Can someone tell me the reason why charts have to have symbols that look so much alike so bloody close together. It's frustrating for sure. I'm working on a rather big project and intermixed among the wings of a fairy are symbols so much alike that I have to use my magnifying glass each time I take a stitch to make sure it's the right colour. Just had to pluck out a bunch of stitches the other night - my groan for the day.
Because idiot publishers/designers let their computers generate what symbols are used, and don't check them for similarity before printing
I have seen charts (in kits, usually, I seem to remember Dimensions being big on this) that, if they have similar symbols, will print them in different colors (red and blue, for instance) so one can tell the difference.
I always put Maureen's charts through my scanner and enlarge them for her. One new kit came with a chart that looked as though it had been copied umpteen times. Maureen was partway through the chart before she discovered the chart used two symbols + and ÷ which were impossible to tell apart.
Sometimes the charting software just allocates the symbols, and, well, the designer just didn't bother to change them around. But, this is the reason I often do an enlarged copy . Sorry about your froggin' & frustration.
I've found the best thing to do is to go to a copy center and have them enlarge the pattern. Or if you have a scanner you can also do it yourself at home.
Oh well, it feels good to let off a little steam now and again - but it sure is frustrating. You'd think the designers would care enough to check over their patterns before releasing them. I do enlarge my patterns a bit, but apparently not enough and I too need to use my magnifying glass now. I love this pattern I'm doing (Shall We Dance by Dimple Designs) but I'll really be glad when it's finished too.
I have a chart of Coppelia (by Forget me Nots in Stitches)which I actually started, and had to stop because the instructions were so bad. The pattern is hand drawn, and there is a list of symbols, but then in the text instructions, all the parts of the chart that are to be done in say, satin stitch, are listed in a paragraph which you have to wade through each time you get to a new area of the chart.
For example: "Stem Stitch, use 2 of Balger 002HL or 1 of DMC Gold Metallic for Dr. Coppellius' key; use 1 of Flower Thread 2674 for the Wheat Stem (Wheat ears are lazy daisy stitches); use 1 of Flower Thread
284 for Paint Brush handles." And this is the shortest list. In the case of the satin stitch paragraph, it's listed as "satin stitch" and then "more satin stitch"! Finally at the end of the pattern (after a section of "additional stitches)" there is another section of, you guessed it, "more satin stitches".
So every time you need to stitch part of the pattern you have to read through each paragraph (and there are a number of them) to find the item you are stitching, and then, what thread and what colour. It would be gorgeous if I could ever figure it out (it uses tulle for Coppelia's skirt).
I can't figure out why the designer didn't at least list the parts of the patterns or motifs, then the stitch and thread colour. It would have made it much easier. As it is, this in in my permanent ufo pile.
I think this is where good XS designing software comes into its own. Yeah, sure, the designer ought to have used it instead of a pencil, but she didn't.
When I strike a bad chart I really want to stitch, I'll often take the time to copy it, stitch by stitch, into my design software so I can print my own (large) copy and read it. If there are 'bad symbols', I can change them for something else. I can make the chart look the way I need it to.
It's a lot easier to take the time (and a highlighter pen) to decipher the chart like that than it is to make crucial decisions about ambiguous symbols when you're in the middle of stitching it!
These sorts of instructions seem par for the course with these sorts of patterns, where XS is used little, if at all. It's a pain, but I'm not sure there is an easy way to describe what needs describing, especially since what will seem easy and sensible to me will seem confusing to someone else. These are the sorts of patterns I like the best, and I figure wading through the instructions is just the price I pay ;-)
I took a class in which the teacher told us that she had run the design and instructions through a test group. I'm not sure what planet those stitchers were from, maybe benice_dontsaynuttin, as they let a lot of errors go by and the teacher frequently said to correct or ignore her booklet.
Quite often, even if there's a big difference in the symbols, I'll blow up the color/symbol chart which should be part of *all* good designs and tape a snippet of floss, yarn, thread next to each symbol as a visual reference. This is especially helpful if/when I've decided to use my own colors/threads.
That sounds all well and good Trish, but I don't want to have to do that. We pay enough for the patterns that I think a lot more thought should be put into designing them, using very different symbols in same areas, etc. Why should I have to go thru all that? I'll be checking any future patterns I buy very closely - I just don't think they're worth the frustration. I don't mind enlarging patterns and using my magnifier, but there is a limit to what I'll do.
I have not read every reply, but one thing I have not seen mentioned is the way software allocates symbols. The darker the colour on a grey scale, the darker the symbol. This has the "advantage" that a black and white pattern looks something like the picture, but it has a disadvantage in confusing symbols. My Pattern Maker uses four arrows (N,S,E,W), all the same density. If there is an area where there are different colours, but with similar densities, one gets all four arrows in the same area. The same applies with other symbols. I have tried to persuade the people at Hobbyware that this is not necessarily a good idea, with no success. Jim.
If the design isn't really charted, then there may not be a symbol/color correspondence chart. Lots of the things I do have a list of materials, and a general layout, but then it takes text to explain which parts of the design are stitched in which color/ fiber using what stitch. I'm not sure there's any substitute for slogging through the text in those types of patterns, and I doubt that there's any universally agreed upon obvious language. What seems crystal clear to me may seem impenetrable to someone else, and vice versa.
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