There are not many options for crochet (or knitting) software out there. Stitchworks does its best to create a free, simple option for generating electronic crochet charts. Overall, I think it does what it promises, but not much else.
I made three charts in this software for one, small project. I stumbled through using the Windows Version of 1.2.0, which was last updated September 4th, 2015. So that tells you that it’s not well maintained. It is also called “Crochet Charts” after you download , so don’t search for “Stitchworks” on your computer. It’s not there. My first issue was the quick access icons to change the chart types did not work. Instead, they immediately crashed and closed the software. Not encouraging.
I was able, however, to use the regular menus up top to manipulate the chart.
On the website, Stitchworks touts these features:
- Freeform placement of stitches or quick generation of basic rows, or rounds
- Unlimited chart size, and unlimited stitch count
- Export charts to industry standard formats: PDF, SVG, JPEG, PNG, TIFF, BMP
- Customizable stitch and color legends
- Export legends to PDF, SVG, JPEG, PNG, TIFF, BMP
- Ability to export the chart as plain text
- Scalable stitches (using SVG)
- Custom alternating row colors
- Customizable stitch library including ability to have multiple sets
- Indicators to mark the chart with dots and/or text
- Group stitches together into a single unit
- Wedge lines to help guide in the creation of round charts
- Allow multiple charts in one document
- And more…
I’ll go through the pros first. Everything bolded above, Stitchworks did or did well. It makes quick work of large charts of basic, repeatable stitches. I’ve only tried this software with a small project so far, so I can’t comment on the unlimited stitch count and chart size. It was very easy to customize the colors and rows and scale the stitches to whatever size you want.
There is a large library of stitches. I worked with very basic stitches, so I’m not sure if there are any fancy stitches it’s lacking. Annotations were easy to place, move, and edit. It was nice having multiple charts in one project. It saved some time instead of having to switch back and forth between project files.
Now for the cons. Though I was able to figure out how to make a chart within 15 minutes, I did have to look at the included manual….and find a Youtube video on how to use the software. It’s simple, but you do have to dig to find the tools. There’s a learning curve to every piece of software, but I do wish there was a wizard to help guide you through the options. In my opinion, the less the user has to depend on a manual, the better designed the User Interface (UI).
I tried using the round chart for the crochet 3D rainbow plush, but found alignment was very difficult with increase stitches. The rainbow curve is made by increasing stitches with each row to bend the rows, so it’s not your typical project in the round. I could not find a nice and quick way to match up the stitches with each increasing round/row no matter what resolution I picked for the grid–and I went tiny. I wanted the stitches to snap to the grid, but the grid didn’t allow you to adjust the radius as you went farther and farther from the center. In the end I manually aligned and rotated each stitch without the help of the grid. This was tedious and was neat-ish in the end. Emphasis on the ish.
The software is supposed to churn out written instructions based on the chart you make. It was easy enough to follow the tutorial to setup and define each row. The instructions, however, came out backward in yet another bug. So instead of “inc 1, sc 19, inc1”, it would spit out “inc 19, sc 1, inc 19”. I immediately ditched those and typed the written instructions out manually.
Stitchworks has the ability to export to multiple file types…some of them work. The PDF export does not work at all. This was the first one I tried. It creates a PDF in File Explorer, which when opened…opens for a second and then immediately closes. I tried opening another PDF not created by Stitchworks to test that it wasn’t my PDF reader, and only the Stitchworks created PDFs had the issue. The PDFs contain all of the charts in one document, so I was sad when this died. The PNG and JPEG exports, however, worked just fine. They come out in separate files, and you have to play around with the resolution to get a nice result. For me, all of the charts lost their sharpness in every export–except maybe the PDF, but having only seen that for half a second, who knows? The stitch legend came out with not-so-great resolution. It looks okay when you shrink it small. This was the best resolution I could get. It affects the text more than anything. One way or another it’s a little hard to read.
All in all, I was a little disappointed with the quality of the software, and with the functionality specifically for what I was trying to achieve. But there’s probably not high demand for software like this, and I am glad there is a free option. I would love to see something more refined to help better visualize stitches before going down the path of spending hours creating a new piece. Ultimately, this software may not be the right solution for that, but Sitchworks could use some bug patches at the very least. Lookin’ at you, Buttons of Doom 
. This likely isn’t an issue for you crochet pros out there who know stitches in and out, have a gut feeling for what the end result will be *cue Beautiful Mind equation montage*. But I struggle.
I do think for small projects it’s easier and neater to write out charts by hand instead. Weird and organic shapes are hard to chart with Stitchworks.
This software is more advantageous for large projects that require standard shapes and are repeatable–I’m thinking Afghans or hats/socks in the round. It’s worth a download if you regularly make these items and want to convert your patterns into electronic files. Otherwise, try some good ole’ pencil and paper.
Check out the charts I made with Stitchworks for this 3D rainbow plush!