Online Knitting Chart Maker Prototype

I have been busy making an online knitting chart maker.  It is very much in its infancy at the moment, but I have got to a stage where I can show it to you to see what you think.

At the moment the features are:

1. Selection of Barbara Walker symbols
2. Select symbol from list and click on squares where you want that symbol
3. Drag mouse to create a whole line of the same symbol
4. Tally at the end of each line tells you whether the stitch count is up or down on the basic number - so you can match up your k2togs with yos to maintain the basic number easily.
5. Mirror function - design the right half of the design on the center line and click on the Mirror button to have it automatically fill in the left hand side.
6. Odd rows numbered from right to left, even from left to right to reflect direction of working.
7. Clear button clears the whole grid.

Requirements:

1. You need to have Java enabled in your browser as it is a Java applet.

Still to come:

1. Open and Save functions.
2. Loads more symbols.
3. Adjustable grid size and width/height stitch ratio
4. Short cut keys for common symbols that when used will fill the grid in the direction of working.
5. Colour graphs.
6. Other things as I think of them.
7. Other things as you think of them.

I will be updating it regularly as I introduce more stuff so please visit often to see what's new, try it out and tell me what you think, - what needs adding, improving, removing etc.

Comments

[Auntie Noo]

You are SO clever!!!

[Stitch-n-Snitch]

Fabulous!! :)

[Maia]

Jacquie, that is fabulous! I can see using it quite a bit. I currently make my charts in excel and it is a bit clunky. I am very excited about this.

I would love to play with it and give feedback. I will be as picky as you want me to be as a beta-tester.

A few questions so far:

What kind of file type are you thinking to save it as?

Will there be a function for cutting and pasting?

Can I copy from one chart to another or save as?

Can I have multiple charts open?

Can I mirror about an arbitrary point rather than the vertical centerline?

How big can I make the charts?

OOOoooh, did I mention how cool this is?

[Heather Joins The Round]

You are the cleverest! That will be a fantastic resource!

[susan]

OMG, I bow before your feet. No, I grovel on the ground before you. Amazing.

[carolinne Willson]

clever thing that is brilliant

[Carol]

Hi Jacquie,
well first time it did not work but I have updated my Java runtime environment and it works great now. It seems like a very useful tool. I like the basic layout and agree with your first suggestions as to what it will contain.

I think it will not really be useable as a tool until the save function is available, I have the same question as Maia about this, ie what format will the chart be saved in?

Having a quick go with it I have the following suggestions:
- I'd like clear to be able to clear a selected range and have a separate button for clear all. It's a bit error prone to have a clear button which clears the lot without warning! This probably means that it has to remember the current selection in the grid as well as in symbols.

- I'd also like to be able to enter a symbol in the grid by drag and drop as well as by select and click

I think it's very exciting!

[Cheryl]

Very nice! I only just got to play with it today because I've been moving everything to a new computer.

[Carol]

Had another thought about entering data - probably my ideal would be to select a cell or range and then right click to choose the symbol.

[Auntie Noo]

Jacquie I was having a bit of a play with this over the weekend, and it's so clever! - It would be great though if you could default the start up grid to be all purl instead of all knit, so if you're doing a cable pattern you are already set for the reverse St.st. around it. It's fabulous!!

[Holly Burnham]

Jacquie....I just took a look at this and it's so exciting. I can't even imagime how your brain has to work to make this happen....but, I'm glad it does. What fun it will be to use this!!!!!

[Marie Williams]

This is a great tool! Thank you for making this available. I do have a suggestion, however. In creating mosaic knitting charts, one needs to have just odd numbers on the right side of the chart, but they appear on every row. Even numbered "return rows" are not charted. Could you add an option for numbering mosaic charts as BW does in her book "Mosaic Knitting?" Thanks again!

[Arowisarow]

I have found your Chart Maker and love it. However, I can't seem to get it to copy and paste, or save, for that matter.
Also, is there a symbol that can be added for K on the RS, P on the WS?
There also needs to be a symbol for Slip 1, K2tog, PSSO....
This is just what I have run into so far.
Thanks for having this available for us computer challenged people!

[frog]

Thanks, this has been very helpful.

[Meredith Kermicle]

Love using it, but can we print out the design? How?

[Carolina Diez]

Thanks for the chart maker....I really enjoy using!!

[Beth Bowles]

Just took a look at your chart making software, and while it would be very useful if I was doing lace or cables, my patterns so far are all knits, purls, YO, slipped stitches, etc. Fairly basic stitches, in ways that make the finished product very attractive (or so I've been told!). I need things like just a knit stitch (my current pattern has no purls at all), or just a slip stitch purlwise. Any chance of that in the future?

[lisa]

Hello, I love your charting software. But I don't see a symbol for K1P1 PSSO ? Am I looking at this incorrectly?

[Rebecca]

hey there!!:) i just used your chart maker to make a bunch of new charts however i would like to be able to save them so that i can put them in a document with written instruction as well and as pictures up on ravelry... i am following the directions for saving, file - save - ctrl A - ctrl C - open Notepad - paste to Notepad - save as .txt, however i can only get as far as ctrl A, every time i try to paste it into Notepad, it keeps pasting something i had copied a while back, so its like its not copying any of the stuff from the box... am i doing something wrong???

[Jacquie]

No you aren't doing anything wrong. It's very frustrating :( Since I wrote the chartmaker it seems browsers don't allow copying from text fields any more.

The only way to save your charts is by doing a screen shot.

[Jemima]

Hi,

If you're planning to make any changes, it would be great to have purl in cable stitches as black or grey, so I can distinguish them from kit stitches. (like here: http://members.iinet.net.au/~coolhoun/patterns/symabb.html) But this is great! much better than any other I've found.

[Diane]

It would be FANTASTIC if there was a way to easily save the chart. I was able to do a screen shot - press the PrntScr button on the keypad, open Microsoft Paint and paste it in there. Then I could crop the page to get just my chart and the stitch key. So I could save the chart, but would be nice if there was an easier way to do it. Other than that issue - it's WONDERFUL!

[Mae]

Jackie I believe this is just the thing that I have been looking for. I have been Reading through the information and clicking on the menus and symbols and I just can't seem to get started. Any hints. I'm sure it's very simple but I can't seem to get it to work.

[Jacquie]

when you click on a symbol that becomes your chosen symbol. The next step is to click on the grid in the cells that you want that symbol to appear in.

If you have a pc (rather than a Mac) you can down load the chartMagic program which is a standalone app and makes saving designs etc much easier. The browser version is getting a bit old now and doesn't seem to work properly sometimes.

Hope you are able to get going with it and produce something you can use.