Free Cross Stitch and Knitting Tools: Charts, Calculators and Graph Paper

The short version: we added nine free tools to Knytstudio. For cross stitch, a searchable DMC colour chart, a DMC to Anchor converter, printable graph paper, a photo to thread palette tool and a skein calculator. For knitting, an increase and decrease evenly calculator, a yarn calculator, graph paper drawn to your gauge and a row counter, next to the knitting gauge calculator. All of them run in your browser, need no account and are in five languages.

Most of the questions we get are not about designing a pattern. They are about everything around it: which floss to buy, how many skeins, what the Anchor number for a DMC colour is, how to spread 14 increases over a round. These tools answer those questions on their own, and when you want to take the next step, each one hands you straight to the pattern editor with your numbers filled in.

Cross stitch tools

DMC colour chart

The DMC colour chart lists all 489 DMC stranded cotton colours with their numbers and names. Search by number or name, sort by number, colour or name, switch between a grid and a list, and copy any code. The swatches are approximate screen colours: DMC does not publish exact screen values, and every monitor shows colour a little differently, so check a real skein or a printed card when a shade matters.

DMC to Anchor thread conversion

The thread conversion tool turns DMC numbers into Anchor and J&P Coats numbers, and Anchor back into DMC. Conversion charts disagree with each other more than you would expect, so each result says what kind of match it is. Where two published charts agree, it is shown as a published equivalent. Everything else is the closest colour we could find, with a rating that tells you how close.

Printable cross stitch graph paper

The graph paper generator prints blank charting paper at your fabric count, including evenweave and linen worked over two. Choose A4 or Letter, get a heavy line every 10 squares, an optional line every 5 and centre marks, and download a PDF, PNG or SVG. Every sheet has a 1 inch and 1 cm ruler, so you can check with a real ruler that your printer did not shrink the page.

Photo to thread palette

The photo to thread palette tool finds the main colours in any photo and matches each one to the nearest DMC thread, with how much of the picture it covers. It is a quick way to build a palette from a sunset, a garden or a favourite picture before you start a design, and the photo is never uploaded.

Skein calculator

The skein calculator answers “how many skeins do I need?” from a colour’s stitch count, your fabric count and the number of strands, with backstitch as an extra length. It also shows how many stitches one skein covers at those settings. The same estimate now appears in the colour key of every Knytstudio cross stitch PDF, next to each colour.

Knitting tools

Increase or decrease evenly

The increase and decrease evenly calculator writes out the row for you: enter the stitches you have and how many to add or take away, choose flat or in the round, and get a line like “[K6, M1, k7, M1] 4 times” plus the new stitch count. The plain stretches between increases never differ by more than one stitch, and flat rows keep a plain stitch at each edge.

Yarn calculator

The yarn calculator has two methods. The accurate one weighs your gauge swatch and scales it up to the pieces you are knitting, so you get grams, skeins and length for your own yarn. The quick one gives a range for common projects and sizes by yarn weight, from the same tables as our guide to how much yarn you need.

Knitting graph paper drawn to your gauge

Knitted stitches are wider than they are tall, so a chart on square paper looks squashed once it is knitted. The knitting graph paper draws its cells at your real stitch and row gauge, prints at true size with a ruler on every sheet, and can open the same gauge as a new chart in the app.

Row counter

The knitting row counter is a simple tap counter that remembers where you are, with an optional repeat every few rows. If you knit from a chart, the progress tracker in the app counts rows from the bottom, lays a guide across the row you are on and marks the whole row in one tap.

From a tool to a pattern

Each tool links into the Knytstudio editor with the numbers you just worked out: the gauge calculator opens a knitting chart at your gauge, the graph paper opens a chart at the same count, and the colour tools start a cross stitch pattern. If you have never used the editor, the knitting chart maker page explains what it does for knitters, and the cross stitch pattern maker turns a photo into a chart.

Something missing? Tell us through the feedback button in the app. Most of these tools started as a question from someone who stitches or knits.