Graft Calculator Instructions

Note: the instructions below were written for the default orientation, where you are grafting the pieces top-to-top. If instead you are joining something like a cowl, where the loops on the back needle came from a provisional cast-on and the sections above and below the graft were both worked in the same direction (upward), then you can eliminate the jog but the recipe has to be a bit different. Select "top-to-bottom" for the orientation option, and be aware that before stitching the graft you'll need to pick up an extra loop at both ends of the back needle (which will only be used for one pass each). See this article for details.

The form uses a pictorial layout to specify placement of the desired pattern stitches, so the tool should work the same whether you knit right-handed or left-handed. There is an option to indicate how your live loops are mounted on the needles, though, as it makes a slight difference when working the decreases. If you are a combination knitter, to avoid confusion you may want to remount the loops to be decreased so they are uniform.

Currently the program only supports grafting ordinary knits, purls, yarn-overs, and single decreases. (It could probably be extended to handle some additional stitches, but things like brioche may be just too complex for this approach.) However, this limitation only applies to the two rows being created by the graft, so you can still have fancier stitches elsewhere in the pattern. Also, if necessary you can use question marks to represent any unsupported stitches, and the program will cheerfully leave those for you to figure out on your own.

Hey wait — two rows? Well, that depends on exactly how you define a "row". We are only adding one more wiggly line of yarn to what is already on the needles, but it is interacting with two sets of loops to make two rows of purl bumps. And since a pattern row is really just a way of describing the interaction between one wiggly line and the next, the graft must conform to one pattern row on the near side and another on the far side, and thus accounts for two pattern rows.

The layout of the form is as follows. Imagine placing one piece of knitting flat on a table in front of you, wrong side down, with the needle holding the live loops at the top (i.e. away from you). Then place the other piece on the far side of the table, also wrong side down, and rotate it clockwise so that the two needles are next to each other. It does not matter if you ended with a right-side or wrong-side row, or whether the tails are on the right or left. However if one or both needles are not pointing in the same desired direction, then before actually sewing the graft you'll need to transfer those loops to another needle (or with dpns or circulars, slide them to the other end).

Consult your pattern for the near piece, and identify the next row after the last one you worked. In the lower box, type the sequence of symbols corresponding to those stitches, just as you want them to appear in the finished graft. If your pattern is not charted, be careful to order the stitches from right-to-left or left-to-right as appropriate, and use the symbols for how they should look on the right side of the work. You can insert extra spaces if that makes it easier to read, as the program will ignore all spaces. You can also insert : characters to mark off repeats or other special sections for your own reference; they will be simply copied to the output without being treated as stitches.

Then repeat for the far piece, taking care to account for it being inverted, and type the symbols into the upper box. (This can be a little bit confusing, but fortunately a left-slanting decrease (say) still slants to the left when upside-down, so it could be worse.) You can also choose the direction of the inevitable half-stitch jog, and whether you want to sew the graft from right to left or from left to right.

When you click the Go button, the program will display a diagram showing how to insert your tapestry needle into each loop (knitwise or purlwise) to achieve the desired effect using a Kitchener-like technique. The vertical bars represent separators between the loops on the needles, and the dovetails in the middle row show the wiggly yarn path. Generally you will go through each loop twice: first leaving it on the needle and going over to the other side, then coming back later for a second pass through the same loop, after which you drop it off the needle. For example, this fragment will create a knit stitch on the near needle:

        (far needle not shown)
                  \ /
             <-- |k p| <--

Thus the vertical bars usually indicate that it's time to drop a loop, unless it's a phantom loop with no passes (e.g. due to # steps).

As a simple test, you can get the Kitchener recipe by entering all knits (------) in both boxes. You can also enter the pattern from Joni's example, and see how the text-art output from this tool corresponds to her more illustrative drawing.

Tips:

If you have difficulty figuring out what the far row should be because it's inverted, try writing it out on a scrap of paper first and then physically turn the paper.
The program's output is plain text, and can be copied and pasted into other documents. Just be sure to use a monospace font, so the characters stay lined up.
If you are not familiar with basic Kitchener stitch and need help with the sewing process, Lisa Gutierrez has an excellent photo tutorial.
Leave a very generous tail for grafting, especially if you prefer to sew loosely and tighten it later.
Before sewing the graft, run a lifeline through the loops on each needle, and put a removable stitch marker on the tail. This will not only help you back up to fix mistakes, but will also make it easier to identify the loops when adjusting the tension afterward. Leave the lifelines a bit looser in the vicinity of SSKs, to facilitate remounting.
SSKs are tricky to stitch. Remember to go through the backs of the loops after remounting, and that in this case "purlwise" means from left to right, while "knitwise" means from right to left (at least for right-handed Western-style knitters). You may find it easier to just arrange those loops on a cable needle in whatever order and orientation you want them to have, and then stitch "up" and "down" instead of worrying about which way is what-wise. (This approach also works to handle the various flavors of double decreases.)
When grafting cables, of course you want to choose non-crossing rows for the graft if possible. But be aware that because the crosses are actually formed below the pattern rows where they're called for, you'll likely need fewer rows than you think in the vicinity of the graft to produce consistent vertical spacing between the crosses. It pays to experiment on a swatch!
If you can't avoid grafting at a crossing row, specify the stitches as you want them to appear immediately after the cross. Then when you come to those stitches while sewing the graft, cable them as usual just before working them. However it may be a bit more challenging than usual to get the tension right.
Because you are working with the end of the yarn rather than pulling up loops, it is technically possible to graft stitch patterns that cannot be produced by knitting. One useful application of this is to push the half-stitch jog up or down by one row in certain places to make it less noticeable. The program doesn't support this directly, but you can use the '?' feature and then adjust the results manually. Example

Calculator form