The Design

Even newer knitters enjoy using the simple two-color charted motifs found in traditional Northern European knitting designs. Knitting one into a stockinette-stitch project is a fun way to add a little pizzazz. Or you can work your chart in duplicate or cross-stitch after the fact to spiff up your own or store-bought knitted items. The possibilities are endless! You can even use charts for tiny cross-stitch on linen.

Once you understand how to use a chart, you can turn any graphic into a chart by “painting with pixels” (as Karen calls it) on graph paper. The possibilities are endless! You won't look at graphic motifs the same way again.

Where to use colorwork charts:
We’ve used charts on many of our Churchmouse At Home and Classics patterns. Some ideas, from left to right:
Top left: Our Seed Stitch Cozy is shown in Lamb’s Pride Worsted yarn in duplicate stitch with a button ball.

Top center: We knit adorable hearts into our Hot Water Bottle Cozy pattern, using Rowan Kid Classic in color Nightly for the background and Cherry for the hearts.

Top right: We duplicate stitched a single snowflake onto our Turkish Bed Socks.

Bottom left (background): We used Fair Isle to knit a snowflake pattern into our Hot Water Bottle Cozy.
Bottom left (foreground): We duplicate stitched and centered a snowflake on our Basic Christmas Stockings cuff.

Bottom right: On our Hot Water Bottle Cozy we knit in pairs of Scotties front and back in stranded two-color knitting adding 2 more stitches between the Scotties' noses and 8 more at each side.

How to use colorwork charts:
You can use the whole chart or just parts of a chart. You can add one solo motif or repeat the motif. You can create an all-over pattern or create a border. While we’ve used shaded boxes for the motif stitches and white boxes for the background, remember that you can also use a dark background and a light motif yarn.

We prefer knitting in the round when using charts, so our chart rows are always numbered up the right side. If your project is knit flat, read Row 1 (and all subsequent right-side, odd-numbered rows) from the right; read all even-numbered, wrong-side rows from the left.

If you are working the chart as stranded colorwork, be sure to keep your floats nice and loose across the back. When inserting a band of colorwork into an otherwise plain piece, we often use a needle one size larger than our gauge needle. Once chart rows are complete, remember to change back to smaller needles. Blocking will help even up your stitches.

The Free Charts

Working with this Scottie chart:
As you plan your project, be aware of which way up you want your finished motif to sit. This chart has a definite “right side up” and is worked from bottom to top, so it won't work for a top-down sweater or sock cuff—unless you want to train your Scotties to stand on their heads!

We’ve offered the Scottie facing left or right, so you can place your Scotties facing each other back to back or marching smartly in a row. For the collars, take a couple of long stitches or add a bow if you like.

The circumference or width of your project needs to be a multiple of 16 stitches to work this chart. If it’s not, you can adjust the number of plain stitches between Scotties; just be sure your total is an even number for the checkerboard borders. If more adjustment than this is required, you can increase or decrease a few stitches (evenly spaced) to tweak your stitch count. If more adjustment than this is needed, you may want to choose a different chart.

Placing this Scottie chart in our ‘Hot Water Bottle Cozy’ pattern:
Follow our pattern and work as written until body section measures 5". On the last round, change to needles one size larger than gauge needles and decrease 4 stitches evenly spaced. Work chart Rounds 1–18, working the 16-stitch repeat five times. Change back to smaller needles and MC; complete as written.

Working with this Hearts chart:
As you plan your project, be aware of which way up you want your finished motif to sit. This chart has a “right side up” and is worked from bottom to top, so it won't work for a top-down sweater or sock cuff.

We’ve shown our chart with two bands of hearts. You can do just one band of hearts or add multiple bands (always keep one plain row between bands of hearts). You can also add or subtract checkerboard rows if you like.

The circumference or width of your project needs to be a multiple of 12 stitches to work this chart. If it’s not, you can increase or decrease approximately ½–1" worth of stitches (total number of stitches will depend on your gauge) evenly spaced to tweak your stitch count before you begin charted rounds. If more adjustment than this is required, you may want to choose a different chart.

Placing this chart in our ‘Hot Water Bottle Cozy’ pattern: Work original pattern until body section measures 5". On the last round, change to needles one size larger. Work chart rounds 1–25, working the 12-stitch repeat seven times. Change back to smaller needles and complete pattern as written.

Working with this Snowflake chart:
The circumference or width of your project needs to be a multiple of 16 stitches to work this chart. If it’s not, you can increase or decrease approximately ½–1" worth of stitches (total number of stitches will depend on your gauge) evenly spaced to tweak your stitch count just before you begin charted rounds. If more adjustment than this is required, you may want to choose a different chart.

Our rows of ‘flurries,’ ‘dustings’ and ‘drifts’ are asymmetrically placed above and below the snowflake; you can add or subtract more rows of any of them as you like.

Placing this chart in our ‘Hot Water Bottle Cozy’ pattern:
Follow our pattern and work as written until body section measures 4". On the last round, change to needles one size larger than gauge needles and decrease 4 stitches evenly spaced. Knit 3 and place a temporary marker for chart rounds (this will center the snowflake on the front). Work chart Rounds 1–28, working the 16-stitch repeat five times. Change back to smaller needles and MC; increase 4 stitches evenly spaced; revert to original marker and complete as written.

Position heart:
Starting from first cable cast-on st after ribbed flap, count 22 sts towards center of cozy; mark st with locking marker. Following this column of sts, measure up 4½"/11.5cm, mark this stitch. This marked stitch will be your first duplicate stitch worked.

Duplicate stitch:
Using chart at right, beginning with Row 1, work duplicate stitch as follows:

Thread 1 yd/m of yarn onto darning needle (darner). Leaving 8"/20cm tail, *bring darner from back to front of work through bottom of ‘V’ stitch; draw yarn up. Insert darner behind stitch directly above stitch being duplicated, then insert needle to back of work through bottom of ‘V’ stitch where you started; draw yarn up. [1 duplicate st made]* Repeat between * * working left to right for even rows and right to left for odd rows. Work top lobes of heart separately to avoid long floats on wrong side. Rethread darner as necessary. Note: Take care to match tension of duplicate sts to original sts so work isn’t loose or pulls in.

Weave in ends as invisibly as possible. Block as directed in original pattern.