I love to crochet from graphs. I made afghans for children with teddy bears, panda bears and Spiderman on them, and had a great deal of fun doing it.
What graph crochet is
A graph is a grid where each square represents one stitch, and the colour of the square tells you which yarn to use. Work across the row changing colour where the graph changes, row after row, and the picture appears.
That is the whole technique. There is nothing to learn beyond a basic stitch and the discipline to keep your place on the chart.
Why it works so well for pictures
Most decorative crochet builds a texture. Graph work builds an image, which means you can make something specific – a particular character, a particular face – rather than choosing from what stitch patterns happen to produce.
It is also forgiving in an unexpected way. Viewed from a distance, the eye smooths over a stitch that is slightly off, in the same way it does with cross stitch or a mosaic.
Keeping your place
This is the only real difficulty. On a large graph it is very easy to lose which row you are on, and a row worked from the wrong line of the chart is a row to unpick.
A ruler or a sticky note moved down the chart as you go is the simplest fix and works better than trying to remember. Mark the row number as you finish it rather than as you start it.
Managing the colours
Carry the unused colour along the back of the work rather than cutting at every change. Cutting gives you hundreds of ends to weave in and a weaker fabric.
Keep the carried strand loose. Pulled tight it gathers the fabric and the picture distorts.
Choosing a graph
Simple, bold images work best. Fine detail disappears at the scale of a crochet stitch, and a design with subtle shading will come out muddy. Strong outlines and a small number of clearly different colours give the best result.
A blanket for a specific child, with a character they have chosen, is one of the few handmade gifts that reliably gets kept.
