a simple question about graphs

[Sarahc409]

i want to make hubby a sweater with the image of one of his favorite characters in front. so i went ahead and used the knitPro web site http://www.microrevolt.org/knitPro/ and got my image on graph. now my question is, why is it that the little boxes (each stitch) in my graph look more like rectangles than squares. in most of the graphs i've seen the little boxes are usually squares. is there a reason for this? i just want to make sure before i embark on this extremely complicated graph that i am not doing anything wrong. i'm afraid if i do it the image will come up short and stocky.

thanks in advance!

sarah

[Ingrid]

Knitting graph paper is different than regular graph paper, because the width of the stitches is not the same as the height.

If you graph out a pattern on regular square graph paper, the image comes out short and squatty--knitters' graph paper compensates for that.

[Sarahc409]

in other words, since knitted stitches are long and not actually square the graph sections should be longer also. THANKS! that makes more sence.