First, I estimated the proportion of height to width of a knit stitch.
Using the gauge of 24 stitches x 30 rows = 4 inches means the ration of height to width is 1.25 (30/24) .
Second, inches to pixels: 16 px = 1 inch. This is important because Excel's default is to use pixels for cell sizing.
So, now we know that for each 16 pixels in height, our cell needs to be 20 pixels wide.
Open up Excel to a blank spreadsheet.
Click in the upper left corner of the workspace at the intersection of the rows and columns
This will select all the cells in the spreadsheet.
With all cells still selected, hover your cursor over one of the lines between the rows numbers. The cursor will change to the symbol indicating you can change the cell height. Holding down your right mouse button to keep all cells selected, adjust the cell height until it reads 16 pixels. Release.
Now, with all cells still selected, hover your cursor over one of the lines separating the column letters. Again, the cursor will change and you can adjust the cell width of all the cells in the worksheet because you are holding down the right mouse button. Adjust until cell width is 20 pixels.
And you're done. Sort of.
Save your file.
Because nothing in the knitting world is constant, this is just a template for designing your motif, not necessarily an accurate representation of your finished product. That depends the ultimate gauge resulting from your yarn in combination with the needles and your knitting style.
So, you still need to swatch to get the ultimate gauge. But from there, you can get the height/row ratio and adjust your spreadsheet to match your project. Just repeat the above steps, substituting your rows and heights for the 24 x 30 used in the original. The best part is that you just pop open another sheet in your workbook and enter the calculations! All right there.
Let me pause to recommend a terrific web page that breaks down gauge and ratios in a clear way: https://knitting.today/the-mathematics-of-knitting/
Now, you're ready to design.
However, I have a few tricks to make the design process even easier if you're interested.
Once I have my knitting spreadsheet set up, I start coloring in squares. If you're not familiar with this process, you are using the "Fill" dropdown. You will have a standard pallet of colors, but if you click on "More Colors," you will be treated to a world of options. The Standard Color pallet is fun and provides quite a few options, but if you select the Custom tab, the world is your oyster. You can mix and match
to your hearts delight to get colors that more closely represent your project. The best part is that once you select your color, it stays readily available so you don't need to recreate it each time you need it.
to your hearts delight to get colors that more closely represent your project. The best part is that once you select your color, it stays readily available so you don't need to recreate it each time you need it.
I recommend using standard colors until you're familiar with this whole process.
So, you have your colors, and you're filling in cells. Fun at first, but it can get tedious. I can help.
Fill a cell with your color. Now, double-click on the Format Painter. What that will do is allow you to format (fill) cells until you left click or esc. Just click your pointer in the cells you want to fill until you want to change colors. Easy peasy.
You can copy and paste formatted cells, add pattern repeat lines and tweek to your heart's content.
Best of all, you can save all you motifs in a single file, print, add heavy lines for repeats, reuse motifs without redrawing them, and try out color combinations.
I hope this helps. It's simple, but it works, and if you have Excel, it's free.
Save often and Knit on.
