7 Stitch Fiddle Features You’re Probably Missing Out On

Every colorwork pattern I’ve ever released was designed in Stitch Fiddle. From my very first graphgan pattern to the project I’m working on right now, Stitch Fiddle has been open in a tab somewhere in the background the entire time.

It’s the tool I’d recommend to any crocheter working with color, without hesitation, and it’s one of the things that makes designing graphgans as enjoyable as it is. I can’t imagine planning a colorwork project without it.

So every time I mention it on social media, I’m always a little surprised by how many people have never come across it before. It comes up in the comments constantly, and I get it, there are a lot of design tools out there. But for anyone making graphgans or working with colorwork, it is hands down one of the most useful tools you can have. Free to use (for the most part), pretty intuitive, and full of features that make designing charts easy and enjoyable.

The thing is, most people discover it, figure out the basics, and stop there. And that’s a shame, because there are features tucked away in the menus that can completely change how you design and work. That’s what this post is about.

What Is Stitch Fiddle? (And Why Every Colorwork Crocheter Needs It)

Stitch Fiddle is a browser-based tool for designing crochet, knitting, and cross-stitch charts. For graphgan makers specifically, it’s basically essential IMO.

You can design charts from scratch, upload a photo and convert it into a pixel-style grid, swap colors in and out, and export a finished chart or written instructions to follow while you crochet, and the free version covers the vast majority of what you’ll ever need.

Now, before we go any further, I need to address something. Every time I mention Stitch Fiddle on social media, there’s always a wave of comments from people saying they tried to find it and couldn’t. Usually because they were searching the App Store.

Stitch Fiddle isn’t an app. It’s a website. You open it in a browser, on your phone, your tablet, your laptop, whatever you have to hand, go to stitchfiddle.com, and you’re in. Bookmark it right now.

Because it runs in a browser rather than an app, it works across any device, which means you can design on your laptop, tweak something on your phone while you’re on the sofa, and print from wherever.

Stitch Fiddle Free vs. Paid: What’s the Difference?

The free version of Stitch Fiddle covers the majority of what you’ll need as a graphgan or colorwork corcheter. You can design charts, use colors, and access most of the core tools. The paid version is farily inexpensive and unlocks a handful of extra features, including written instructions, which I’ll come back to later in this post. I’ll flag which features need the paid plan as we go, so you’re not caught off guard.

Grab My FREE Graphgan Planner Before You Start

If you’re planning a new graphgan project, do yourself a favor and grab my free Graphgan Planner Worksheet before you start designing. It walks you through your stitch gauge so you can set your Stitch Fiddle chart up with the correct dimensions from the beginning. Nothing worse than designing something beautiful and then realizing it’s going to crochet up at completely the wrong size.

💡 Grab the free Graphgan Planner Worksheet here

Already have your measurements sorted? Then let’s get into it.

7 Stitch Fiddle Features You Probably Haven’t Found Yet

1. How to Set Your Stitch Aspect Ratio in Stitch Fiddle

This one is super important and very easy to miss, so I’m putting it first.

Crochet stitches aren’t square. Single crochets for example, are wider than they are tall. That means if you design a circle in Stitch Fiddle without adjusting for this, your finished blanket won’t have a circle on it. It’ll have an oval.

Stitch Fiddle lets you set the stitch aspect ratio to match your actual gauge, so the chart on your screen accurately reflects what the finished blanket will look like. You’ll find the setting when you set up a new chart, or in the chart settings section of an already created chart. To fill it in, you just need your stitch and row counts over a given measurement, which, if you’ve filled in the Graphgan Planner Worksheet, you’ll already have sitting right in front of you.

Getting this right at the start means no nasty surprises when you’re 50 rows in and something looks a bit… off.

2. How to Use the Stitch Fiddle Fill Tool

If you have ever sat there clicking individual squares one by one to fill in a background color, first of all, I’m so sorry, I’ve been there, and you need to know about the fill tool immediately.

This one is a paid feature, but I think it’s worth the upgrade on its own. Instead of coloring your background square by square (I did this for longer than I’d like to admit), the fill tool floods an entire connected area with a single click. Pick your color, select the tool from the top toolbar, click anywhere in the area you want to fill, and it’s done in seconds. Alternatively, right click on the area you want to fill and select ‘Fill’ from the pop-up menu.

For graphgans this is a massive time-saver. Large solid backgrounds, big color blocks, fixing a mistake across a whole section, the fill tool handles all of it in one click.

3. How to Track Your Progress on a Colorwork Chart

“Which row am I on again?”

