Stitch Fiddle: design your own stitch charts

What it is

Stitch Fiddle is an online chart editor for crafters. You pick your craft — crochet, knitting, cross stitch, diamond painting, fuse beads, pixel macrame, latch hook, quilting or plain pixel art — and draw your pattern square by square. You can set colors and symbols, repeats and mirroring, run a chart check, then print or download the result.

There's also a picture import: upload a photo and it becomes a color chart for knitting colorwork, C2C crochet, filet crochet or cross stitch. The free version caps the grid at 300 by 300; Premium goes up to 1,000 by 1,000. The project has been running since 2015.

Why we picked it

Anyone who has drawn a sweater or embroidery chart on graph paper knows how much time and eraser that eats. Here you do it with a mouse, and a mistake is one click to fix. The photo import is the fun part: a portrait of your cat or your team's logo becomes a chart in a couple of minutes.

It keeps growing, too. There's a detailed help center, a progress tracker for marking off rows as you work, mobile apps and a separate mode for freeform crochet charts.

Where to start

• Hit "Create new chart" and choose your craft.
• Try importing a photo; bright, high-contrast images work best.
• Set the size in rows and columns.
• Turn on the progress tracker once you start stitching.
• Stuck on something? The help center covers almost every feature.

Who it's for

Knitters and crocheters who want their own designs instead of someone else's. Cross stitchers. Parents making fuse bead pictures with their kids. And anyone who has always wanted a sweater with something personal knitted into it.

Quick answers

Is it free? The basic features are free; Premium lifts limits such as the maximum chart size.

Do I need an account? You'll need one to save your charts.

Does it work on phones? Yes, there are apps for Android and iOS as well as the web editor.