Charts are one of those things that knitters either love or despise. Everyone’s brain works differently, so I suppose it depends on how your particular wiring is connected. We already know that my wiring is seriously geeky, so it should come as no surprise that I adore charts with the fiery passion of a thousand suns. I love the fact that they take up less space than pages of written directions. I love that I can see how the different rows in my pattern correspond to each other. I love that I knit faster and with fewer errors if I know that the YO in row 11 should be directly above the k2tog in row 9.

I vastly prefer patterns with charts. I won’t even go near lace without a chart, so if a pattern doesn’t have a chart and I absolutely, positively must knit that pattern, I’ll create my own chart to use for that project.

One of the things that I love about charts is that they make it easier to substitute your own stitches if you desire. I was looking at a sitch pattern the other day that called for “slip 1, knit 1, psso.” This makes a left-leaning decrease. If I’d rather work that decrease as ssk, I can just substitute ssk for that symbol. With the written directions, I’d have to stop and translate it each time. Similarly, if you wanted to place a bead on a shawl instead of working a nupp or a bobble, you could just change what that symbol means to you and use the chart as written.

You can create basic charts in any spreadsheet program—or even just plain old graph paper— by making your rows and columns into small squares. (If you want to get really fancy—and this can be helpful for color work—you can adjust the size of your rows and columns to correspond to your row and stitch gauge.) You can use simple characters (/ for k2tog, \ for ssk, O for a yo, – for a purl stitch, | or a blank square for a knit stitch, etc.) or you can get fancy and use a knitting font. There are a couple out there, but I use this one by Aire River Design. It’s got most of the symbols that I need and use frequently, and best of all, it’s free.

I had a lace idea in mind for the green sweater, so I trolled around in my stitch libraries, looking for something that I could adapt to meet the design in my head. I found one in Vogue Knitting Stitchionary 5: Lace Knitting that gave me a good start. (I have several stitch libraries that I use frequently; the VK books include charts for all their stitch patterns, which makes them some of my most-used stitch references.) I made some changes to the shape and the size, added a section on the left, then mirrored it on the right. Then I decided to turn the pattern on its side and resize it to use on the sleeve. I stayed up far too late last night, but when I was done, I had several charts ready to go for my cardigan.

Tell me, do you like charts? Or do you prefer written out instructions?

The first is a baby sweater, which will be a quick knit, so it almost doesn’t count. Right?  For this cardigan I’m using the pretty Ty-Dy Cotton I mentioned last week. I did a bit of swatching and worked out a lace pattern that I think will look lovely at the bottom of the sweater. I love top-down seamless sweaters for babies, because they’re quick to knit and they’re fun and easy to experiment with, since you can see right away if your pattern is going to work or not. And seamless knitting projects mean that when the knitting is done, all I have to is weave in my ends, sew on the buttons, and it’s ready to gift.

The second is a sweater for me. I should finish something that’s already on the needles, or work on the purple one I started designing for the class I took with Shirley Paden. But the yarn I bought at HYP, a dark green worsted-weight superwash from Neighborhood Fiber Company, kept calling to me. I was envisioning something with some lace (to stretch my limited yarn a little bit further), a deep v-neck, and 3/4 sleeves. I pulled out some stitch libraries and poked around until I found a stitch pattern that I liked. And then (of course), I had to modify it a bit (more on that later).

I know I should resist the green sweater, but the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival is coming, and I had such success knitting a Rhinebeck Sweater last fall that an MDSW sweater sounds like a better idea than it probably should. (Yes, I know that designing and knitting a whole sweater in 35 days isn’t exactly a sane decision. I refer you back to the title of this post!)

Of course, if I do get the green sweater done, it will guarantee that the weather for MDSW will be sunny and 90°F in the shade!