmas stocking: worsted, in colourwork.

Chart style

How it looks knitted

At 20 sts × 22 rows per 10 cm one stitch is 5 mm wide and 4.5 mm tall. The whole chart knits up about 11.5 × 4.1 cm (4.5 × 1.5 in).

Fair Isle, intarsia or duplicate stitch

One chart, three ways to knit it.

The chart is the same whichever way you knit it. What changes is what you have to watch: floats, bobbins or embroidery. The numbers below are the generator's own, for EMMA in tall letters.

Fair Isle letters

Both colours travel across the back of the work. Inside EMMA the longest float is 5 stitches, short enough to leave. Centre the same name in a 64-stitch round, though, and the letter colour has to travel 42 stitches round the plain part. Catch it every 5 stitches, or let the generator scatter a dot every 6 stitches as on our stocking: the longest float drops to 5.

Intarsia letters

Each colour area gets its own bobbin, so nothing floats across the back. Knit purely that way, EMMA centred in 64 stitches has up to 19 colour areas in one row. A common shortcut is to carry the background yarn across and give each letter its own bobbin: then it is 5 bobbins at most, with no float longer than 5 stitches inside a letter.

Duplicate stitch letters

Knit the area plain, then embroider the letters over the stitches with a blunt needle. No floats and no bobbins, and you can place the name after the piece is finished. EMMA is 72 stitches of embroidery on a 23 × 9 patch.

Stitch shape

Why letters look shorter once knitted.

A square on the chart is square. A knitted stitch is not: it is usually wider than it is tall. At 20 stitches and 26 rows per 10 cm in plain stocking stitch, a stitch is 5 mm wide and 3.8 mm tall, so a tall letter drawn 5 × 7 squares knits up 2.5 cm wide and 2.7 cm tall: almost square, not tall as it looks on paper.

Colourwork pulls the rows closer to square (our stocking measures 20 × 22 in colourwork). Type your own gauge into the generator and the knitted preview is drawn to that shape, so you see the name the way it will come off the needles.

Free printable

The full knitting alphabet: A–Z and 0–9.

39 characters in two sizes, one square per stitch. The small number under each letter is its width in stitches. Leave 1 stitch between letters; a space between words is 5 plain stitches in tall letters and 4 in small ones.

Tall letters · 7 rows · most 5 stitches wide (I 3, 1 3)
A 5B 5C 5D 5E 5F 5G 5H 5I 3J 5K 5L 5M 5N 5O 5P 5Q 5R 5S 5T 5U 5V 5W 5X 5Y 5Z 50 51 32 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 5- 3. 1’ 1
Small letters · 5 rows · most 3 stitches wide (M 5, N 4, W 5)
A 3B 3C 3D 3E 3F 3G 3H 3I 3J 3K 3L 3M 5N 4O 3P 3Q 3R 3S 3T 3U 3V 3W 5X 3Y 3Z 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 3- 3. 1’ 1

Not yet: lower-case letters, cursive and a second line of text. Accented letters are knitted without the accent.

Purlgrid Studio

Knit the name into a Christmas stocking.

Studio puts your name on the front of a Fair Isle stocking, works out the dots round the back and writes the whole pattern around it, with a 3D preview and a free PDF.

Put EMMA on a stockingAbout the stocking pattern

Your name on our three sizes

  • Mini tall letters
  • Classic tall letters
  • Large tall letters

Up to 28 / 36 / 44 stitches across the front (Mini / Classic / Large). Studio switches to small letters when tall ones do not fit.

Questions

Before you chart a name.

How many stitches does a name need?

Add up the letters and the gaps. In tall letters most letters are 5 stitches wide (I and 1 are narrower); in small letters most are 3 (M, N and W are wider). EMMA is 23 stitches in tall letters and 19 in small ones, with 1 stitch between letters. The generator does the sum as you type.

How do I centre a name?

Take the name's width from your stitch count and split what is left. For EMMA (23 stitches) in 64 stitches that leaves 41: 20 on one side and 21 on the other. Type your stitch count under "Stitches across" and the chart is centred for you.

Fair Isle, intarsia or duplicate stitch?

Fair Isle suits a name that runs right round a hat, stocking or yoke, if you are happy knitting with two colours. Intarsia suits a name on a flat piece such as a blanket or the front of a sweater. Duplicate stitch is the easiest and can be added after the knitting is done.

Can I use the chart for crochet?

Use the crochet letter graph generator: the same letters, with C2C rows and tiles, tapestry colour changes row by row and yarn worked out for crochet.

Is there a lower-case or cursive alphabet?

Not yet. The generator has capitals A–Z, numbers 0–9, a hyphen, a full stop and an apostrophe, in two sizes. Accented letters are knitted without the accent, so Zoë becomes ZOE.

Is it free?

Yes. There is no account and we do not ask for your email. The PNG and the PDF are made in your browser.

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