I came across a great article (here) on how to make your own charts. This woman says she likes charts so much, that she often converts written instructions to chart form. It’s inspired me, and I’m fooling around with the idea of designing a program that lets you enter in text and produce a chart from it, so you can easily create a chart from an existing written pattern. It would also be great for designing your own pattern in chart form.
I’ve put up the poll to see how many people are into charts enough that they might use such a program!
I’m also doing this poll because I want to know if I should use charts in my pattern book.
i voted that i prefer written instructions, at this point. i’ve always thought that reading charts looks hard. when a pattern has both i do end up using the chart, but only because i can translate it with the written instructions. does that make sense?
i don’t make much that is too too complicated. i like to put my own color and textured patterns into simple sweater patterns, hats and scarves. so maybe charts would be helpful for me…
I found this amazing knitting chart app that y’all might like - it was linked from Eklectika.com that was showing how to chart letter font patterns into sweaters. So fantastic! I tried a few sample GIFs and images, letters, and it was so easy - y’all have to try it!
Your cat sounds like a sweetie. I love cats, especially very friendly ones. My cat has mellowed out over the years. She used to scratch and be very reactive, but I learned how to pet her in the way she likes, and now she’s great. But she rarely jumps up on my lap, and never ever on my desk! She’s amiable, but not super friendly like your cat sounds like!
My favorite thing about charts is that I can tell at a glance that I’m in the right place. For example, on the shawl I’m working now, every other row is purled. I follow the chart and look at the chart for the row below to double check that my yo’s are in the right place, etc.
By being able to see the previous row at a glance, you always know that you’re in the right spot for the current row. If something is amiss, you can tell right away.
I have to agree with amigarabita, I would probably prefer a mix of both… I haven’t used a chart to knit anything yet, but I found that creating a chart was extremely helpful when I was trying to write out a pattern, so I think I could probably do okay with one…Plus, unlike written directions, you can probably get a whole project on one page w/ a chart, and not have to keep track of a whole sheaf of papers.
I agree with Rebecca, I make charts when creating…but I detest knitting from them! I will convert the chart to written directions…YUCK on charts for me!! But, who know…people change!
well the thing is that i can look at a chart and basically know what it means…but i can’t figure out how to use them. and of course if it is one of those charts that is full up of symbols, those just make me panic so i get outta that pattern almost immediately!..lol
I’ve never really tried to use a chart. I get the basic concept of them, but I think I prefer the dummied-down version of written instructions. I like to have stuff spelled out. :??
Charts.