Because my whole thing lately has been anime related knitting projects, I do a LOT of color work. I guess I did start in an unusual way by learning some of the trickier aspects of knitting. This post will go over how color charts "work", how I use them to make a pattern and how to make your own.
Types of Color Work
In knitting there are many names for color work:
- Color Change, Striping (horizontal stripes)
- Marling, Marled (Speckles)
- Illusion/Shadow Color (It's just cool looking. Knits and purls that hide a pattern unless you look at a certain angle or stretch it.)
- Stranding, Fair Isle, Mosaic, Norwegian (Carrying strands of yarn behind the work.)
- Intarsia, Color Block (Changing color at key points and rejoining old color.)
- Double Knitting, Reversible Knitting (Knitting two pieces of fabric at the same time.)
- Duplicate Stitch, Monogram (Stitching on top of current stitches after the work is fully knitted.)
Regardless of how the color work is done, color charts are made in a couple different ways:
- Section of a Repeated Pattern
- A block of color change
- Included within the garment shape
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| Repeating Pattern Section |
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| Block |
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| Garment Shape |
You knit the color chart 1 row at a time, usually from bottom to top and from right to left.
A FLAT KNIT chart will usually have the odd numbered rows as knit stitches (or the "right side" of the fabric) and the even rows as the purl stitches (or the "wrong side" of the fabric). That is IF the pattern is calling for a regular stockinette stitch.
A ROUND KNIT chart all the rows go in the same direction and only need knit stitches. Knitting in the round is like knitting in a spiral. The start of the row should be where your stitch marker is. (If you used one to mark the beginning of a round.)
*Note: Individual patterns may change the charts from this typical method of reading. Such as if you are knitting a garment from the top down instead of bottom up or they have you start knitting on the "wrong side" of the fabric. Or they may not be using stockinette stitch.
Whenever you come to a color change in the knitting chart, the first instance of that color change will be Adding a new yarn to the row. The next color change is determined by the color work method the pattern suggests. If it is a repeated pattern, it is likely going to be some method of stranded color work. A solid shape is more likely to be intarsia. But some shapes (like the kanji) may mix both a little bit.
Making a Color Chart
If you are familiar with pixel art, you have the basics of making a color chart. Each square in the row represents 1 stitch. So you will need some kind of chart of squares to make a knitting chart.
Suggested Supplies 🧺
- Stitch Fiddle (I use this one. It's free for 15 charts.)
- Graph Paper and Pencil
- Digital Graph Paper
- Pixel Art Program
- Knitting chart app
- Excel/Google Sheets
Before You Start ✋
I wish that any given knitting chart was universal and could suit any project. But the truth is that they are calculated for specific dimensions and yarn weights. If you look at my two Destroy Kanji charts one was made for very thick yarn and the other for a standard weight yarn.
One has much more detail than the other. But they are the same size. I could make the chunky yarn one more detailed if I made the dimensions much larger. But the dimensions were important for the project.
This is where you actually do need to know the gauge of your project by using specific needles or loom gauge and the weight of yarn you want to use. Knit 20 stitches and 20 rows, and determine how many stitches per inch or per 4 inches, then do the same for how many rows you have per inch.
With gauge you can rough out how many inches or centimeters the color pattern takes.
Set Up Color chart 📊
I like to work with Stitch Fiddle so part of how I tend to make color charts leans on how it works, but this stuff should be universal. First, you want to get the dimensions right. Once you know your gauge you need to make sure your chart has enough rows and columns to hold the entire pattern/color block. Alternatively, you can also make sure you have enough for your garment part such as a legwarmer, knee sock leg, or a sleeve or a shawl wedge just as an example.
Add Image 🖼
The old fashioned way is to fill in your colors square by square. This still works! If you want to get some good tips on making it yourself, check out
Derek Yu's Pixel Art Tutorial. This will help you get good shapes and colors and lines and such. It's also got a great section on dithering which is a great help for Marling.
Some apps, let you import vector or other images and covert them to pixel art or a knitting color chart.
That's how you do it in a nutshell.
Tips⭐
- Each square is 1 stockinette stitch in most color charts. If you are making a Garter Stitch chart, you need 2 rows to make something similar to 1 row of stockinette stitch.
In this image, the first wedge was where I messed up my color chart and used 1 row for my color changes, the second wedge I fixed with two rows per color change.
- Know where the image needs to be. Especially for knitting tubes where you have something that shows on the front or only in the back or on the sides. It will change the look of your color chart.
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| Flame in front vs the back of sock. |
Making a Knitting Guide
Making a knitting chart will include different stitch types. Like so:
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| Plotting out the knit and purl stitches. |
You can see that I marked out the purl stitches and the decrease portion in this chart. This is very simplistic but many times, especially for sweater yokes and knee socks, the yarn over or decrease is included as part of the chart.
There are official symbols for knitting stitches. I don't know them by heart but they are included in many color chart apps.
I find charts can be a little confusing for things like short row knitting because it looks weird in grid form. (As you can see on the flame hashira shawl wedge above.) The grey parts are "empty" because its a short row. It makes no sense VISUALLY but it does work.
Working the color chart
When making your chart, consider if you are knitting a flat piece or in the round. If you are making a chart by hand, you'll want to add the row direction just as a reminder. I can also help to number how many stitches you have in one color before switching to the next. I LOVE this aspect of color chart apps. It will tell you how many stitches you have for each color in a row. It's lovely. (Granted it is a premium feature for some apps.)
But testing your chart is the only way to see if it works.
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| Very close to the chart! |
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