Creating Knitting Charts with OpenOffice Cal

I'll warn you first, this post is a long one. We will learn to

1. Create our graph.
2. Define the working area of our grid.
3. Add the vertical and the horizontal number lines to indicate stitch count and row/rounds.
4. Define the graph area of our chart.
   

Ah, the beauty of a crisp, clean knitting chart. The kind that fires the imagination and makes your hands itch for sticks and string. You know what I mean. I love 'em, and I love creating 'em for my designs.

There is many ways to make them and different priced software to use. So far, OpenOffice Cal works best for me, plus it's FREE! Gotta love that.

You can download the latest version for windows here. At the time of writing this, I'm using the latest version 3.2 ... there is great support to help different levels of users. I'd recommend poking around in here.

Open your OpenOffice Cal. You will see a page with lots of lines, numbers and letters. First thing we must do is to create our graph. The size is totally your preference. My preference is a graph that is not too big so it will fit in my pattern template, but big enough to read clearly.

In the upper left corner of the graph/grid section there is a white rectangle. Click here. This will highlight all of the grid.

Next, we want to grab one of the grid lines to and move it to the size we want. To get an approximation of what our stitch pattern or color chart will look like in real life, make the cells or the little blocks in the grid wider than they are tall.

Lets start with the vertical lines. Moving them shall set the width of our grid cells. Click on the line between the A and B at the top of the grid and hold down on it, sliding it to the left. A little pop up box will appear with the exact measurement. I usually set this to be 0.23. Neat how all the lines are the same width now, huh?

Next, lets set the height of each of the cells. This is done the same way as above, except you grab and drag the line between the 1 and the 2 on the grid. I usually set mine to about 0.14, but it's up to you.

Great! We've set our cell size and next we must define the working area of our grid.

Let's say your stitch pattern is 12 stitch repeat. That means 12 cells on the grid will hold our information. You also want to have that handy vertical column of numbers running up the side of it to help the reader (and you the designer!) know what row or round you are working on. Let's say the pattern requires 17 rows/rounds. Do we have enough info to chart? Absolutely!
Max chart width:
12+2 spacer cells + 2 vertical numbers columns + 2 "breathing room" cells = 16 cells.

Max chart height:
17 + 2 spacer cells + horizontal number line = 20 cells.

At this point, I add place marks on the grid as visual reference points that I will delete later. I selected the cell on row 1, column d and clicked the paint bucket icon to fill the cell with a color. I counted down 20 cells and did the same here. 16 cells across I fill in my other corner and then finally the last one too.

Next, I revisit cell D1 (my first colored in cell). I click on it to make the square "selected" symbol appear. Right clicking in the center of this square and dragging diagonally will select a large swatch of cells. I drag until all the cells within my reference points are highlighted. I then click on the "borders" icon on the tool bar and choose the "outside borders" option. Poof! Like magic, I've got my working area. But we need more...

How about adding the horizontal and the vertical number columns? We could type in each number accordingly, but what a waste of time. Let's let openOffice put them in for us!

Isn't that neat? It works on the horizontal
as well. I bet you can see the value of this when writing in your knitting symbols. This makes charting a rib super easy. My favorite feature by far!













Okay, so you've got the border box, your number lines but what about a defined grid? Glad you asked! Remember how we defined our over all working area? Same steps. Click on the upper left corner of the working area. Remember your spacing cells, don't highlight them. Drag diagonally until just the grid area is highlighted. Click on the "borders" icon on the tool bar and choose the little icon in the pop up that looks like a four paned window.

Now, get rid of the four corner colored place marker squares by selecting each one, clicking on the "fill" bucket icon on the tool bar and choose the "no fill" option.

Ta-Daaa! You are now ready to fill in your chart.

* There may be easier ways to set this up in openOffice. If you know of a way or a cool short cut, I hope you tell us in a comment below.