Stitch chart legend, written instructions and Follow

Stitch chart legend, written instructions and Follow

What the panel beside the chart shows: the legend and count check, the written instructions, Follow, the yarn estimate and your notes. Drawing and the palette are in Stitch charts.

Legend and count check

The legend lists each stitch and color you used, with its abbreviation in your project's US or UK terms, how a knitting symbol reads on a wrong-side row, and how many times it appears. It is built from the chart, so it is always right. Crochet stitch names follow the US or UK setting (a US sc is a UK dc); knitting stitch names are the same in both.

The count check adds up the stitches each row uses and makes and points out a row that uses a different number than the row below made. A chain drawn over a stitch of the row below is read as "ch 1, skip 1", so it takes that stitch's place; a chain past the end of the row below adds a stitch. A row with a custom stitch that has no stitch counts is listed as unknown, for example "Row 5: unknown (puff has no stitch counts)", rather than counted as a match. The stitch counts behind it have not been reviewed by a knitter yet, so treat it as a hint, not a verdict.

Written instructions

The Written tab of the panel writes each row out as text, in the direction it is worked, with stitch counts: "k4, *p2; rep from * 2 more times, k2 (12)". Colorwork charts name colors ("3 Color A, 2 Color B"), or the yarn names you gave them; filet charts say "open mesh" and "filled mesh"; symbol charts name stitches. Colorwork rows can name the stitch too: turn on Name the stitch in written colorwork rows in Settings and a row reads "sc 4 in Color A, sc 1 in Color B, sc 5 in Color A (10)", or "With Color A, sc 20 (20)" when the whole row is one color. It starts on for crochet charts and off for knitting charts, and the stitch follows your US or UK terms (a US sc is a UK dc). Turn it off for the colors-only wording. Corner-to-corner, filet, brioche, mosaic, Tunisian and punch card charts keep their own wording. Choose where counts go and how repeats read. A row inside the chart with nothing drawn on it yet is written "no stitches yet." under its own number, so the written row numbers always match the numbers beside the chart, even after you insert or delete rows; empty rows above the last row you have drawn on are left out. Everyone sees the first three rows; Pro sees every row, can copy them as plain text or as Markdown (the chart's title, a list of its stitches and every row, ready to paste into a blog post or a pattern page), and can Add to pattern, which puts the rows on the page and links each one to its chart row (each diagonal, on a corner-to-corner chart). The choice beside the button adds them as text, in a pattern text box, or as table, one table row per chart row: the row's label (such as "Row 2 (WS)") in the numbering column, headed Row (or Round, for a chart worked in rounds), its instructions, and its stitch count in a column of its own, in the columns and style you set in Pattern Preferences. A column no row would fill, such as Number of Rounds, is left out. It starts on table when your default pattern style is Table or Bubble. An empty table already on the page is filled, otherwise a new table goes under the chart, and a table with anything typed in it is never written over. When the rows don't fit on the page, they continue in a matching table on a new page after it. A table keeps the chart's row labels when you edit it; choosing a numbering mode in Table Options numbers it again instead. Each linked line shows a small chart mark: hover it to see the row number, and click it to open the chart with that row selected. In the Written tab, a linked row shows a small link icon; if you have edited its line on the page, the page's wording is shown under the row instead. Inserting or deleting rows keeps every link on its row; a deleted row's link goes, and you are told.

Two yarn overs side by side are written "yo, yo", never "yo x2", which knitters read as one double yarn over.

When a repeat box has a count, the chart shows its width against the written total, for example "Chart 16 sts, written 44 sts". If you draw the repeat out beside the box instead, the copies are read as the repeat itself: the row is written once, "k2, *k1, yo, ssk, k3, k2tog, yo; rep from * once more, k3 (21)", and counted as the chart is. Copies are matched row by row, so a row where shaping cuts a copy short writes its full copies as the repeat and the rest plainly. A box that holds only one stitch, such as a row of purls, is written as one run ("p21"). If the box's count says something different from what is drawn, the written rows follow the drawing and a note says so.

Three more options under the Written settings, all off unless you turn them on, never change a stitch count. Find repeats writes the longest repeating run on a row with no repeat box as a repeat, for example "*sc 2 in Color A, sc 1 in Color B; rep from * 2 more times". Repeat earlier rows writes a row that is an earlier row again as "Rep Row 1.". Group identical rows writes a run of identical rows on one side once, "Rows 2-16 (WS): p21 (21)"; Add to pattern still puts every row on the page.

The text is worked out from your cells by fixed rules. Nothing is generated by AI.

Follow a chart row by row

Click Follow in the chart editor to work from the chart. The row you are on is outlined and the rows you have done are dimmed. Use the arrows, or the Up arrow and Space for the next row and the Down arrow for the one before; Start over goes back to row 1. Your place is saved with the chart, so it is there next time, and it is not part of undo. Corner-to-corner charts are followed diagonal by diagonal, and each diagonal is called a row, as in the written pattern.

The bar shows the row's written instructions too: every row on Pro, and the first three rows on the free plan, the same rows the Written tab shows.

Yarn estimate

The Yarn tab estimates how much of each color a chart needs. Measure how much yarn ten stitches of your swatch use and type it in, with the length per skein and a safety margin if you like. Stitches are grouped by color, so a one-color lace chart is one line, and skeins are rounded up only after each color's yardage is added up. It is an estimate from your swatch, not a promise.

Notes

The Notes tab beside Legend, Written and Yarn holds your own notes for the chart: yarn and hook, where the repeat starts, how to work the edges. Notes are private: they are not printed and never appear on a share link. Turn on Print with the chart to put them under the legend in a PNG or SVG, on a page of their own at the end of a PDF, and in the Markdown copy.