Start with a small repeat
Choose overlay or inset, then paint the finished colors you want to see. A is the yarn used for odd chart rows, B for even chart rows. Flat work adds two edge stitches once outside all the repeats. Joined-round overlay uses whole repeats around the tube, without those edge stitches.
Try the original diamond example, or clear it to alternating stripes. Click or drag to paint. On a keyboard, focus the grid, move with the arrow keys and press Space or Enter. On touch screens, use Move chart to scroll instead of draw. Flip the motif or copy its left half onto the right to make it symmetrical. Undo restores drawing, resizing or repairs.
The maker uses two colors and US crochet terms: 2–48 stitches per motif and 2–48 chart rows. Flat overlay and inset allow 1–4 repeats across. Joined-round overlay allows whole repeats up to 384 stitches around. Joined rounds can keep a constant count or use single-crochet shaping breaks between mosaic sections. It does not generate inset rounds, spirals, center-out shapes or interlocking crochet.
Start from a picture
Choose a PNG, JPEG or WebP image up to 15 MB and 24 million pixels. The picture is opened on your device; it is not uploaded to a server. Simple silhouettes, bold shapes and clear contrast work best within the 48-square limit. A detailed photograph will lose small features.
Pick overlay or inset, choose a detail level or custom dimensions, and adjust the light/dark balance. Keep the whole picture fits it inside the chart with light padding. Crop to fill lets you move the crop horizontally and vertically. Transparency is treated as white. Swap A and B if you want the dark and light yarns reversed.
The preview uses your pattern swatch proportions when usable, or assumes square worked stitches. Inset bands represent two worked rows, so their image sizing differs from overlay. Actual proportions still depend on your gauge. If you change the method after applying a picture, review and reapply the preview to update its sizing.
Compare the full picture, two-color draft and stitchable preview. The stitchable version adapts the fewest squares needed by this maker’s structural rules; the count and an optional outline show what changes. Use stitchable pattern applies that version. Use two-color draft keeps the unadapted conversion for you to edit and check. Neither replaces your drawing until you apply it. Applying uses one repeat; Undo restores the previous motif and repeat count.
The original picture is not stored in your draft, project file, share link or PDF. Only the converted chart is kept. You can continue painting it, repeat it across, and use the existing instructions and PDF download.
Overlay or inset?
In overlay, each chart row is one worked row or joined round. Work on the right side throughout. Flat rows fasten off at each end; joined rounds carry resting yarn inside at the join. X marks a mosaic double crochet (Mdc) into the front loop of the same-color stitch two worked rows below. All other interior squares are single crochet in the back loop only, even when the finished-picture square shows the other color. The stitch behind a Mdc stays unworked.
In inset, a chart row represents a pair: a on the right side, b on the wrong side. Change yarn after each pair and carry it up the side. On a rows, a dash leaves a chain space and X makes Mdc into a skipped same-color stitch three worked rows below. On b rows, repeat the chain spaces and sc over every sc or Mdc. No Mdc is worked on b rows. Default chain count matches skipped positions; an option adds one chain per continuous skipped run. Swatch to choose.
Follow the stitch to its anchor
Choose Inspect anchors, then select a square in your motif or full chart. The working square gets a solid outline; its landing square gets a gold outline when it is inside the chart. The diagram below also shows foundation anchors that are outside the drawn motif. You can choose the chart row and stitch column directly, and switch between inset passes a and b. Inspecting does not paint your drawing.
The maker’s own schematic diagrams identify the insertion loop and the physical rows between the stitch and its anchor. Overlay sc uses the back loop one worked level below. Overlay Mdc uses the front loop two levels below, passing in front of the position left unworked. Inset Mdc on pass a reaches three levels below, past both chain-space rows. Pass b works sc over the previous sc or Mdc. A chain space has no insertion anchor. Flat edge sc uses both loops.
Foundation references F1 and F2 are separate from chart numbering. On a joined tube with an existing foundation, F1 means your prepared round; it is not a new round to make again. An invalid chart must be corrected before its stitch connections can be inspected reliably.
Why does a square need fixing?
An off-color square must be covered by a drop from the chart row above. That drop needs a clear landing stitch below. Under this maker’s rules, off-color squares cannot be stacked in adjacent chart rows, and the top row must use its own row color. The same checks apply to inset bands.
Warnings identify the row and column. Fix squares finds the fewest color changes that satisfy these rules, shows which squares changed and leaves Undo available. Nothing is repaired automatically. Working instructions and PDF downloads stay unavailable until the chart passes. This checks the supported stitch structure; a physical swatch still establishes tension, drape and appearance.
Foundation and stitch counts
A 12-stitch motif repeated twice gives 12 × 2 + 2 = 26 stitches across. Chain 27, then sc into the second chain from the hook and each chain across for the first foundation row, in B. The turning chain does not count as a stitch. Overlay uses one foundation row; inset uses two. Chart row 1 starts afterward, in A.
Twelve chart rows give 13 worked rows in overlay, or 26 in inset, including the foundation. The maker’s validity rules require a plain top row; it does not add an unshown closing row. The chart is not a vertical repeat instruction.
Overlay in joined rounds
Select Joined rounds · overlay and choose a foundation. A 12-stitch motif repeated seven times gives 84 stitches around, with no extra edge or joining stitch. Match a stitch count offers whole repeats for your target; a target of 85 offers 84 or 96 for that motif. It does not silently change your pattern.
