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Color Charts

PRO

Have an idea for colorwork – and want to see it stitch by stitch before you knit it? With Color Charts, you put the chart together from premade elements, copy and paste, or draw freehand. Make a free-form chart for anything you knit, or a project-based chart right on your Dreamknit pattern.

Choose between a free-form and a project-based chart

A teddy bear drawn on a free-form chart

PRO

Free-form Chart

Design without constraints

The same teddy bear on a raglan sweater in a project-based chart

PRO

Project-based Chart

Design for a specific garment

Color Charts is intented to be used on a computer, where you have plenty of room to draw. Make a free-form chart or draw right on your Dreamknit pattern – just switch screens when you're ready! On your phone, your charts come with you in read mode, which keeps track of the row you're on. All of this comes with PRO.

Build with premade elements

Letters, motifs, stripes and all-over patterns: here's a taste of what you can put together on your sweater, your mittens or anything you like. Mix, move and make it your own.

Stripes

7 elements

All-over

70 elements

Nature

51 elements

Symbols

16 elements

Letters & Numbers

89 elements

Motifs

46 elements

Characters

19 elements

Traditional

75 elements

Bring your colorwork ideas to life.

Join Dreamknit PRO to design, save and knit from unlimited color charts, linked straight to your projects. 14-day money-back guarantee.

Why chart your colorwork

A knitting chart shows every stitch and every color change on a grid, row by row. You always see which color comes next, without rereading written instructions. That matters most in colorwork: with both stranded knitting (Fair Isle) and intarsia, every color has to land exactly where it should, and that's far easier to follow in a chart than in text.

Charts also let you reuse your own designs. Build a motif once – your own drawing, a favorite pattern, or one of the premade elements – and turn it into an all-over pattern without drawing it again.

A project-based chart stays linked to the Dreamknit project it belongs to. Want to knit it in a different yarn? The Yarn Swapper finds one at the same gauge.

Frequently asked questions

A free-form chart is a grid in any size, with no limits, for a standalone design. A project-based chart has the shape of a specific garment and follows the increases, decreases and construction of the pattern it's linked to.

An all-over pattern is a small pattern that repeats across the whole garment: front, back and sleeves. You add it once, and Color Charts repeats it for you. A motif sits only where you place it, like a single symbol or word. Read more about all-over patterns in this blog post.

Yes. Color Charts looks at your chart and recommends whether stranded knitting (Fair Isle) or intarsia suits it best, but you're free to choose. Read more about the two techniques in this blog post.

Creating and saving your own charts is part of Dreamknit PRO. Not a member? Buy a finished pattern with colorwork, and the chart comes with it – no membership needed.

Yes. A project-based chart shows up on your project's page. If you change the pattern the chart is based on, you'll need to make a new chart, since it won't update on its own.

In read mode, the part of the garment you're on – front, sleeve or back – shows above the chart. Each part is shown on its own, not as one continuous row. Move between parts with the arrows beside it. When you knit back and forth, for example on a raglan yoke, the arrows go in opposite directions on the right side and the wrong side. When you knit in the round, you only use the right arrow. Increases and decreases are outlined in red, for example at the raglan, so you can follow them in the written pattern. Read more about reading a Dreamknit chart in this blog post.

Not yet. It's on our list, but for now you build the chart yourself in the tool: place premade elements, copy and paste to repeat sections, or fill it in square by square.

More tools from Dreamknit

See the full toolkit

Increase/Decrease Calculator

PRO

Spread increases and decreases evenly, with video guidance.

Yarn Swapper

PRO

Find a substitute yarn at the right gauge, and how much of it you need.

Gauge Calculator

PRO

Convert a pattern's stitch count to your own gauge.

See the full toolkit