Chart paper
A knitted stitch is wider than it is tall, so a motif charted on square paper comes out squashed on the fabric. Enter the gauge from your swatch and the cells are drawn in that proportion.
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In most knitted fabric a stitch is wider than it is tall, so a square grid misrepresents it. A circle charted on square paper knits up as an oval, and a motif planned there comes out shorter and wider than it looked on the page. This generator takes the two numbers from your gauge swatch and draws every cell in that proportion, so what you see on paper is the shape the fabric will make.
Only the ratio of stitches to rows is used. Twenty two stitches and thirty rows gives exactly the same cell shape as eleven and fifteen, so it does not matter whether the swatch was measured over 10 cm or over 4 inches, as long as both numbers came from the same measurement. What the gauge does not set is the size on paper: that is the cell width setting, which scales the whole chart up to something you can draw in while keeping the proportion.
Colourwork and fair isle motifs, cable and lace charts, intarsia placement, and the shape of a yoke are all easier to judge on paper that matches the fabric. For cross stitch and filet crochet, where one square really is one square, enter the same number for stitches and rows and the cells come out square. Crochet stitches have their own proportions, and single crochet is not the same shape as a double, so the swatch is still the thing to measure.
Four settings worth getting right
The gauge decides the shape of the cell. The other three decide whether the chart is still readable once it is full of symbols.
Gauge changes with yarn, needle size, stitch pattern, and tension, so a chart built on someone else's numbers describes someone else's fabric. Block the swatch before measuring if the finished piece will be blocked, because that is often where most of the change happens.
A chart filled with colour needs less room than one carrying cable or lace symbols. The smallest cell fits the most stitches on a sheet, the largest leaves room for a symbol and a pencil correction on top of it. The gauge is unchanged either way: only the scale of the drawing moves.
Counting squares one at a time is where chart mistakes come from. A heavy line every five suits small motifs and lace repeats; every ten suits wide colourwork where you count in tens anyway. The interval also sets where the numbers go, so the two never disagree about the rhythm.
Hand knitting charts are normally read from the right on right side rows, so the numbers and heavy lines are counted from the right corner by default. Cross stitch and machine knitting are usually counted from the left, which is the other option. Rows run from the bottom up in both.
Working on paper
A chart is a plan that has to survive being worked from. These notes are about keeping it legible once it is full.
Most colourwork is one repeat written once and worked many times. Charting a single repeat with heavy lines at its edges makes it obvious where it starts again, and it costs one sheet instead of six.
Centre marks on the edges give you the middle of the chart without counting, which is what you need when a motif has to sit centred on a front or a sleeve. They are the standard reference in counted work for the same reason.
The paper carries no record of the numbers it was drawn from, and a chart on the wrong gauge is worse than no chart. Writing the stitches and rows in a corner takes a second and makes the sheet reusable a year later.
The grid is scaffolding, so a light weight in grey or blue stays underneath pencil and coloured pencil. Bold weight suits a chart that will be photocopied repeatedly or read at arm's length while you work.
Settings travel in the page address, so the configured link is the template. A project that needs several charts at the same gauge comes out consistent, and next year's project starts from the same link with two numbers changed.
The form reports how many stitches and rows a sheet holds at the current settings. Reading that line once is faster than printing twelve sheets and finding the motif is three stitches wider than the paper.
FAQ
The same two numbers. Only the ratio between stitches and rows is used, so a gauge of 22 stitches and 30 rows over 4 inches produces exactly the same cell shape as 22 and 30 over 10 cm. What matters is that both numbers came from the same measured distance on the same swatch.
Yes. Enter the same number for stitches and rows, for example 10 and 10, and the cells come out square, which is what counted cross stitch and filet crochet need. The heavy lines, the numbering and the centre marks work the same way.
No. The gauge sets the shape of the cell and the cell width setting sets how big that shape is drawn. A larger cell is the same chart at a larger scale, which gives you more room to write a symbol in without changing anything about the fabric.
Because hand knitting charts are normally read from the right on right side rows, so stitch 1 sits in the right hand corner. If you count from the left, as is usual in cross stitch and machine knitting, switch the starting corner and the numbers and heavy lines follow. Rows run bottom to top either way.
No, and they are not meant to. Real stitches are too small to draw symbols in, so the chart keeps the proportion of your stitch but scales it up to a workable size. Use it to plan the shape of a motif, not to measure the finished piece.
It is free, needs no account, and adds no watermark or branding. The settings live in the page address, so a configured sheet can be bookmarked and reprinted identically later.