Help ! Soft wear for blackwork patterns

You mean pattern making soft *ware*, right? Anyway, I know that doing blackwork patterns in PatternMaker (from Hobbyware) is trivial. You use backstitch to chart your design, rather than the full cross symbols.

It won't work out a double running stitch sequence for you, but then, those can vary anyway.

-- Jenn Ridley : snipped-for-privacy@chartermi.net WIP: Oriental Butterfly, Insect Sampler, Rose Trio, Carousel (TW) Most recently Finished: TicTacToe Sampler, Snow, Morning Glory Stitching log:

I'm sorry. Could you explain what you mean by this?

You can also use straight stitch, which manages itself a tad differently.

Hmmmm . . . I'll have to fire it up and see what you're talking about here.

Dianne

If you can use PatternMaker, you can use it to design blackwork patterns. Blackwork, at its core, is just a simple running stitch. I've done a number of blackwork patterns using only the backstitch function on PMP.

'Double running' is one of the ways in which you can stitch a blackwork pattern, and is often used for reversible patterns. In 'double running' you stitch out along a pattern line and then back in. Depending on the pattern, there may be three or four sequences that will bring you back to your starting point.

-- Jenn Ridley : snipped-for-privacy@chartermi.net WIP: Oriental Butterfly, Insect Sampler, Rose Trio, Carousel (TW) Most recently Finished: TicTacToe Sampler, Snow, Morning Glory Stitching log:

Yes, easily - it`s only a form of backstitch, after all, and any decent cross stitch software should allow you to do that!

The one I use (ILsoft) even comes with a large library of blackstitch patterns which you can use as fillers for a selected area.

Pat P

Ahhh, by "trivial" you meant to say "easy to do", not "without much merit."

I wouldn't think any pattern software would be able to work out a double running stitch. That's something a designer would have to work up. But putting that in PatternMaker would be simple enough.

You can use either the backstitch feature or the straight stitch. I would use the straight stitch, which you can place between the graph l> Dianne Lewandowski wrote:

Yeah. Sorry. Too much time in tech classes, where trivial means without much effort.

-- Jenn Ridley : snipped-for-privacy@chartermi.net WIP: Oriental Butterfly, Insect Sampler, Rose Trio, Carousel (TW) Most recently Finished: TicTacToe Sampler, Snow, Morning Glory Stitching log:

The way I was taught to do blackwork was to outline the space and then just fill in; no printout needed. Count the threads in the widest part of the outlined space so your BW repeat is centered (e.g. if you get X complete repeats + 10 threads, then you'd have 5 extra threads either side for a partial repeat).

The only reason you'd need to chart it is if you're planning to sell it.

Thank you all for your help. My main reason for asking is if I can fill the areas and then use the feature which shows it not as a grid then I can see if the pattern suits the area to be stitched. Or I could do sample. LOL! I had an old version of pattern maker many years ago when I did only cross stitch and made several patterns. I have done black work and I think by luck managed to use pleasing patterns for fill stitches.( did a companion piece for a crewel piece in coloured black work) I am planning a larger piece and I guess just want to have some idea of how the finished peace might look before I start rather than at the end. I guess what I am really looking for is a program where I can pick a fill pattern and have it repeat, fill in so to speak without having to do every line. I am just being lazy I expect. LOL!

Thanks Pat. It is a little rich for me as I would probably not use it much. I does appear to be exactly what I need though. too bad both Christmas and birthday are over. LOL! I will just do it the old fashioned way. It is not like I would use it much. This is going to be my year of doing my own thing. Hopefully. But then last year was going to be the year of the sampler. LOL! I got a little side tracked with little stitching time. So it may just be on my someday list. LOL! Many thanks.