Charts 101
As promised, I intend to share some instructions on how to knit a variation of Spring Things but first I thought I’d talk about the charts.
I’ve seen several people express mild panic over the fact that the instructions for Spring Things are presented only in chart form. There are no written instructions because writing each row out line-by-line would both test my patience and be fraught with the possibility of multiple errors. Sure, written instructions have their place in the knitting world and I’m aware that some people are chart-challenged, but in my opinion charts are the best way to present this particular design.
I think a common problem for the chart-challenged knitter is remembering what each symbol means. If you can memorize even a few commonly used chart symbols, you’ll save yourself from having to constantly look from the legend to the chart and back to the legend. So let’s look at the four most common symbols and see if I can describe them in a way that makes it easier to remember what they stand for. (I admit that not every designer follows these conventions so you should always check the legend before diving into your project.)
A blank space: If the box is blank, you should knit the stitch when the right side is facing you and purl it when the wrong side is facing you. Kind of a no-brainer; just like the knit stitch.
A right-pointing slash: This symbol is commonly used to depict the k2tog decrease. Why? Because a k2tog decrease slants to the right. Get it!
A left-pointing slash: Since a right-pointing slash indicates a right-slanting decrease guess what . . . a left-pointing slash is used to indicate a left-slanting decrease like SSK. Easy!
A circle: A circle is used to represent a yarnover. How will you remember? Because a yarnover looks like a hole and a circle looks like a hole. Right?
Now look at this chart and see if you can make sense of it:
Having trouble? Well, look at Row 3 (a right-side row) block-by-block and you’ll see it is instructing you to: K1, yo, k2tog, k1, ssk, yo, k5, yo, k2tog, k1, ssk, yo, k1
Throw me a bone here; isn’t it easier to read the chart than the written instructions??? Plus, as an added bonus, with the chart you can visualize how the piece will look after it’s knit.
The charts in the Spring Things Shawl are not much more difficult than this one, just larger.
If you want to minimize the amount of knitting from charts but like the look of Spring Things, I’ve worked out a variation that requires you to use only Charts B & C. Tomorrow I’ll elaborate on how to do it but this photo gives you an idea. Basically the the majority of the shawl is knit in stockinette stitch with the lace only at the borders.
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Susan | knitting, tutorials
you’re right about charts. i’m really trying to read “backyard leaves” by annie modesit.
another tip is to “read” your knitting as well.
i like the variation, looks cozy.
Actually, you know what? I always thought of myself as being a bit “chart challenged”. However, I sat right down and started knitting this thing without even thinking about it. If you hadn’t pointed it out it probably wouldn’t even have occurred to me that I was knitting only with charts. Granted - I think I have become a much better knitter in the time since I tackled my first couple of lace projects and this one, but I also think that the charts and the whole pattern are just presented very well & that makes it so easy.
That’s really just one skein? Very nice.
If it helps, this is the way I keep from going crazy remembering which decrease symbol is which. If you look at the right slash /, it forms one line of a letter “K” (for K2tog). If you look at the left slash \, it’s part of the letter “S” (for SSK). Any symbols past the basic 4 usually takes me several repeats to get through my head.
About a year ago, i bought a copy of Miriam’s “Adamas” Shawl from KnitPicks and was all excited to have a go of it.
I could not for the life of me figure out the charts. I emailed friends. I went to a LYS. No one could help me out with the chart. It was really frustrating. Miriam, being a Dear, even emailed and tried to help. It just would not sink in. Since it was due to be a Mother’s Day gift, i scrapped that pattern and bought another.
When i sat and started knitting up Miriam’s “Icarus” Shawl out of Interweave Knits, two months ago…a huge lightbulb went on. It was like magic.
What two things threw me the most? The black/gray shaded out spaces and the red lines around the repeat section(s). It wasn’t the symbols.
I have a question about charts in general: When reading a chart, do you go from right to left on the even rows, and left to right on the odd, or is it always right to left? I realize that on your practice chart it’s a moot point because the even rows are the same in both directions, but not all charts are. Thanks. This has been very helpful, and if you can clear this up for me I don’t think charts will intimidate me as much!
Another thing that sometimes stumps new chart-readers is the direction of reading the charts. You follow a chart from bottom to top, right to left. It seems counter-intuitive, until you look at how you knit a piece - bottom to top, right to left.
I love working from charts. If I’m faced with a stitch pattern in written form (like from one of the Barbara Walker Treasuries), I usually end up charting it out, because I get lost too easily with written instructions. With a chart, it’s easier to see where you are based on what came before.
I do try to provide both written and charted instructions for my patterns though (I only have a couple of dishcloths so far, and one scarf that I have yet to do written instructions for - but I have others planned!) I have received several lovely emails thanking me for providing written out instructions. One thing I hadn’t even thought about is that there are knitters out there who are visually impaired who rely on screen readers to read on-line patterns. And screen readers can’t handle charts.
I hadn’t seen Annie’s comment yet when I posted. To clarify my first paragraph, you read the chart right to left on right-side rows, and then left to right on wrong-side rows. If you visualize the way you knit a piece - if you were to keep the right side facing you at all times, you would be knitting right to left on the right side rows, and then you would come back (left to right)
The first time I knit lace I followed the written instructions and it was hell. I thought the charts would be harder and I don’t know why because I was an avid counted cross stitcher and had no problems with those charts. Anyway, once I took the plunge I found charts to be much simpler to use than written instructions and now I’d never want to knit lace or cables without a charted design.
