Chart Reading

Reading charts for color work or cabling can be intimidating even for experienced knitters. Part of the problem arises from trying to read the chart as we would read a written page (left to right and top to bottom). Knitting charts are read from bottom to top and right to left for right-side rows, left to right for wrong side rows. If you are knitting in the round then all rows are read from right to left.

To assist in knowing which end to read from and to keep you on track with your pattern, number your chart on the side of the row you need to start from for each row – 1 on the right of the bottom row, 2 on the left of the second to the bottom row, 3 on the right of the third to the bottom row, and so forth.