# How to turn a photo into a crochet pattern that keeps its shape

Source: https://spolvero.design/articles/turn-photo-into-crochet-pattern/
Updated: 2026-09-23
Tool: https://spolvero.design/tools/craft/crochet-pattern-from-photo/

> Pick a photo with one clear subject and a plain background, and crop close. Choose the stitch first: C2C squares are square, but a single crochet stitch is wider than it is tall, so the chart needs more rows than stitches or the picture comes out squashed. Reduce the photo to 5 to 10 yarn colours, remove lone stitches, then work from written rows instead of counting squares. Buy yarn from a per-colour estimate plus 15%.

A photo blanket is a low-resolution picture made of yarn. A lap throw 60 squares wide has fewer pixels than the icon on your phone's home screen. Everything that makes a graphghan succeed follows from that: a simple photo, few colours, and a chart that knows what shape your stitches are.

## 1. Choose a photo that survives

At 60 to 100 stitches across, small detail disappears. What survives is shape and contrast.

- **One subject**, filling the frame. Crop closer than feels natural.
- **A plain background**, or one you are willing to turn into a single colour.
- **Contrast** between the subject and the background. A black dog on a dark sofa becomes one dark blob.

Pet portraits, initials, club logos and line drawings come out well. Group shots and landscapes rarely do.

## 2. Choose the stitch before the size

| | Single crochet | Corner to corner (C2C) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| One square of the chart | One stitch | One block of stitches |
| Square size in worsted yarn | About 6.7 mm wide, 5.9 mm tall | About 25 mm each way |
| Detail for the same blanket | High | Low |
| Colour changes | Many, carried or cut | Fewer, chunkier |
| Best for | Faces, fine logos, wall hangings | Bold shapes, pet blankets, first projects |

A C2C block is square, so a square-grid chart is honest. A single crochet stitch is not.

## 3. The proportion problem

At a typical worsted gauge, single crochet works up at **15 stitches and 17 rows to 10 cm**. The stitch is wider than it is tall. Draw the chart on square graph paper, one square per stitch, and the finished piece comes out about 12% shorter than the picture: faces look squashed.

The fix is to add rows. A square photo charted 100 stitches wide needs **113 rows**, not 100, to stay square in single crochet. In knitting, where a worsted stitch is 20 stitches by 28 rows to 10 cm, the same picture needs 140 rows.

The [photo to crochet pattern maker](/tools/craft/crochet-pattern-from-photo/) does this from your gauge. Pick the yarn weight, or type in your own stitches and rows per 10 cm from a swatch, and the chart's height follows so the finished piece keeps the photo's shape. You can set the width in stitches, or type the finished width in cm or inches.

## 4. Cut the colours, then clean up

A photo has thousands of colours, and you will buy perhaps eight yarns.

1. **Start at 8 colours.** 5 to 10 covers nearly every project.
2. **Merge near-duplicates.** Two greys that differ only on screen are one ball of yarn.
3. **Remove lone stitches.** A single stitch of a different colour is two ends to weave in for no visible gain. Turn clean-up on and they are absorbed into their neighbours.
4. **Fix by hand** what the computer got wrong. Tap a square to recolour it; eyes and mouths are worth a minute of attention.

Match the chart's colours to real yarn in daylight, not on a screen.

## 5. Work from written rows

Counting squares on a printed grid is where mistakes happen. Written rows are easier to follow: "Row 23: 4 blue, 2 white, 7 blue". The tool writes every row out, with Row 1 at the bottom for single crochet, and as diagonals from the corner for C2C, including where to increase and decrease. For C2C there is a left-handed setting, which starts in the other corner and mirrors every row.

You can download the chart, colour key and written rows as a PDF. Or choose **Start stitching** to open the pattern in the row tracker, which shows the current row in words and remembers where you stopped; there is more on that in [how to keep track of rows](/articles/keep-track-of-rows-crochet-knitting/).

Your photo is not uploaded. The chart is made by your own browser. If you send the pattern to your phone, the link carries the finished chart, never the photo.

## 6. Buy the yarn once

The tool estimates yarn per colour from the stitch count and the yarn weight, and adds 15% for tails, joins and mistakes. The figures are estimates: tension varies a lot between people. For a number you can trust, work a small sample, unravel it, measure the yarn, and enter your own yards per stitch.

As a guide for C2C in worsted: a block uses about 1.2 yards, so a 50 × 60 throw of 3,000 blocks comes to roughly 4,100 yards in all. Buy each colour in one go, from one dye lot.

## Start small

Make a cushion front before a blanket. A 30 × 30 C2C square tests your colours and your tension in a weekend, and tells you whether the photo works in yarn before you commit to a throw.

## Questions

### What is a graphghan?

A blanket made from a graph: a grid where every square is one stitch, or one C2C block, in one colour. Worked in single crochet, tapestry crochet or corner to corner, the grid becomes a picture. The word joins graph and afghan.

### Why does my crochet picture look stretched?

Because the chart assumed square stitches. At a typical worsted gauge, single crochet is 15 stitches and 17 rows to 10 cm, so a stitch is wider than it is tall. A chart that uses one square per stitch comes out about 12% too short. The chart must add rows to make up for it.

### How many colours should a photo blanket have?

Usually 5 to 10. Each colour is another yarn to buy and more ends to weave in, and beyond about 10 the extra shades mostly add scattered single stitches. Start at 8 and merge any colour that covers only a handful of stitches.

### What kind of photo works best for a crochet chart?

One subject, a plain background, strong contrast between the subject and what is behind it. Pet faces, initials, logos and line drawings work well. Group photos and landscapes lose their detail at blanket resolution.

### How much yarn does a graphghan need?

It depends on stitch, size and tension. As a guide, a worsted C2C square uses about 1.2 yards, so a 50 by 60 square throw needs around 4,100 yards with 15% spare. Make a sample, unravel it and measure for a figure of your own.