Wondering how to organize your individual Doodle Charts so you can get started knitting an actual project? Use our Blank Doodle Master Chart to build your personal chart design. Pick your charts, arrange them creatively, and finalize your layout into one master project chart. Then you'll be able to use this to knit, just like a traditional pattern!

Our Blank Doodle Master Chart PDF can be downloaded below or it is included in all of our digital patterns. Use the guide below to learn more about how to use this resource to get your Doodle Charts organized and ready to go to knit your project.

Download the FREE Blank Doodle Master Chart here

 

How to use the Blank Doodle Master Chart

 

STEP 1 Download or print our Blank Doodle Master Chart

The Blank Doodle Chart is 24 stitches wide by 60 rnds tall, and is designed to work with every chart in our Doodle Collection. 

Printing Tip: Because many printers scale differently, we suggest printing your Blank Master Chart and your Doodle Charts on the same printer, using the same settings, so that the scale remains consistent between all the pieces you'll be working with.

STEP 2 Choose and play around with your charts

One of our favorite ways to play around with placement of charts is to print and cut out all the charts in your pattern (or check out our Doodle Decks).

Cut our your printed Doodle charts to get ready to arrange them on your Blank Master Chart. When cutting them out, you can choose whether or not to keep the numbers and/or chart labels based on personal preference. The template includes row and column numbers, so your final design can use these for reference when knitting.

You can stack them, duplicate them, offset them, rotate them, add in some border motifs - anything you want, there are no rules! 

Need Inspiration? Take a look at our Instagram or the Ravelry project pages for ideas on how to lay out your charts!

Not sure where to start? Use the chart from the sample knit as your baseline and then make smaller adjustments, such as simply swapping an Octopus for a Seahorse, or a Shell for a Crab. This lets you work with a design that is already 90% to where you want it, but you can make a few personal decisions to make it unique!

Want to make it taller? No worries! You can either just tape your charts higher on the paper, or use a second Blank Doodle Master Chart page to continue your design. For this example, maybe we want to add a Lighthouse chart, or Seagulls above the top of the water, so we can extend the chart vertically.

This works especially well if you are doing an Infinity Cowl, which usually takes about 3 of these sheets to cover your entire design canvas (or roughly 150-180 rounds of charts). 

Want to know how many rows to plan? If you want to know exactly how many rows of colorwork you can fit into your project, check out our post about Doodle Math: Row Gauge & Chart Height for some tips on how to use your gauge swatch to help plan your charts.

Want to change the contrast? Each Doodle chart PDF comes with both dark and light background options, so you can always choose the right chart for the contrast in your yarn. If you're working with a dark background color, then choose the dark background chart!

Design with all one background color or swap dark and light background with each chart. Often, when I put together something that feels like a "scene," as in this Ocean Doodle example, I like to have one consistent background throughout (i.e. navy for water). 

But you can also balance the tones of the project by alternating light and dark backgrounds, which result in a more "striped" appearance.

Want to compare design options? This is a great way to test out different charts or layouts to see if you prefer a Octopus or a Lobster, for example. 

Once you're happy with the order and arrangement of your charts, it's time to put them all into the Master Chart.

STEP 3 Create your personalized Doodle Master Chart

Depending on how creative you're feeling, you can either tape your charts over the Master Chart, or get out some colored markers and re-draw the motifs into the Master Chart (this second option is great if you're using Doodle Decks or if you want your Master Chart in your custom yarn colors).

Why should you consider re-drawing your charts by hand? If you're visual with colors, re-drawing the charts in your specific yarn colors can help you better see where/when each color change happens. Or if you're modifying the Doodle charts, you may want to re-draw them with your modifications so you're sure to knit them correctly.

STEP 4 Start Knitting!

Once you have it all laid out - it's time to knit! You now have one, giant, custom chart that is all set to go for your project! You'll be able to use this to knit, just like a traditional pattern!

Check your Colors: If you want to double check some of your colors and charts try Swatching Colorwork in the Round to make sure everything looks good.

Time to design your own!

Download our FREE Blank Master Chart now, and have fun combining your new design with ANY of our Base Doodle Patterns!

 

Happy Doodling!

Want even easier access to all of our Doodle resources? All of this (and more) is available in our DoodleHQ app! 

Blog co-written by Jamie Lomax and Grey Lundy. Charts shown are from our Ocean 1 Doodle.