Part 2 of our expert guide to the Stitchmastery charting program
In the second part of our Stitchmastery series, we discover how to build on the basics to develop custom knitting charts
IN ISSUE 118, we looked at the essentials you need to know to use Stitchmastery, a piece of software with seemingly limitless possibilities for chart creation.
However, it can be a little tricky to work out how the program ‘thinks’; it’s not always like a typical desktop program. If you’re the kind of person who’s happy to read manuals, much of the information you need to use Stitchmastery easily is available in its manual, which is available to download. However, not everyone likes manuals, or has the time to read them! Here we break down some of the most important and useful tools, that you’re likely to use most frequently.
ADDING BORDERS
In the sample rib pattern we’ve been looking, at the chart doesn’t need to be as big as it is, as the same 4 stitch pattern is repeated across the columns. If you want to create a condensed chart, with a border to indicate the repeat, this is very easy to do.
1 First, delete the columns you don’t need. To do this, select them as before and hit the red cross in the top bar to get rid of them, or just press ‘Delete’ on your keyboard.
2 Now, select the remaining stitch columns you want to put into the repeat. If you just want to add a border onto the stitches, but don’t need to generate text to match your instructions, then select the stitches as follows.
3 First, click on the white nd arrow in the top bar. Then click the top left/right stitch you want to select, hold shift and select the bottom stitch diagonally opposite. Note that you can also use the Ctrl key to select individual stitches, rather than a whole row/ column:
4 Once you’ve selected your stitches, click on ‘Border’ in the top bar and choose ‘Place Border on Selected Stitches’. If you want a box all the way around, choose ‘All Sides. For right and left lines only choose ‘East and West only’, for top and bottom lines only, choose ‘North and South only’. You’ll get this now… To amend the description for the border you have a couple of options.
5 If you just want to change the name, click on the text twice. You can now give the border a better name.
6 If you want to change the thickness or colour of the border line as well, or perhaps change whether you have a border on all sides, click on the red border box in the key, then go to Border in the top bar and select ‘Edit Border properties’…
7 Here you can change the name of the border in the key, which side(s) the border sits on, the thickness and colour of the line and so on. Generally I increase the line size to 3 or 4 pt if it’s to be printed, as 2 pts is a bit thin,
8 Click OK and these properties will be applied to your border. You can change them any time you like.
To use the same border on another section of the chart, or extend the border to neighbouring stitches/ rows, select the relevant stitches with the white arrow as before and go to Border>Add Existing Border on Selected Stitches>#name of border.
1 If you need to make a border with an irregular shape, the easiest option is to make a rectangular border and then remove individual stitches from the border as above to get this…
2 If you need to add partial borders, or very unusual shapes, you can select the stitches as before and use Border>Add Existing Border on Selected Stitches>#name of border.
3 Alternatively, you can add single lines by selecting the relevant stitch and then adding a border on one side only. This is fiddly and generates extra work (see TIP below) so making a rectangle and then removing stitches to get the irregular shape is my preferred option.
ADDING REPEATS
Adding a border in Stitchmastery is not the same as adding a repeat. This is important to remember. Adding a border in Stitchmastery gives you a visual aid, but it doesn’t tell the text generator anything.
Let’s start without a border as it’s easier to explain.
1 To select stitches to put them into a repeat, you MUST do it differently from when you’re making a border. First, select the marquee symbol in the toolbar - this looks like a box with dashes all the way around it to to the far right of the white arrow. This will give you a cursor that looks like a large plus sign.
2 Now, drag it around the stitches you want to put into your repeat. You must include the OUTER edges of any squares you want to select within the marquee.
3 Once your stitches are selected go to Repeat>Place Stitches in Selection into a Repeat. You’ll get this…
4 Click on the drop down menu to the right of Repeat Type to select how your repeat will appear in the text automatically generated by the chart.
5 To add a number of repeats click the ‘add qualifier to repeat’ box and then choose ‘qualifier type’ from the drop down menu. Give the number of repeats and click OK. Now you have a chart with a repeat in it, and this repeat will be reflected in the generated text like this.
This will get flagged as an error in the Outline text section, so the best way to get around this is to add the remaining rows into the repeat, without a border.
Adding repeats without a border can get confusing, especially if you have a few different repeat sections, so again, I tend to do this last.
