Keeping your place, reading charts, and what’s actually free.

Most crocheters use a click counter, tally marks, or a stitch marker every 10–20 rows. For colorwork charts (graphgans, tapestry crochet), those aren’t enough — you also need to know which row of the chart you’re on and what color sequence it calls for. Every pattern on StitchingLab has a free built-in row tracker: it highlights the current row on the chart, shows that row’s written instruction (e.g. “19 sc A, 1 sc B, 18 sc C…”), and remembers your place when you close the tab. Open any pattern and scroll to “Work the pattern” to use it.

Yes — the StitchingLab row tracker is free, works in your browser with nothing to install, and is built into every pattern page and every chart you generate from a photo. Unlike a plain counter app, it’s tied to the chart itself: advancing a row moves the highlight and shows the next color sequence. Comparable trackers elsewhere are paid features.

Your row saves automatically on your device. For a backup that survives anything — cleared browsing data, a new phone, weeks away from the project — press “Copy progress link” in the tracker. The link encodes your exact row (for example ?row=42). Bookmark it, text it to yourself, or paste it into your Ravelry project notes; opening it on any device resumes exactly there.

Yes. Popular counter apps that import patterns from a web page URL (such as My Row Counter) can import a StitchingLab pattern page directly — just paste the pattern’s address. For Ravelry, paste your progress link into your project notes: Ravelry notes support links, and the link carries both the pattern and your current row. You can also print any chart for a magnetic board or highlighter tape.

Charts are read from the bottom up. Row 1 is the bottom row and is usually a right-side (RS) row read right to left; wrong-side (WS) rows read left to right. That’s why StitchingLab numbers chart rows from the bottom and marks every written row RS or WS with a direction arrow — the chart, the written instructions, and the tracker all agree.

Yes. Upload a photo and StitchingLab generates the chart and free written row-by-row instructions — single crochet (tapestry), corner-to-corner (C2C), filet, or knitting — plus a materials list with real yarn colorways, and the row tracker. No account, no watermark, no per-pattern fee.

One per color area you’re working at the same time. Every generated pattern includes a Project reality check that counts it for you: the maximum simultaneous strands in any row (your bobbin count if you work intarsia-style), total color changes, and how many ends you’ll weave in — before you buy yarn.

The Craft Yarn Council standard ranges: worsted (#4) takes 5.5–6.5mm (I-9 to K-10½), DK (#3) takes 4.5–5.5mm, bulky (#5) takes 6.5–9mm. For tapestry crochet, go one size down to hide the carried strand. Each pattern’s Project kit lists the right size for its matched yarns automatically.

The converter, written instructions, row tracker, and pattern catalog are free with no account. The site earns commissions when you buy yarn or tools through its links (marked and disclosed) — that’s the whole business model. You never need to buy anything to use the tools.