Start from the finished object, not the stitch count
Almost every knitting problem that shows up at the bind-off was created at the cast-on, and it was created by working forward from a number instead of backward from a size. Deciding to cast on 180 stitches is deciding nothing, because 180 stitches is 36 inches at one gauge and 45 at another. Deciding on a 40 inch blanket is a decision, and the stitch count follows from it in one multiplication.
That multiplication is stitches per inch times width. Everything else on this page is bookkeeping around it: subtracting borders that are worked in a different stitch, rounding what is left to a whole number of pattern repeats, and adding the borders back. The row direction works the same way with rows per inch, and the row map exists because knowing you need 360 rows is much less useful than knowing that the bottom border ends at row 12 and the top border starts at row 348.
Rounding, and which way to miss
The exact count is almost never a whole number, and once a stitch repeat is involved it is almost never a legal number either. A 40 inch blanket at 4.5 stitches per inch wants 180 stitches. Put an 8 stitch pattern repeat inside a 4 stitch garter border on each side and the legal totals are 8n plus 8, so 176 and 184 are available and 180 is not. One is 39.1 inches, the other 40.9.
Which to take is a judgement about the object rather than about arithmetic.
| Piece | Round | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Sweater body | Up | Ease is comfortable, tightness is not, and knitted fabric does not gain width later |
| Hat, cuff, sock | Down | These are worked with negative ease and have to grip to stay put |
| Blanket, scarf, wrap | Either | No fit requirement, so take whichever gives the tidier repeat count |
| Anything seamed to something else | Match the mate | Two pieces that must join need the same count more than either needs the target inch |
The size of the miss is worth checking against the repeat. A 12 stitch cable repeat at 4 stitches per inch is three whole inches of width, and there is no rounding that gets you closer than an inch and a half. When that happens the fix is not better arithmetic, it is changing the border width to absorb the difference, or accepting a different finished size.
The row map
Row counts are more useful as positions than as totals. The map splits the piece into the bottom border, the main pattern and the top border, and gives the row number where each begins, so you can write them on a sticky note rather than measuring with a tape every twenty minutes. The optional marked point handles the thing you need to reach at a set distance from the top rather than from the bottom: an armhole, a neckline, a stripe that has to line up with something else, the row where the second colour starts.
Working to a row count and working to a measured length are both valid and they are not the same. Row counts guarantee that two pieces match each other, which is what you want for a front and a back. Measured length guarantees the piece is the size you wanted, which is what you want when your row gauge is uncertain. Use rows for pieces that must match, and length for pieces that must fit, and if those conflict, trust the tape and adjust the other piece to match.
Working in the round, and what changes
For a tube, the width field is the full circumference and the cast-on is the count for the whole round rather than for a flat piece. Two things then differ. There is no selvedge, so border stitches at the sides make no sense and should be set to zero. And every round is a right-side round, so the option to end on a wrong-side row is irrelevant, which is why it is a choice rather than a default.
The other difference does not show up in the arithmetic. Many knitters work at a measurably different gauge in the round than they do flat, because purl rows tension differently from knit rows and a tube has none. If your swatch was flat and your project is round, that difference is a real risk to the size, and the honest fix is a small swatch in the round on a spare set of needles.
What still has to be worked out separately
This page sizes a rectangle. Shaping is not a rectangle, and any place the stitch count changes needs its own distribution: a sleeve tapering from cuff to underarm, a hat crown decreasing to nothing, a yoke gaining stitches across a single round. Those go to the increase and decrease spacing calculator. If the counts here came out different from a pattern you are following, the gauge converter is the page that reconciles them, and once the sizes are settled the yardage calculator turns them into skeins.
Questions people ask
How many stitches do I cast on for a blanket?
Width in inches times stitches per inch, then rounded to a legal repeat. There is no universal number because it depends entirely on your gauge. As an illustration, a 40 inch wide blanket needs 180 stitches at 4.5 stitches per inch, 200 at 5, and 240 at 6. Those are wildly different numbers for the same blanket, which is why any answer of the form cast on 180 stitches, given without a gauge, is worthless. Swatch the yarn and the stitch pattern you actually plan to use, measure it blocked, and multiply.
Should I include the border stitches in the pattern repeat?
No, keep them outside it. A garter or seed border is a different fabric worked at a different width per stitch, and folding it into the repeat count means the repeat no longer divides evenly into the panel that has to display it. The convention this page follows is the one most patterns use: total equals a whole number of repeats plus the border stitches on both sides. Enter the border count for one side and it doubles it. If your border is worked over a repeat of its own, treat the border count as a multiple of that repeat.
Do I need to work an even number of rows?
Only for flat knitting where it matters which side you finish on. Bind-offs generally look tidier worked from the right side, and if you are going to pick up stitches along the top edge you want to know which face you are working from. Setting the option to end on a wrong-side row rounds the total up to an even number so the last row worked is a wrong-side row and the bind-off happens on the right side. In the round there are no wrong-side rows and the constraint is meaningless, so leave it on any.
My blanket is coming out narrower than the calculator says. What happened?
Almost always gauge, and almost always because the swatch was not treated like the blanket. Three specific causes account for most of it. The swatch was measured unblocked and the fabric relaxed differently once wet. The swatch was small enough that the selvedge distortion pulled the count. Or your tension tightened once the piece got heavy and awkward, which is real and common on large blankets. If you are twenty rows in and the width is already wrong, that is the cheapest moment to rip back and recount, and the calculator will take the new gauge.
Can I use this for crochet?
Yes. Substitute chain count for cast-on and the arithmetic is unchanged: stitches per inch times width gives the starting chain, allowing for whatever turning chain your stitch requires on top. Two crochet-specific warnings. The starting chain is easy to work at a different tension from the fabric above it, so a chain that measures correctly can still produce a first row that does not, and many crocheters use a hook one size larger for the chain to fix this. And rows per inch in crochet vary far more between stitch types than in knitting, so the row gauge must come from the actual stitch you will use.