A free browser designer for standard 24-stitch punch cards — Brother, Silver Reed/Knitmaster, Toyota & Singer. Click to design, preview the knit, print at true scale and punch your own cards.
Punch-card design has traditionally meant expensive desktop software or graph paper and guesswork. This generator is a free browser alternative: draw your motif on a 24-stitch grid, tile classic fair-isle starters, preview exactly how the repeat will knit up, then print a true-scale template to punch onto a blank card. It works for any 24-stitch punch card machine — Brother KH models, Silver Reed / Knitmaster, Toyota and Singer.
The pattern repeats across the needle bed every 24 stitches, so motifs that divide into 24 (2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 12, 24) tile seamlessly. Cards run in a loop: your design should also read well repeated vertically, and two rows overlap at the snap join. A punched hole means "select this needle" — whether that knits a contrast color (fair isle), tucks or slips depends on the carriage setting, so one card is really several fabrics.
A punch card is not a picture of your knitting. It is a list of instructions for the needle selector, and once you see it that way the rules fall out on their own.
Twenty-four columns, and only twenty-four. The card is read across 24 needles and then starts again, so a domestic machine with 200 needles works your 24-stitch design eight and a bit times across the bed. Whatever you draw in column 1 also happens at needle 25, 49 and 73. This is why motif width matters: widths that divide into 24 — 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 12 — meet themselves cleanly, and a 5-stitch motif leaves a visible seam every 24 needles.
Bottom to top, one card row per knitted row. Row 1 is at the bottom of the grid on this page and at the bottom of the printed template, the same way a crochet or knitting chart reads. The card is snapped into a loop, so the top row is followed by the bottom row again — your design has to repeat vertically as well as horizontally, and two rows overlap at the snap join.
A hole means "select this needle", not "knit this colour". What the selected needle does is set by the carriage. In fair isle it takes the contrast yarn; in tuck it holds the loop and takes another; in slip it passes without knitting. The same card gives you three completely different fabrics, which is the most useful thing about punch cards and the least obvious.
The machine reads ahead. Most domestic machines read the card several rows before the row that is knitting — seven rows on many Brother models. The first rows come out plain while the card catches up, and you set the card to the row number in your manual, not to row 1.
Twelve ready 24-stitch cards, all built on widths that divide into 24 so they tile without a seam. Click one to load it into the editor, then change any cell you like.
| Card | Repeat | What it gives you |
|---|---|---|
| Bird's eye | 2 × 2 | The classic all-over speckle. Densest possible two-colour fabric, and the first card most people knit. |
| Checker | 4 × 4 | Even blocks. Reads as a woven check in fair isle, as a waffle in tuck. |
| Dots | 6 × 4 | Sparse, offset spots. Very little yarn carried, so it stays soft. |
| Vertical stripes | 4 × 1 | Two on, two off. In slip setting this gives a ridged vertical texture. |
| Horizontal bands | 1 × 6 | Three rows on, three off. The simplest way to test carriage settings. |
| Diagonal | 4 × 4 | A single travelling line — the easiest way to see the machine's read-ahead in the fabric. |
| Chevron | 8 × 4 | Half a zigzag; stacks into a clean V band. |
| Zigzag | 8 × 6 | Full up-and-down. Three repeats across the card. |
| Diamonds | 8 × 8 | Solid argyle-style diamonds. Long floats — keep it to fair isle. |
| Lattice | 8 × 8 | Outlined diamonds. Same shape as above with far shorter floats. |
| Basketweave | 6 × 6 | Alternating 3 × 3 blocks. Excellent in tuck. |
| Hearts | 8 × 8 | Three hearts across the card. The one everyone asks for. |
The template prints at the real hole pitch, defaulting to 5.0 × 5.0 mm, which matches common Brother and Silver Reed 24-stitch blanks. Three things make the difference between a card that works and a card that jams:
The second printed page is the punch-position list — every row, how many holes it has, and which stitch numbers to punch. Punching from a list and checking the count per row catches a mistake at row 12 instead of at row 60.
Standard domestic machines — Brother, Silver Reed/Knitmaster, Toyota and Singer — read 24-stitch punch cards: the pattern repeats across the needle bed every 24 needles. Card length varies; blanks are commonly around 60 rows and are snapped into a loop, overlapping two rows at the join.
Bottom to top, one card row per knitted row, left to right across 24 needles. A filled dot is a punched hole, which selects that needle. Because the card repeats across the whole bed every 24 stitches, whatever you put in column 1 also happens at needle 25, 49 and 73. The card is a loop, so the top row is followed by the bottom row again.
Yes. Print the true-scale template from this generator, check the 20 mm calibration square with a ruler, then tape it over a blank card and punch the marked holes with a standard card punch. Compare it against a factory card from your own machine first — hole spacing varies between brands and eras.
Anything whose width divides into 24: 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 12 or 24. A 5-stitch motif will not meet itself at the repeat and you get a visible seam every 24 needles. All twelve cards in the library here are built on widths that divide into 24.
It selects that needle for the row. What the selected needle then does depends on the carriage setting: in fair isle it knits the contrast colour, in tuck it tucks, in slip it slips. One card is really several fabrics.
Domestic punch card machines read the card several rows ahead of the row being knitted — commonly seven on Brother machines. That is why the first rows come out plain while the card catches up, and why you set the card to the row your manual specifies rather than to row 1.
Yes — a free browser alternative to paid desktop punch-card software. Design it, preview the knitted repeat, download a PNG and print at true scale. No signup.