Guide

How to Read a Crochet Chart (Pixel Grid Crochet Basics)

How to read a crochet chart drawn on a grid: every square is one stitch, and five rules cover any graphgan, tapestry, C2C or filet chart. All pictures on this page are drawn by the CrochetGraph crochet pattern maker from the same cat silhouette.

How to read crochet charts in five steps

1. Find Row 1. Row 1 is the bottom row of the chart. Most crochet charts are worked from the bottom up, so the picture grows upward as you crochet.
2. Check the direction. Odd rows (right side) are read from right to left and their numbers sit on the right edge; even rows (wrong side) are read from left to right with numbers on the left.
3. Match colors to the legend. Each color has a letter. Count the stitches of each color along the row in working order, for example 6 A, 8 B, 6 A.
4. Use the heavy lines. Every tenth row and column is drawn with a heavier line, so you can count long runs in tens instead of one by one.
5. Mark your place. Cover finished rows or move a marker after each row so you never lose your place.

Rows, row numbers and where Row 1 is

A grid chart of this kind is also called a pixel grid crochet chart, because it works like a low-resolution picture. Here is the cat at 20 single crochet stitches wide. It is 23 rows tall, not 20, because a single crochet stitch is wider than it is tall: at 16 stitches and 18 rows per 4 in, a square picture needs about 12% more rows than stitches. The chart is drawn with real stitch proportions so the cat keeps its shape.

Row 1 is the bottom row. That is the row you work into your foundation chain (or the first row of a foundation single crochet). Columns are counted from the right edge, where right-side rows begin, so "column 1" is always the first stitch of Row 1. On a chart of 20 stitches, every row has 20 stitches; if your count is off by one at the end of a row, the most common cause is a missed or doubled first stitch after turning.

Right side and wrong side: which way each row goes

When you crochet flat and turn your work, you alternately look at the front and the back. Right-side (RS) rows are odd-numbered and are worked from right to left, so you read the chart from right to left. Wrong-side (WS) rows are even-numbered and are worked from left to right, so you read the chart from left to right. Written out, the first rows of this cat read:

• Row 1 (RS): 20 A
• Row 2 (WS): 8 A, 4 B, 8 A
• Row 12 (WS): 7 A, 6 B, 7 A
• Row 13 (RS): 7 A, 6 B, 7 A

The counts in each row always add up to the row width, 20 here. Left-handed crocheters work in the opposite direction; the simplest fix is to mirror the chart (the maker has a Mirror option) and then read it the same way. Worked in the round without turning, every round is a right-side round, read right to left.

The color legend: letters, hex codes and counts

Similar yarn colors are easy to confuse on screen, so each color gets a letter. The legend lists the letter, the screen color, a name you can change, and how many stitches use it, which tells you how much of each yarn you need relative to the others.

Legend of the 20-stitch cat chart above, 460 stitches in total.

C2C graphs: diagonal rows and the turning point

A corner-to-corner chart uses the same grid, but each square is a block of 3 double crochet and the rows run diagonally. You start in the bottom-right corner with one block. Row 2 has two blocks, Row 3 three, and so on: each row adds a block at both edges until it reaches a side of the chart. Below, the cat at 14 blocks wide; each diagonal is numbered where it starts, the yellow outline marks the longest diagonal and the orange outline marks row 15, the first row that decreases on both edges.

Written C2C rows give the block count and the colors in order, for example Row 6 (inc): 6 blocks — 6 A. On a rectangle, the middle rows are marked inc/dec: you add a block on one edge and decrease on the other, so the count stays the same. Try it with your own picture in the C2C graph maker.

Filet charts: open and filled squares

Filet charts have only two kinds of square. A filled square is worked as 3 double crochet; an open square is a double crochet, 2 chains and a skipped stitch. The picture shows up as solid thread against mesh. The cat at 20 squares has 286 open and 114 filled squares and starts from a foundation chain of 63 (20 × 3 + 3).

Filet rows alternate direction like single crochet rows. More about the foundation chain and thread sizes is in the filet crochet chart maker.

Crochet chart symbols vs. grid charts

"Crochet chart" also means a different drawing: a symbol chart, where every stitch is a small symbol (a cross or plus for single crochet, a T for half double, a T with one slash for double crochet, an oval for a chain) arranged the way the stitches sit in the fabric. Symbol charts describe texture and shape — lace, granny squares, amigurumi rounds. Grid charts like the ones on this page describe color: every square is the same stitch, and only its color (or, in filet, open or filled) changes.

• What a cell means: in a grid chart a square is one stitch of one color; in a symbol chart the symbol itself tells you which stitch to make.
• Direction: grid charts are read row by row from Row 1 at the bottom (or diagonal by diagonal in C2C); symbol charts for rounds are read from the center out, usually counterclockwise for right-handers.
• Terms: symbols are the same in US and UK patterns, but the written names are not (a US single crochet is a UK double crochet). The written rows from the maker can be switched between US and UK terms.

If you are holding a chart full of letters or colored squares, it is a grid chart and everything below applies. Symbol charts are a separate skill and are not covered here.

Four kinds of chart at a glance

Reading crochet charts without frogging: tips

• Count in runs, not stitches. "18 A, 24 B, 18 A" is three counts instead of sixty. The maker writes every row out for you, in US or UK terms, and copies all of them to the clipboard.
• Keep your place. Lay a ruler or sticky note above the current row, or use the maker's row tracker, which moves an orange marker up the chart and remembers the row in your browser.
• Watch lone stitches. A single stitch of a color costs two color changes. The crochetability check counts them, and Remove lone stitches merges them before you start.
• Check the width every ten rows. The heavy lines make it easy: count the stitches between them and fix a drift early.
• Print big. On a phone, zoom the chart. On paper, cells smaller than about 6 mm are hard to count: the free one-page print is fine for a small chart, and for a blanket the paid large-print chart tiles it over several sheets in 9 mm or 6 mm squares.

Ready to try your own? Open the crochet pattern maker, the tapestry crochet pattern maker or the C2C graph maker, and check sizes against standard crochet blanket sizes.