How to number photos in a crochet pattern without renumbering them by hand

By Ali Lehrman · October 1, 2026

Most designers number photos in one sequence through the whole pattern, Photo 1 to the end, and point at them from the text with “see photo 12.” That works until you add a photo. Then every label after it is wrong, and so is every reference to it. In Canva you fix all of them by hand. NodeStitch renumbers the labels and the linked references together.

What adding one photo actually costs

One of my patterns, the Niona Witch doll, has 93 numbered photos over 23 pages. The written pattern points at those photos more than 60 times. “See photo 3.” “See photos 5 to 7.” “Will begin round 32 (see photo 4).”

Now imagine I need to add one photo near the beginning. Say right after photo 2, because an early step needs a picture it does not have.

Here is what that one photo means in Canva:

• 91 photo labels are now off by one. Photo 3 is photo 4, all the way down to photo 93, which is now photo 94.
• Nearly every reference in the text now points at the wrong photo.
• Several of those are ranges, like “photos 26 to 30,” so they have two numbers to fix, not one.

That is over 150 numbers to change by hand, for one photo. And they are not in one place. The labels are on the photos and the references are buried in the middle of rounds, across 23 pages.

I absolutely hated it. It is not hard work. It is just slow, boring work where one mistake ships, and the one you miss is the one a buyer emails you about. You go through it once, then you go through it again to check, and you still do not fully trust it.

Canva versus NodeStitch, for that one photo

Every one of my patterns numbers photos the same way, one sequence from Photo 1 to the end. It is the easiest for a buyer to follow, especially on a phone, because “photo 41” is one thing to find. It is also the most expensive to change, which is the whole problem.

If you are renumbering by hand

If you are staying in Canva, these make it hurt less:

1. Keep the photo number in its own small text box on top of the photo, not inside a caption sentence. Changing it is then one number, not finding a number in a sentence.
2. Write every reference the same way, every time. “See photo 12” and never “pic 12” or “(12)”. Then a search for “photo” finds all of them.
3. Renumber from the last photo backward. If you go forward, photo 3 becomes 4 while the old photo 4 still exists, and halfway through you have two of everything and no idea which one you already changed.
4. Fix the references in the same sitting as the labels. Never later.
5. Search the finished PDF for “photo” before it goes out, and check every reference against the picture it points at.

None of that removes the work. It just makes it harder to get wrong.

How I do it now

I built NodeStitch partly because of this. It is a browser based layout tool for crochet and knitting patterns, and this is the part of it I would least want to give up.

Photo labels are numbered for you, page by page, in order. When you add a photo, it lands after the other photos on its page and every number after it goes up by one. If you want it earlier on that page, the up arrow on the photo moves it, and the numbers follow. Delete a photo, move a page, duplicate a page, and the labels follow too.

The part that matters most for a pattern like Niona is the text. A “see photo 5” in your pattern can be linked to the photo it means. A linked reference has a dotted underline, and when the photos renumber, it renumbers with them, in the same undo step as the labels. Add a photo after photo 2 and every linked “see photo 5” becomes “see photo 6” on its own.

There are three ways a reference gets linked:

• As you type. Write “photo 5” in a round and move to the next line. If a photo is labeled 5, it links.
• All at once. Pattern Review counts the references that are not linked yet and offers to link every one whose number matches a photo. This is how you would do an older pattern you paste in.
• By hand. Right click a reference and link it to any photo you pick.

Pattern Review is the check I run before a pattern goes out, and for photos it looks for exactly the mistakes that renumbering by hand causes:

• A reference to a photo that does not exist, like a “see photo 94” in a pattern that ends at 93.
• A number skipped in the photo labels.
• A photo that is never referenced anywhere in the text.
• References that are not linked yet, with a Fix that links them.

It flags them and you decide what to do. Nothing changes unless you click Fix.

A few more things that come with it:

• If you delete a photo that something still points at, the reference turns red and Pattern Review reports it, so a “see photo 40” can never point at nothing without you knowing.
• Rename your labels to “Step” or “Figure” and the linked references read “Step 5” or “Figure 5” too.
• In the exported PDF, every linked reference is a link. A buyer taps “see photo 41” and it jumps to the page the photo is on.
• If you want one photo with a name of its own, like “Finished doll,” you unlink its label and it stays put while the rest renumber.

Ranges work too, however you write them: “see photos 1–3,” “photos 1 to 3” or “photos 1, 2 and 3.” Every number you typed is linked to its own photo. In a range that means the two ends, photo 1 and photo 3, and that is all a range needs. Add a photo above them and “see photos 1–3” becomes “see photos 2–4” on its own, with the middle photo still sitting between the two ends. Your wording stays exactly as you typed it.

The catch: a free account numbers and links photos, but cannot export the PDF, and Pattern Review is on the paid plan with three free tries. I would rather you know that here than at the end of a pattern.

What that photo costs now

Same pattern, same photo after photo 2. I drop it on the page, move it up if it needs to go earlier, and the 91 labels after it and every linked reference change in one step, ranges included. I do not retype a single number.

That is the whole difference. I have skipped adding photos I knew would help, because it did not feel worth the effort. Or worth the risk of missing one label and sending someone to the wrong photo. That is not a trade I have to make anymore.