Picotlab crochet lab

Stuck on a crochet pattern? Paste the line you are stuck on and Picotlab explains it in plain steps, says where the hook goes and checks the count. Below that: walk a whole pattern through, or design one and see it at true size.

Explain a line

Paste a line or a term you're stuck on

Try one

The answer shows here: what each part means, where the hook goes, how many stitches the line makes, and anything that looks wrong.

Check a whole pattern and walk through it

Each line and its printed count is checked first. A clean pattern is walked through; one with doubtful counts shows a warning; one it cannot read is not shown as steps.

Or design a piece

Describe what to make

Try one

Or start from a photo

Photo of the piece

Side-on and upright, on a plain background. Works for pieces made in the round: hats, toys, baskets. The piece is read as round in cross-section.

Real height (cm)

Your gauge

Spec

blue = from your words

Optimizer

idle

Priority

Exact sizeEasy to hook

patterns tested

patterns / second

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size miss

generation

How it works

Your words become a spec: item, size, yarn weight, hook, gauge, stitch and features. Gauge sets the real size of one stitch (about 14 sc per 10 cm in worsted on a 5 mm hook); a different hook scales it, and a gauge you type overrides it. hdc is about 1.6 sc tall and dc about 2.3, which is how real fabric measures.

Hats are worked top-down in joined rounds. The target is the hat's true shape in centimetres: a flat crown circle (growing about 6 sts a round in sc, 8 in hdc, 12 in dc) out to the head circumference less the ease, then worked even, with FPdc/BPdc ribbing at the brim. A genetic search tries round-by-round stitch counts, scores them on size, flatness (no ruffles or cupping) and how easy the increases are, and keeps the best. Scarves, cowls and blankets search stitch and row counts, stripe repeats and granny-square grids that land on the size.

The winner is simulated at true size: hats stitch by stitch as a spring network that stretches over a head form; flat pieces as cloth draped over a rod, a box or shoulders. Yarn is estimated from the stitches (calibrated so an adult worsted beanie uses about 110–180 m) plus 10% for ends.

10 cm

Finished piece

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finished size

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yarn

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time to make (steady pace)

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stitches

Pattern

Blender export

real size, metres

Exports the piece as it hangs now. Script: in Blender open Scripting, press New, paste, Run Script; it builds the mesh at true size with a yarn material, a Solidify the thickness of the yarn and a subdivision modifier. OBJ: save the text as picotlab.obj and use File › Import › Wavefront.