Thanks for the tutorial. I used to have chartaphobia and was scared to even try it. But let me tell you, once I learned to knit from a chart a whole new world opened up and away I went. Now I would never go back to the other way. It’s so much easier. I just needed to get over that initial fear of the unknown.
Wow, thank you! I’m definitely chart-challenged, and not much of a lace knitter, but you’ve explained this so clearly that even I can understand it!
Great tutorial Susan!
I like charts so far in my lace knitting adventure. I think that it can be more comprehensive while knitting I put them in a plastic sleeve and use a wet erase marker to block the line that I finished. Once I am done with the chart and must repeat, I wipe the blocked sections and start over. Thanks for the explanation.
Thanks for the tutorial! I think that reading from charts is easier than line-by-line, now that I’ve had some practice doing it. One thing I do to help me with the symbols is color-coding. I tend to mix up the ssk and k2tog symbols, but if I color each one with a different marker, it makes a lot more sense to me.
Susan, when I first started to needle knit (2 years ago), I was terrified of charts. Then Mim kept telling me that charts were really my best friend. She was right as you are right here on your post. Charts are definitely a knitter’s friend
I can read charts but appreciate having line by line text for the repeats. I can’t tell my left from my right so telling me something leans one way or another doesn’t help in remembering k2tog or ssk!!!
I loved knitting your Forest Canopy Shoulder Shawl. My son’s girlfriend should receive it today in the mail.
Thanks to your Forest Canopy Shoulder Shawl, I learned how to read charts. Before doing that pattern, I never took the time to understand them. Ever since then, I’ve done all sorts of chart patterns including the Peacocks Feathers shawl which has something like 8 or 9 charts. Talk about going from one extreme to another!
I used to have chart phobia, but then I knit your “Branching Out” pattern, and also “Forest Canopy”(4 times) and Mim’s “Icarus.” For me, using the chart makes it much easier to read my knitting and identify my knitting mistakes before they become too extreme
I often enlarge the charts on my copier, and use highlighters or highliter tape (which I believe was also one of your suggestions) to keep track of what I’m doing.
Thanks for all your help–and for your excellent patterns
Kathleen
I’m completely with you on the charts. I love working from them, and defintely think that there is a greater margin for error on written designs. “Knit-speak” was far more intimidating to me when I was a beginner, and I thnk I prefer charts now both for their visual cues and for their portability! This goes for cabling as well as lace, although cable charts are often more complex in their symbols.
I can remember being afraid of charts. It was before I’d ever really sat down and tried to understand one. Once I gave it an honest try, the advantages of charts were obvious.
The other day I was going through my sock pattern binder, and I pulled out a lovely pattern I’ve had for years but never tried before… and when I realized the whole thing was written out line by line (i.e. no charts), I sighed and put it away. I don’t know if I’ll ever bother with it, even though it’s pretty. (Maybe I should just get some graph paper and chart it myself?)
I do charted stranded knitting and needlepoint but I was totally intimidated the first time I was confronted with a charted Aran pattern. After I got used to it though, it was MUCH easier. You can “see” where you are. The various motifs are all lined up in order–no flipping back and forth to the separate instructions and no remembering which comes next. This is especially helpful if the motifs don’t have the same number of rows in each repeat. Also, those of us who knit weirdly no longer have to rewrite the instructions. I do my decreases differently than the standard k2tg and ssk and could never remember which slanted which way. Now I just look at direction of the symbol. Post It’s are super for marking what line you are on–and you can take notes on them.
Take a deep breath, start slowly and try not to get frustrated. In a very short time Suz’s “lightbulb” will come on.
Thanks for the lowdown on chart reading. I’ve always been too intimidated to try knitting from a chart, but you make it seem so simple. I think I’d better try it now on my Forest Canopy
Susan, a lightbulb turned on when you used the terms right-pointing / left-pointing slant! Just that word “point” suddenly clarified for me the problem I have when I see, “right / left slant.” Visually, I always pictured the opposite of what it was.
Charts really are easier in the long run for those who are visual. Even nonvisual data gatherers can make the connections in the brain to do it with practice. It’s not comfortable at first, as they complain (and as I once felt), but then it is far superior. I think there is much less looking back and forth with charts than with text instructions.
I use post-it notes to keep track of what line I’m on. If there is a symbol I’m unfamiliar with I write the note on the post-it so it is right there when I’m working the chart. Usually I get it down in a repeat or two, but it is nice to have the validation right there if I let a project sit too long though.
I used to be able to read charts but still preferred line by line. Now I have MS I look at a chart and see squares with blobs instead of symbols. So, now I have to find someone who will write out the charts for me. Many of us aren’t put off by charts, we flat out cannot read them and I now only buy from designers who do write them out, no matter how much I love other designs.
Never, ever, ever, ever thought I would ever be able to make any sense of charts — however, I am beginning to believe there may be a light @ the end of the tunnel!
Still not 100% sure, but at least I am not 100% negative now. Thank you so much for taking the time to write this all out for those of us that are severely chart challenged
Now, I am off to get myself a copy of your lacy pattern that includes the written directions. It’s my first lace project, and I only have a month to complete it — so I don’t have time for experimentation right now!
Thank you for the patterns too! They are gorgeous!!
~KA
I have been knitting for over 50 years and never been able to read a chart until right now~a big THANKS.I have ‘Knitted Lace’ by Sonia Esbensen & Anna Rasmussen, but when it came it was all charted - so has sat on my shelf for a couple of years. After reading your explanations I went straight to the craft room and rescued it.