Appendix
Great Job! Well Done You.
Thank you so much and good job for working through this entire course with me! I appreciate your dedication to your craft and your continuing to approach new challenges in order to improve your knitting.
As a send-off into the world where ALL knitting patterns are within your reach, below are some final notes and resources for you as you continue your journey.
If you loved this class, please leave us a review so that others know what to expect. Try to mention what you found hard about charts initially and how we helped you solve that problem.
Thank you and happy knitting!
– Liat
Designing With Charts
To add charted designs to your knitting, you just need to make sure they fit well into the number of stitches you are casting on.
The number to focus is the number of stitches in each repeat of your chart. If your chart is 8 stitches wide, you will use a multiple of 8 stitches in your design.
If you are adding a charted design to your flat knitting, you can add some plain stitches on either side in case the repeating portion of the chart doesn’t fit in exactly with the number of stitches you need. In other words, you can simply put in as many repeats as fit and then center the design among the remaining stitches.
If you are knitting in the round, your stitch count will need to be exactly divisible by the number of stitches in your chart repeat. For a 56-stitch sock, for instance, you could use any chart that had a repeat of 4, 7, or 8 stitches.
Creating Your Own Charts
We used a free spreadsheet program to create the charts in this class. You can use Excel, Numbers, Google Sheets, or others to make your own charts.
A software we recommend that is a dedicated chart-creation tool is Stitchmastery. You can download it for free and give it a try.
To give you inspiration for what charts to add to your projects, see the Books and Resources chapter below.
Creating Charts from Written Patterns
When you find that a written pattern would be much simpler to knit from if it had a chart, you can create your own chart!
You can use a simple spreadsheet program and the keys on your keyboard to fill in the symbols for your written directions.
We mentioned Stitchmastery above, and one of the reasons we recommend it is that it will create the chart if you enter the written directions. It will also work vice-versa and generate written directions from a chart.
Books and Resources
For a compendium of charted knitting designs, you would do well to get any or all of Barbara Walker’s four Treasury of Knitting Patterns books.
Barbara was a big fan of knitting charts and her creative designs will give you ideas for almost anything you would want to knit.
Charts Made Simple: Understanding Knitting Charts Visually really does make charts simple.
Doing for charts what “Knitting Without Tears” did for knitting, this book is a great companion to the ideas presented in this class.
Vogue Knitting – The Ultimate Knitting Book: Completely Revised & Updated is an incredible resource for learning about knitting and the place I originally learned about Intarsia knitting.
There are chart examples in many of the chapters, like Mosaic, lace, and Intarsia. It also has a section of blank graph paper after the index for designing.
Resources
Knit Picks Magnetic Chart Keeper is a portable chart easel book.
Close the lid and the magnets stay in place, telling you where you are in your chart at all times.
Vogue Knitting Project Journal is not just for designers.
It’s a great way to track your projects and yarn weights, it has quick-reference chart keys, and it contains graph paper for charts including special paper for Fair-Isle and duplicate-stitch charts.
Chart Symbols Reference
Cable Chart Symbols
C3L: Cable 3 Left – Sl 2 sts to cn and hold to front. K1. K2 from cn.
C3L: Cable 3 Left
C3R: Cable 3 Right – Sl 1 st to cn and hold to back. K2. K1 from cn.
C3R: Cable 3 Right
C4L: Cable 4 Left – Sl 2 sts onto cn and hold to front. K2. K2 from cn.
C4L: Cable 4 Left
C4R: Cable 4 Right – Sl 2 sts to cn and hold to back. K2. K2 from cn.
C4R: Cable 4 Right
T3L: Twist 3 Left – Sl next 2 sts onto cn and hold to front. P1. K2 from cn.
T3L: Twist 3 Left
T3R: Twist 3 Right – Sl next st onto cn and hold to back. K2. P1 from cn.
T3R: Twist 3 Right
T4L: Twist 4 Left – Sl 2 sts to cn and hold to front. P2. K2 from cn.
T4L: Twist 4 Left
T4R: Twist 4 Right – Sl 2 sts to cn and hold to back. K2. P2 from cn.
T4R: Twist 4 Right
See full list of cable symbols on CraftYarnCouncil.com
"cn" = "cable needle"
Support
If you have any questions about how to use this class, find any mistakes or anything confusing about the content, or need help on the techniques involved, please email our knitting team at ha*******@*********om.com. We are happy to help. Thank you!
