Hi, Guys! I'm Kristen and thank you for joining me here at Studio Knit.
I've been receiving a lot of requests to cover knitting charts so these are the little
graphs that you see that plot your stitches stitch by stitch using symbols
so let's just cover the basics so the next time you see a knitting chart
you'll be able to interpret it with confidence let's start with knit stitch
patterns that are just knits and purls now I have over 20 different textures
and design combinations over on my website totally for free they have both
the written instructions for you as well as the knitting chart and you're able to
go back and forth between each and totally understand exactly how your
patterns going to knit up of course I also have my knit stitch pattern book
that is available for purchase I'll have the link down below and that way you can
save it have it on your mobile device always available to you totally ad free
as well as be able to print it so when you're binge watching television you can
just have a little piece of paper and tick off row by row as you're knitting
up your swatch I also just created a Pinterest Board that is only knitting
charts so if there are some different designs that appeal to you that you'd
like to save for later head on over to that Pinterest board and save those
designs that you'd like to knit up later so let's go right into it let's go ahead
and use my most recent knit stitch pattern it is the
Diagonal Chevron Zigzag pattern you guys really love it I released it with the written knitting
instructions that you've been knitting up this week but I also have a chart so
let's use this as our example to look at a chart and totally understand all of
the elements and exactly how to go about reading it you're knitting chart is laid
out in a grid and it has little cells think of it like an Excel document or
graph paper each one of these little boxes represents one stitch on your
needle stitch symbols are little drawings they represent the Knitting
technique to use on each stitch of your pattern so since we're doing a knits and
purl pattern here in our zigzag pattern you'll see that each box is filled with
either a symbol for knit or purl so let's look at the legend key when you
see a knitting chart you'll first want to scan the legend key to make sure that
it is a project you want to tackle today we're just doing knits and purls so
you'll see two symbols for knit on the right side and the wrong side as well as
purling on the right side and the wrong side so which direction are we reading
our knitting chart we're actually starting right here the bottom right
corner that might seem a little weird and random at first but let's take a
look at why it totally makes sense after you've cast on your stitches your very
first stitch is right here on the right side of your needle and of course you
are knitting from the bottom up because we're just using a flat piece of
knitting here so since we are working from the bottom up and we're starting on
the right that one little stitch right there now it makes sense of why the
swatch and the chart are matching up and you're starting at the bottom right
you'll see we have numbers here on our chart now on the right side we have odd
numbers over on the left side we have even numbers and those are also the rows
and those will be what you're knitting on the wrong side of your work the top
and bottom numbers those are just there to help you with the stitch count
knitting chart repeats so some knitting charts the entire chart will represent
your entire piece of knitting but sometimes there's repeats like this
example right here so it's just a knit and purl repeat because we've cast on
eight stitches I have in this little highlighted box
eight stitches marked off and then it's a full 16 rows of the repeat pattern so
it's going all the way up 16 rows here and that's just showing you exactly
where the repeat section is the reason that I'm showing you even more than that
is that it helps you understand the actual design of the pattern so if you
see that our little dots in the pattern are helping us understand it and then we
look over at our completed swatch you'll see exactly how they match up so let's
review the right and wrong sides of your knitted work I do have another video
that goes a little bit more into detail about this but let's go ahead and cover
it because it is a big part of your chart so the bottom right again Row 1
that is starting the right side also known as the front of your work and then
when you come back around on Row 2 you're knitting on the wrong side of
your work now some good stitch patterns the right and the wrong definitely look
different but some are reversible so for example this exact pattern is reversible
so it looks great on both sides lastly the knit stitch symbol switch is
what I like to call this let's take a look at that legend key again so you'll
see that on your the right side of your work here on Row 1 it's a knit stitch
it's just a blank white box RS means right side and all of the odd numbers
are the right side so every time there's a blank box you're knitting and then
when there's a black dot you're purling but you'll see when we come back around
on the even-numbered side we're knitting the wrong side of the work so the symbol
actually switches so every time you see a dot this time you're knitting and
every time you see a blank spot that's when you're purling so just make sure
that you are aware of that if that's the case in the knitting chart that you're
using so I hope that today's overview on the
basics of how to read a knitting chart has been really helpful to you and the
next time you encounter a chart in a knitting pattern that you are able to
interpret it and read it with confidence thank you so much for joining me here I
do want to let you know that everything I covered is available in written form
over on my website for free so if there's just maybe one little bit that
you need a refresher on you don't have to watch this entire video again just
hop on over to my website and scan and find the exact information that you need
so thank you so much for joining me and I will see you next time
Bye, guys!