I have never read charts, either, but I think I understand how it works. I have posted a link to an excerpt from Knitting for Dummies which explains it. Also, if you put the words "reading knitting charts" into Google, it will bring up other website with information. Good luck!

Here is a link that might be useful: Reading Knitting Charts

Is part of the touble keeping track of where you are? I use a secretary's 'easel' (for holding stuff to be typed) with a clear plastic arm that slides up & down. I just move it down as I need. I've seen some that magnify.

I highly recommend reading charts for lace knitting! It's much simpler than trying to figure out where you are in a mess of words everytime you look back at the pattern. You get the "whole picture" and can anticipate what you need to do next, plus you can spot mistakes more quickly when your knitting doesn't appear to fit in the pattern as charted. Another useful tool is a magnetic board and stand sold at knitting and craft stores. You use magnetic strips to keep track of where you are.

I am totally self-taught since the only member of my family who crocheted was my grandmother and she died 37 years ago before I was interested in crocheting. Some of my friends knit but never used charts/graphs. I experimented with using charts in crochet and change colors as indicated by the pattern. I usually do this in single crochet since I get a better look. Don't know if this helps but I am posting two photos of blankets I did by following a graph/chart (sometimes I substitute a cross-stitch chart). I posted these before in another thread so I apologize to those who have alreaday seen them - just thought it would be easier to re-post.

charted designs i9n knitting or crocheting is the way to go. I started learning how with thebook "charted knitting designs" by Barbara Walker. It came out in the 70s but I'll bet you could find it on Amazon.com or any of those used book websites. I once knitted an afgan with at least ten aran patterns across -all ending on different rows and the rows never repeated. I had my computer wiz daughter crank out a chart with the the row numbers across all 10 charts Hard to explain but it worked .

Susan, what cute baby afghans. Did you make up the charts? Where did you find the sport pattern? I am always looking for cute baby boy patterns.

Thanks for the compliment - I hope the families like them also when these babies are born in March. I didn't make up the charts but used those I found online. The charts are 32x32 so I just used solid 32x32 blocks in between the "balls" and working in three strips was easier to handle (and count). I posted the link for the sports patterns here. I'll do another post with the link for Nemo.

Here is a link that might be useful: Shona's Place - Mini-Graphs

Here's the link I used for the Nemo graph. If you click on her home page you will see many other options. One of my next projects will be a blanket using one of the Elmo graphs. You may need to click around a bit to see all of her knitting patterns. Remember that since I don't knit, I use these same graphs using single crochet and vary my hook and yarn based on where families live and how big I want the blanket.

Here is a link that might be useful: Brigitte's Knittingpage