How to Read a Lace Knitting Chart

Once you have a few simple projects under your belt, you might want to try out some more complex lace knitting, and that often means that you will need to — or at least have the option to — read and follow a chart instead of text instructions.

I know knitting charts can seem intimidating, but they’re really just a visual representation of what your knitting should look like when you work it properly.

Yarn overs, for instance, are represented as Os. Decreases a slants that go the direction the actual decrease goes.

When you’re knitting flat, you work a chart from right to left on the right (or front) side of the work, while you work from left to right on the back/wrong side. Because that’s the direction you’re knitting in relation to the front of the work.

Sometimes in projects that are shaped or where the stitch count changes between rows you’ll see a shaded box that means there is no stitch there to work on that row. That’s easy; just ignore it and move on.

Charts often show just one repeat of the pattern along with the edge stitches, so make sure you’re reading it properly and know which part of it you’re supposed to repeat. (If you mess it up, you’ll know pretty quickly because you won’t have room for a full repeat at the end or your pattern just won’t look right.

It’s a great idea to start knitting from charts by using a pattern that has both written and charted instructions. Look at the chart and translate it into written instructions, then compare to the actual instructions. After you’ve done this once or twice you’ll be confident enough to work patterns that only have charts.

If you’re a lace knitter and you have tips for following charts, I’d love to hear them!

Over the years I have shared a lot of pumpkin knitting patterns, and I’ve knit and crocheted a lot of pumpkins myself. But it feels like there are always more fun things to try with knit pumpkins, so this year I wanted to look a little more beyond basic stockinette or ribbed pumpkins and share some pumpkin patterns with cables, bobbles and colorwork.

In the cable collection we’ve got these cute little basic cable and ribbed pumpkins from Elly Bear Knits. There are two sizes that make a wide, flat pumpkin and a taller round pumpkin. Both are worked in the round as a tube that’s cinched top and bottom when you’re done, and they use bulky weight yarn.

Another cute cable pumpkin knitting pattern comes from Gray Bear Akswokrat. This one is knit flat and it looks like a chunky yarn but you could use other weights to make pumpkins of different sizes. This one also has an I-cord stem and uses yarn to cinch up the sections of the pumpkin, giving it a more natural look.

Add some bobbles to your pumpkins with this design from Autumn Shelter Makes. Also worked in the round in a tube, it features a repeating pattern of bobbles and uses yarn wrapped around the outside to make segments. This one looks like worsted weight yarn to me.

Of course there’s nothing that says your pumpkin has to be a single color, so let’s throw in some colorwork. I love the look of the Cozy Fall Pumpkin knitting pattern from South Stitch Girls. The little leather loop adds a rustic touch but you could also just add a stick. These pumpkins have five colorwork options and are worked in worsted weight yarn in the round.

There’s also the Autumn Fair Isle Trio pumpkins pattern from Equestriann Style, which has three different sizes of pumpkins with four colorwork designs. They are worked in super bulky yarn in the round and look good with high contrast or more muted color combinations.

Have you read?