1 To add a repeat without a border, select the new stitches with the marquee tool as before, and add repeats, but don’t select the ‘add a border’ option. Now you won’t show any errors and will have the same number of stitches throughout the chart. I’ve added a blue border for now to remind me that the repeat is there.
2 To edit a repeat section, use the marquee tool to select the stitches as before. You’ll see that the selection now looks different, with an outline with small circles along the lines around the selected repeats. If you’re not sure where your repeats are, select the whole chart with the marquee tool, and use these circled lines to find your repeat.
3 Then click Repeat > Edit Repeats to amend the repeat. This is a useful tool if you want to double check the number of repeats given for a stitch count is correct.
WORKING IN SECTIONS
One of my favourite things about Stitchmastery is that you can copy and paste sections of the chart to extend it, and this will then be reflected in the generated text.
1 To copy stitches to paste elsewhere in the chart, use the white cursor to select them.
2 To copy a whole column or row click on the number at either end of it.
3 If you want something to be symmetrical (e.g. decreases either side of centre on a lace shawl, copy the relevant columns of stitches, insert them where you
want them, then select them with the white cursor - shown as grey here.
4 Then click on the blue/green triangles in the toolbar to flip them on the horizontal or vertical axis. You’ll get this…
5 Note that the program has automatically generate the k2tog/p2tog stitch just by you flipping the ssk/p2tog tbl stitches.
ADDING NEW CHARTS
1 To insert a new chart into the same file use Insert>Insert Chart and then proceed as before.
2 If you want to copy a chart, click on the gap between where the stitch and row numbers meet at one of the corners and it will select the whole chart.
3 Use Cmd+C/ Ctrl+C and then move your cursor to an empty space - it doesn’t matter where, and click on that space.
4 Then hit Cmd+C/ Ctrl+C to paste the chart, which will automatically appear to the right of the last chart you created.
TEXT FORMATTING
Leave any text formatting until you’ve finished working on your chart as otherwise, every time you add a new symbol it’ll come up in the default style, unless you’ve already changed your default font in the style sheet.
1 To format text click on the T in the top toolbar and then choose from the formatting options. A lot of fonts merge into each other on the stitch columns so you may want to reduce their size.
2 To remove a number from the stitch column click on the number and then select Edit>Hide Row/Column ID. You can select more than one column at a time to make this quicker. In this example I’ve removed all but the number 5 as a reference point for the stitch counts.
3 When you’re happy with the look of your chart, save the Stitchmastery format by choosing File>Save.
4 To save the Stitchmastery file into different formats, click the Camera icon in the toolbar and choose the format you want from the drop-down menus. To export the text, click the clipboard to the left of the camera icon and follow the instructions. You can also select and paste the text on screen or click the box on the top right of the text generator box, bottom right.
STITCHMASTERY’S QUIRKS
Stitchmastery has a lot of quirks and it’s impossible to cover them all here! As you go along you’ll discover new things, but below are a few of the main ones I’ve found. There is a very helpful group on Ravelry.com if you get stuck on something specific: http://bit.ly/SMravelry
1 Stitchmastery can’t automatically recognise colours in its generated text unless you create a custom stitch for that colour. If you want to use, say K2A, K3B, you’ll have to input this text manually into your pattern or create a custom stitch.
2 If you want to add different repeat counts for different sizes, Stitchmastery can create them, but there seems to be a bug in the programme. The number of repeats you add will show in your outline text (bottom left) but not in your output text (bottom right). So you can use this function to check whether the repeat works in different sizes, but you’ll need to input the text manually into your final pattern. To add different numbers of repeats, when filling in the ‘qualifying text’ box for a repeat, add ‘1,2,3,4’ (for example) to get your multiple repeats. Note that there should be no gaps between numbers.
3 For more complex changes, such as style sheets, custom stitches or output text formatting, it is worth reading that section of the manual, as there are too many steps involved to outline them succinctly here! Alternatively, ask a question in the Ravelry group, as the members are very helpful.
4 When you create a stylesheet, with custom stitches, or visual style on it, other Stitchmastery users can’t access it automatically. To share a stitch library with another Stitchmastery user you need to save it into a shared workspace, such as a computer network or drive you can both access. You can then you can import it between users. Find detailed instructions on how to do this on page 61 of the Stitchmastery user manual, which is available to download at http://bit.ly/SMmanual.