How to keep your place in a PDF knitting pattern

Start with the chart's reading direction

Most knitting charts are read from bottom to top. Knitting flat, right-side (odd) rows are read right to left and wrong-side (even) rows left to right; knitting in the round, every row is read right to left. Row numbers on the right edge usually mean you start that row from the right, and numbers on the left mean you start from the left.

Written patterns list rows as sentences, which makes losing your place even easier than with a chart. Crossing off finished rows or marking the current one is the most reliable fix.

Keeping your place on a paper pattern

Highlighter tape, sticky notes and magnetic boards with a magnet strip are the usual tools. On a chart, place the marker just above the row you're working, so the rows you've already knit stay visible below and you can compare them with your fabric.

Check off finished rows, and mark the important ones — cable crosses, the start of decreases — in a different color ahead of time. Mark up a copy or printout rather than the original so you can reuse the pattern.

Reading a PDF pattern on a phone or tablet

On a screen, you usually lose your place in one of three ways: the screen turns off and reopens at the first page, the zoomed area shifts, or rotating the phone redraws the page.

• Keep the screen on while you knit. A short screen timeout means hunting for your line every time you rest your hands.
• Zoom in so only one section of the chart is on screen, and use a tool that marks your current line at that zoom level.
• Lock rotation, or check that your place marker follows the pattern when you rotate.
• Save the PDF on your phone and open it from there, instead of digging it out of email or a chat app every time.

Keep your pattern position and row count in step

If your place marker and your row count are tracked separately, sooner or later one of them is wrong. Make "+1, move the marker up one line" a single action at the end of every row, and check now and then that the chart's row number matches your counter. Catching a mismatch early saves ripping back later.

Doing it with Rowmark's pattern viewer

In Rowmark you open a PDF or photo of your pattern inside the project and drag a highlighter band to your current line. The band is pinned to the pattern itself, so it stays in place even after you zoom or rotate. A mini +1 sits right under the pattern, so you can count without leaving it, and the screen stays on while you knit.

Row notes like "Row 48: start crown decreases" pop up when you reach that row, and the repeat counter and stitch counter work alongside the pattern. The pattern viewer, like every other feature, is unlocked and needs no account.