Helpful Tools For Keeping Your Place in Knitting Charts Using a Knitting Tracker

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I’m knitting some fantastic socks by verybusymonkey right now called Paisley that have a fairly elaborate stitch pattern. I wouldn’t say the pattern is difficult, but it is impossible for me to memorize so I need to work closely from the chart so I need a good knitting tracker.  I’ve been switching between the paper and digital knitting tracker methods on these socks, so I snapped some pics and thought I’d show you how I keep track of where I am in the chart.

Using a Knitting Chart App to Keep Your Place

Hands-down my favorite knitting chart app is KnitCounters which I use on my iPhone. (I made a video demo of this app here).  Unfortunately because of the small size on my phone, I can only work smaller charts in the app or else they shrink down so small that they are too difficult to read.  Usually 10-12 stitch repeats is the max for me. The Paisley chart spans 32 stitches so I need to work on the larger screen on my Kindle Fire.  KnitCounters is iOS only, so I use Knit Companion on my tablet.  Knit Companion isn’t quite as nice as KnitCounters, but it gets the job done.

I like using a digital knitting tracker because it’s less mess – you have all your patterns in one place and don’t have a ton of printed patterns hanging around your work space which is nice if you always have a lot of WIPs going like I do.

Magnetic Knitting Chart Holder

You can also use good old-fashioned paper as you follow your chart.  Using a paper chart is great because you can blow up the chart up as big as you’d like which makes it easy to read.  You can also easily jot down notes on the paper and – most importantly – your paper never runs out of battery power when you are knitting. 🙂

I highly recommend this knitting chart holder when you are knitting from printed chart – it’s a magnetic board and you just slide the magnets up the chart as you work which doesn’t interrupt your flow the way moving a post-it or highlighter tape does.  However, keep a post-it or highlighter tape handy to more securely mark your spot on the chart when you are between knitting sessions.  In theory, the chart keeper closes and holds the magnet in place, but I don’t trust it so I always put a strip of highlighter tape to mark my place just to be sure.

A Final Note on Knitting From Charts 

If you prefer written instructions to working from charts, I strongly recommend giving charts another try if you want to knit faster.  It is so much easier to speed through a pattern when you are looking at a picture vs. reading words.

Final Tip: When you use any kind of knitting tracker as you work from charts, be sure you always keep your highlight or marker on or above your current spot in the chart.  You never want to block the image of the stitches you have already worked.  Keeping those rows visible helps you “read” your knitting and this helps you avoid mistakes.