How to make a graphgan pattern from a photo
A graphgan (graph + afghan) is a crochet blanket worked from a grid chart, each square one stitch or one block, so the finished blanket shows a picture. Here’s how to plan one from a photo without ending up with forty bobbins.
Short answer
Pick the finished size and your gauge, then work out the grid: columns = width in inches × stitches per inch. Typical charts are about 50 × 50 for a pillow, 100 × 120 for a baby blanket and 150 × 180 for a throw. Convert the photo to that grid with only 4–8 yarn colours, merging similar shades so each colour covers real areas. Work it in single crochet, reading one row at a time, or in C2C, reading diagonally.
Try it on your photo Gingham shows the whole pattern before you pay anything.
What a graphgan chart is
A graphgan chart is a grid where each square is a colour. You work the blanket so that every square becomes one stitch, or one small block of stitches, in that colour. The picture appears as the rows build up, much like cross stitch but in yarn, and at blanket size.
1. Work out the grid from the size you want
rows = finished height × rows per inch (from your gauge swatch)
Crochet a small swatch in your chosen yarn, hook and stitch. Measure how many stitches and rows fit in 4 inches (10 cm), then divide by 4. Rough sizes people start from:
| Project | Typical grid | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Pillow | about 50 × 50 | A good first graphgan: finished in days, not months |
| Baby blanket | about 100 × 120 | Enough squares for a simple portrait or character |
| Throw | about 150 × 180 | Real detail, and a long project |
The real finished size depends on your yarn, hook and stitch. Always swatch.
2. Stitches aren’t always square
Single crochet stitches are often a little wider than they are tall, and every crocheter’s tension differs. A chart of square cells can come out slightly stretched or squashed. Your swatch tells you: if your rows per inch differ a lot from your stitches per inch, adjust the chart’s height, or accept a slightly different shape. C2C blocks are closer to square, which is one reason C2C is popular for pictures.
3. Choose and simplify the photo
- One subject, cropped tight, with a plain background. Pets, simple portraits, logos and cartoon characters work best.
- Use few colours: 4–8 for most blankets. Every colour is another ball of yarn to manage, and on a blanket, similar shades merge together from across the room anyway.
- Clear away single stray squares. In crochet, a lone stitch of one colour means dropping one yarn and picking up another for a single stitch, again and again. See confetti, the same problem in thread.
4. Single crochet or C2C?
Row by row (single crochet, tapestry crochet)
You work straight rows, reading the chart one row at a time and alternating direction each row, right to left then left to right. The result is dense and neat. Colours are changed at the end of a stitch and either carried inside the stitches (tapestry crochet) or held on bobbins (intarsia style).
A written row list helps a lot here: instead of counting squares on the chart, you read “Row 12: 5 A, 3 C, 18 A”.
Corner to corner (C2C)
Each square is a small block of stitches, and you build the blanket diagonally from one corner. It’s fast and forgiving, and very popular for picture blankets. You still use a square grid chart, but read it along the diagonals. Row-by-row written instructions don’t apply to it.
5. Yarn and colour changes
- Use yarns of the same weight and fibre across all colours, so every square is the same size and washes the same way.
- Wind bobbins for small areas rather than working from whole balls.
- Change colour on the last pull-through of the stitch before the new colour starts. That keeps the edges between colours clean.
- Buy all the yarn for a colour at once. Dye lots differ, and it shows in large areas.
Chart your photo for crochet
Gingham turns a photo into a crochet graph for a pillow, baby blanket or throw with your own yarn colors (up to 16, lettered A–P). Its PDF prints row-by-row color runs such as “Row 12: 5 A, 3 C, 18 A”. Preview the whole chart free before you pay anything.