Before I knew the row tracker existed, I was scribbling on my printed charts in pencil, second-guessing which row I’d just finished, and, more than once, having to count backwards from a recognizable bit of the design just to figure out where I was. It was so annoying.

Stitch Fiddle has a built-in progress tracker that solves this entirely. Go to File > Progress Tracker or click the waypoint icon in the top bar and it appears on the right-hand side of your screen. As you complete each row you click along, and the tracker moves with you.

But here’s the part most people miss. If you click on the actual row number in the tracker rather than just clicking through it, a panel opens up with extra options. From there you can customize how the tracker looks and behaves, things like how it highlights your current row, so you can set it up in whatever way is easiest for your eyes to follow.

And if that wasn’t useful enough, you can open up a bottom panel that displays the written instructions for that row. So if you ever find yourself staring at the chart and not quite trusting what you’re seeing, the written breakdown is right there.

4. How to Move and Flip Design Elements in Stitch Fiddle

This one sounds small until you use it, and then it becomes one of your most reached for tools. It does require the paid plan, but if you’re designing your own patterns rather than following someone else’s chart, it’s one of the more useful upgrades.

The select tool lets you highlight a section of your chart, move it around, and copy and paste design elements wherever you want them. You can reposition a motif and test different placements before committing. And if you want to mirror something, flip a mountain range to face the other way, or create a symmetrical design, you can do that in a few clicks too.

For graphgan design specifically, being able to physically drag a section left and right and see exactly how it sits before you’ve crocheted a single stitch is brilliant. Future you, forty rows in, will be very grateful that present you spent some time testing layouts first.

5. How to Use Real Yarn Colorways in Your Stitch Fiddle Chart

This one great for anyone who has ever designed a beautiful chart and then spent hours trying to figure out which actual yarn colors to buy to match it (it’s happened to me waaaay too many times!).

When you’re making your chart in Stitch Fiddle, instead of just picking a generic color from a palette, you can search for a specific yarn line directly in the tool. Type in something like ‘Stylecraft Bambino DK’ and Stitch Fiddle will pull up every single colorway available in that yarn, with fairly accurate color swatches, ready to use straight in your design.

That means you’re not guessing. You’re designing your graphgan in the actual colors you’re going to crochet with. You can try out different colorways side by side, see exactly how they’ll look together on the chart, and go straight from your finished design to your shopping basket knowing precisely what you need.

Not sure which yarn lines to search for? Start with my roundup of the 5 yarns I always recommend for graphgans and go from there.

6. How to Generate Written Crochet Instructions in Stitch Fiddle

This one requires the paid plan, but it’s worth knowing about, particularly if you’re the kind of person who finds staring at a visual chart for 200 rows mentally exhausting.

Once your chart is complete, Stitch Fiddle can generate written, row-by-row instructions for your design. So instead of counting squares on a grid, you’d be reading something along the lines of “4 stitches in Color A, 7 stitches in Color B, 3 stitches in Color A.” It takes your chart and translates it into words.

For graphgans with lots of color changes per row, having both the visual chart and written instructions is super useful. You can cross-reference if you get confused, or switch between the two depending on how your brain is working that day.

7. How to Add Text to a Stitch Fiddle Crochet Chart

Want to add a name, a quote, or a set of initials to your graphgan? Stitch Fiddle has a text tool that places letters directly onto your chart grid, no manually plotting individual squares to spell out the letter “R” yourself. (If you’ve ever tried to do that freehand, you’ll know it’s a surprisingly difficult task)

This is brilliant for personalized projects, baby name blankets, anniversary gifts, anything that calls for words. The text appears as part of your chart grid, so the hard work is done for you. A word of advice though: keep the font simple. Bold, clean lettering crochets up crisply. Fancy, swirly fonts can become an absolute nightmare.

Now Go Open Stitch Fiddle

There are seven Stitch Fiddle features in this post and at least a few of them are probably going to change how you work. Start with the free ones, get your aspect ratio set up before you do anything else, and if you’re still scribbling on printed charts to track your rows, the progress tracker is about to become your new best friend. Whatever stage you’re at, the next steps below will point you in the right direction.

Start Designing Your Graphgan in Stitch Fiddle

1. Just getting started with graphgans?
Grab the free Graphgan Planner Worksheet before you open Stitch Fiddle. It’ll give you everything you need to set your chart up with the right dimensions from the start.
👉 Send me the free planner

2. Want a full design your own chart in Stitch Fiddle walkthrough?
My tutorial covers the foundations of colowork chart design step by step, including how to set up a chart, import an image, and get your first design ready to crochet.

3. Want all my graphgan tutorials in one place?
Graphgan School is my free hub for every tutorial, video, and resource I’ve put together.