Knitting Pattern Generator
Turn Any Photo into a Colorwork Chart
A knitting chart maker that knows a stitch is not a pixel. Correct row-to-stitch ratios for stockinette, garter, and Fair Isle — other generators treat stitches as square, and the finished knit shows it.
How it works
Upload Image
Any photo — geometric designs, pet portraits, landscapes, logos. Clear subjects with distinct colors work best for colorwork.
Set Stitch & Gauge
Stockinette, garter, or Fair Isle. Enter your gauge (stitches per 10cm from a swatch). Dimensions update instantly.
Optimize for Knitting
5-8 colors for Fair Isle (max 2 per row). Heavy confetti to eliminate single-stitch floats. Dithering for heathered effects.
Download Chart
PDF with yarn legend and quantities per color. Grid reads bottom-up with row numbers for tracking progress.
Built for Knitting Colorwork
Not a cross-stitch tool rebranded — genuinely designed for how knitting works.
Stitch Ratio Correction
A stockinette stitch is wider than it is tall — a typical gauge of 22 stitches to 30 rows per 10cm means roughly 1.3 rows for every stitch of width. Use a square-pixel pattern and the knitted result comes out vertically squashed. We add the extra rows so the finished piece matches the original — tested with DK and worsted weight at standard gauge.
Fair Isle Dithering
Floyd-Steinberg error diffusion creates alternating color patterns that follow the natural 2-color-per-row rhythm of stranded knitting. The result: a beautiful heathered effect, like marl or tweed, that actually makes patterns easier to knit than solid blocks.
Float-Friendly Confetti Filter
In stranded knitting, long floats are a problem but single-stitch color changes are worse — they create tiny loops that catch fingers. Heavy confetti reduction ensures minimum 3-stitch runs of each color, keeping floats manageable and fabric smooth.
Stitch-Type Yarn Calc
Stockinette: 3.5cm/stitch. Fair Isle: 4.5cm (30% more for floats). Garter: 3.8cm. We calculate per color with fragmentation overhead. Fair Isle yarn estimates account for carried strands — something no other free tool does.
Gauge-Based Sizing
Enter your swatch gauge in stitches per 10cm. The dimension display shows exact finished width and height in cm and inches. A 100-stitch chart at 20 st/10cm = 50cm wide. Plan your project size before committing to a chart.
Color Management
120+ yarn colors. Click to swap any color — search by name to match your stash. Color warnings alert when two colors are too similar to distinguish on fabric (CIEDE2000 distance <5). Reduce frustration, reduce wasted yarn.
Fair Isle, Intarsia, and Duplicate Stitch
Fair Isle (stranded colorwork): Carry 2 colors across each row. Traditional limit: 2 colors per row, 5-8 total. ArtPatt's dithering creates patterns that naturally alternate between 2 colors, producing the rhythmic color changes that make Fair Isle efficient. Heavy confetti ensures no single-stitch floats.
Intarsia: Use separate yarn bobbins for each color block. Handles 10-20 colors for large solid areas — portraits, large motifs. Use Medium confetti (intarsia handles color changes better than stranded). ArtPatt's chart works for intarsia as-is: each cell = one stitch, each color = one bobbin.
Duplicate stitch: Embroider on top of finished stockinette using a tapestry needle. Any chart works, unlimited colors. Great for adding small details (eyes, small motifs) after knitting a simpler base. No yarn estimates needed — just buy small amounts of each color.
ArtPatt vs Other Knitting Pattern Generators
StitchFiddle: No stitch ratio compensation, no dithering, limited free tier. KnitPro: Basic image conversion, no confetti filter, no yarn estimates. Knit Foundry ($185): Abandoned, doesn't work on modern OS.
ArtPatt: Free, correct stitch ratios (3 stitch types), Fair Isle dithering, 4-level confetti filter, per-color yarn estimates with float-aware calculation, gauge-based sizing, a 120-color database with one-click swapping, and a browser knitting chart editor (pencil, fill, line, rectangle, ellipse, text, symmetry, 30-step undo) for adjusting the chart after conversion.
Choosing a Photo That Still Reads Once It Is Knitted
Knitting charts are not just image grids. Stitch shape decides how the finished motif reads, which is why a square grid borrowed from another craft looks wrong the moment it comes off the needles. Start from images with obvious shapes: logos, motifs, animal silhouettes, pet portraits on plain backgrounds, and abstract graphics all survive the low resolution of colorwork. Subjects that depend on tiny detail need either a much larger chart or duplicate stitch added after the main fabric is finished.
Decide the technique before the color count, not after. A palette that is comfortable in intarsia — large separate blocks, one bobbin each — becomes a float problem in Fair Isle, where each row wants to stay near two colors. Picking the method first tells you how much color the image is allowed to keep.
Gauge then turns the chart into an object. The same 100-stitch-wide chart is a cushion front, a sweater panel, or a blanket motif depending on yarn weight and needle size, so plan from a swatch rather than from guesswork. 80–120 stitches wide suits sweater fronts; 100–150 suits blankets.
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