For a new foundation, chain 84 in B, join the chain without twisting, then ch 1 and make 84 sc around. The ch 1 does not count. Join this foundation round F1 before starting chart round 1 in A. Alternatively, start with an existing joined foundation of 84 sc in B with free front loops. A base or foundation you already made is excluded from new-work totals and height.
Keep the right side facing and do not turn. Work the chart in your selected reading direction. At the end of each chart round, slip stitch into the back loop of the first worked stitch and draw the next yarn through the join. Carry resting yarn inside. No turning chain is added to chart rounds, and the slip stitch does not add a counted position. On the final round, join and fasten off.
When the next round begins with sc BLO, work into the stitch used for the join. When it begins with Mdc, use its marked lower anchor and leave the position directly behind it unworked; continue to the next position without an additional skip. The join preview places the last and first chart columns together so you can check your motif at that boundary. It is an unrolled view of the tube.
Twelve chart rounds above a new F1 make 13 new rounds. Above an existing F1, they make 12 new rounds. This tool plans the tubular section and its chosen shaping breaks; it does not design a basket base or finishing border.
Shape a joined-round pattern
Choose Shape your rounds to add an increase or decrease at a chart round. Enter the stitch count you want after that round, as a whole multiple of your motif width. A 12-stitch motif can move from 24 to 36 stitches with 12 increases, then return from 36 to 24 with 12 decreases. Shaping replaces an existing chart round; it does not insert an extra worked round. One round can at most double its input count or reduce it by half. Use several shaping rounds for a larger change. Every count stays between one complete motif and 384 stitches.
The maker spaces changes as evenly as possible around the round. It lists the plain stitches between them in your selected reading direction. The chart round number is separate from its new-work round number: a new F1 adds one, while a prepared foundation adds none.
A count change needs a clear transition for the mosaic anchors. The preview shows any motif squares on the preceding, shaping and following rounds that will change to their working yarn color. The preceding round finishes any existing drops; the shaping round uses single crochet. Consecutive shaping rounds can change the count again; where the chart continues after the last change, work its following round in plain sc BLO. Finish after the last listed chart round. This makes a striped break in the picture. Add shaping round states the number of square changes before you apply them. Nothing is applied until you choose it, and Undo restores the drawing and shaping together.
For an increase, work two complete sc into the back loop of one input stitch. Count both new tops: one input becomes two outputs. For a decrease, pull up a loop through the back loop of the next stitch, then through the back loop of the following stitch; yarn over and pull through all three loops. This is sc2tog BLO: two inputs become one output. These operations change the circumference. Decorative leaning drops or shared lower anchors can be count-neutral and are a different operation.
The full chart shows each round’s actual output width. A V spanning two output squares is one increase; an inverted V inside one output square is one decrease. Blank space beyond a shorter round is not a stitch. Select either top of an increase to see its shared anchor, or select a decrease to see both input positions. The instructions identify columns in the previous round as inputs and columns in the new round as outputs.
Mark the first new stitch, work the complete written round and count its new tops. Join into the back loop of the first new stitch. The slip stitch adds no output; the next round starts in that same joined stitch. Carry resting yarn inside and keep the right side facing.
Shaping checkpoints show every before/after count. Removing a shaping round keeps its striped break in the drawing, and later target counts stay as entered. Review any new warnings. If you paint into a required break, the maker blocks instructions and PDF downloads until you restore it or revise the shaping plan. Applying a new picture starts one repeat and clears shaping, with Undo available.
This mode uses evenly spaced, whole-motif sc shaping breaks. It does not route increases or decreases through mosaic double crochets, infer shaping from a photo, or design a fitted garment, base or closed crown. A swatch establishes the transition’s tension and drape. All diagrams and examples here were created for Everyday Measure.
Finished size from your own gauge
Enter stitches and individual worked rows or rounds per 10 cm or per 4 inches, measured in this mosaic pattern. These are separate measurement spans. Width is total stitches divided by stitches per span, multiplied by the span. For a tube, this is circumference. A shaped pattern shows starting and finishing circumference; the checkpoints show the intervening stitch counts. Shaping may change tension, so these remain swatch-based estimates. Height includes only work planned here: a new foundation is included, while a prepared foundation and base are excluded. Inset counts both a and b. Extra borders, fringe and blocking changes are excluded. No yarn quantity is inferred from a drawing’s colors.
Keep and print your design
Your draft is saved in this browser when storage is available. Save project downloads an editable file; Open project brings it back. A copied pattern link includes the drawing and settings, so anyone with it can reopen them. Keep a project file for a lasting copy. Drawing is processed on your device.
Earlier project files and links open as flat patterns. New files and links retain the construction, foundation and shaping choices as well as the drawing. Older files migrate without shaping. To switch a large tube back to flat work, the maker limits flat repeats to four and leaves Undo available.
The Letter or A4 PDF includes foundation instructions, a key, our own stitch-connection diagrams, readable numbered chart tiles and written rows or rounds in your reading direction. Joined-round PDFs include a counting-the-join diagram; shaped patterns also include increase/decrease diagrams and count checkpoints. Letters A/B identify colors alongside fills. Work across all column tiles for a row before moving up. The chart is illustrative, not an actual-size template.