Free tool · check your chart
Knitting & crochet chart checker.
Paint or paste your colourwork chart and see at once whether it works: floats that are too long, rows with too many colours, a repeat that doesn't fit your stitch count, mosaic stitches that stack. Red squares need fixing, yellow ones need care, and every problem comes with the row, the stitch and a fix. Free, no sign-up, and your chart never leaves your browser.
Purlgrid · chart check · purlgrid.com/tools/knitting-chart-checker/
What to fix
What passed
What a check looks like
A real result, explained.
Our reindeer motif, put on a 20-stitch repeat in the round on 120 stitches. The checker finds 7 floats it won't accept (the dark bars below) and tells you where. On a 16-stitch repeat with small snow dots in the gaps, the same reindeer passes: the longest float is 9 stitches and 14 floats get a catch point.
- Row 5: a 10-stitch float (stitches 19–20, then 1–8 of the next repeat).
- Row 6: a 10-stitch float (stitches 19–20, then 1–8 of the next repeat).
- Row 7: a 10-stitch float (stitches 19–20, then 1–8 of the next repeat).
- Row 8: a 10-stitch float (stitches 19–20, then 1–8 of the next repeat).
- Longer than 9 stitches snags and puckers even when caught. Add a dot of the other colour near stitch 3 to break it up, or narrow the gap.
The rules it uses
Questions it answers.
How long can a float be in Fair Isle?
Up to 5 stitches can be left alone. From 6 to 9 stitches the checker marks the float yellow and gives the stitch where you catch it, once, in the middle. Longer than 9 and it turns red: even caught, a strand that long snags and puckers, so add a small dot of the other colour or narrow the gap. At a typical 28 stitches per 10 cm, 5 stitches is about 1.8 cm.
How many colours can a row have?
In Fair Isle, two: one in each hand. Three is possible but stiff and slow, so the checker marks it yellow; four or more is red. In tapestry crochet you carry the unused colours inside the stitches, so two is easy, three makes thicker fabric, and four or more is red. Mosaic crochet uses exactly two.
Why does it count floats across the end of the round?
In the round your repeats sit side by side, so the gap at the end of one repeat runs straight into the start of the next. A float that looks short on the chart can be long on the needles. Choose In the round and the checker joins the ends; choose Flat and it doesn't, because the yarn turns at the edge.
How do I catch a long float?
On the back of the work, twist the colour you are carrying around the working yarn once at the marked stitch, then keep knitting. Don't catch in the same stitch on the next round, or the carried colour can peek through on the front.
Does my stitch count fit the repeat?
Enter your cast-on under Stitches in the round. If it doesn't divide by the chart's width, the checker says so and gives the nearest counts that do.
What makes a mosaic crochet chart unworkable?
Each row is one colour, and a square changes colour only when the row above drops a long stitch onto it. Two of those can't stack on top of each other, and the top row has nothing above it. The checker turns both red, and warns about colour changes on the edge stitch and in the first row.
Intarsia or Fair Isle?
If each row has two colours and the motif repeats, Fair Isle. If you have big separate blocks of colour, intarsia, with one bobbin per block. The checker counts the bobbins in your busiest row and flags tiny islands of one or two stitches, which are easier to add with duplicate stitch.
What does it check for C2C?
Every grid can be worked in C2C, so there is no red. It counts the diagonal rows and the colour changes in each, and points out single tiles of a colour, which each need their own short strand.
Is my chart saved anywhere?
No. Everything runs in your browser. The address bar holds your chart, so Copy link gives you a link that reopens it.