While there are thousands of Doodle charts, you may not find the exact one that would make your project perfect! That’s okay – you can use the DIY Blank Doodle Mini-Charts to create your own chart and have it work with the rest of the charts.

The DIY Blank Doodle Mini-Charts are formatted for our established 24-stitch repeat and can be used to create custom charts of various heights. Shorter charts work well for borders or fillers, while taller charts work well for more thematic, "featured" motifs.

When designing your own Doodle Chart, you’ll want to consider the guidelines below: 

Ready to design your own? Download the DIY Blank Doodle Mini-Charts!

TIPS & TRICKS FOR DIY-ING DOODLES

Start and End with a Round of Main Color

Every Doodle chart starts and ends with a main color round. This provides a border or gap between charts. If your motif goes all the way to the edge, you may find that it runs into the chart above or below it.

Consider Float Length Between Stitches

Most Doodle Charts are designed to keep longer floats to a minimum. For the easiest charts, you’ll want to keep your floats between 3-5 stitches, which usually requires no catching floats.

Longer floats will need to be caught in the middle of runs longer than 5 stitches. You can add additional contrast color stitches in the form of “dots” or “plus” symbols to help fill in some of this space on your custom motif.

The Pine Tree chart below usually has CC stitches in the pink boxes. If you take those out, you can see how long some of the floats ends up!

Consider Number of Colors per Round

Easier Doodle charts tend to stick with just 2-colors per round (main color and contrast color), while more complex charts may use 3-colors per round (main color, contrast color, accent color). Adding a third color can be more difficult to knit without practice, however it also allows for more dynamic motifs.

This Flower chart works well either way: you can have the flower petal color come down one st further, or you can keep it simple and keep it as a 2-color (per row) chart!

Duplicate Stitch is a great way to add a third color without adding complexity to the knitting process. It works well for colors that need just 1-2 stitches in a repeat, such as eyes or noses. See our Duplicate Stitch Tutorial for more information.

 

Center your Design(s) on Stitches 13 (or 7)

Almost all of the charts in our Doodle Collections are centered consistently, so that when you mix-and-match them, they will always line up!

Full Charts: If your chart is the full 24-stitches, then you’ll want to “center” the design on stitch 13. That means the centerline of the motif should be on column 13, while the gap between repeats will be on column 1.

Half Charts: If your chart is 12-stitches, then you’ll want to “center” the design on stitch 7. That means that the centerline of the motif should be on column 7, while the gap between repeats will be on column 1.

Check your Horizontal Repeat

Stranded colorwork is typically worked in the round, repeating charts horizontally across your project until you get back to your beginning of round. That means that each chart will begin again where it left off (i.e. after you finish stitch 24, you’ll start again from the same row on stitch 1).

To ensure that your chart repeats line up, you’ll want to look at each row and see where it starts and ends. You can also use digital programs that have automatic repeat generators to check your design. I prefer using a digital tool for this, as it allows me to change around my designs and check frequently during the process.

Happy Doodling!

 

Blog written by Jamie Lomax.