Shawl Every Day 2021 - Day 38 - Knit stitches are not square

A knit stitch is not a square. It is slightly wider than it is tall. As a result, if you want to design your own charts, you have to use special knitting graph paper. If you use regular paper to design the chart, then knit from that, your design will end up looking too short.

In the example, the heart looks correct on the regular paper, but coloring in the same squares on the knitting paper makes it look squashed. This is also why you can’t use cross stitch patterns for knitting because those are squares as well.

There are websites that have knitting graph paper you can print at home or there are sites that help you make a chart like Chart Minder, which integrates with Ravelry.

Cowl pattern is Mulder by Hayley Geary