Make me a Map
Those of you who have the electronic version of Curls have already seen the little bonus in there. Many of the patterns sport a special little symbol that, when clicked, takes you over to a stitch map for that pattern.
Stitch maps (the latest creation by super genius JC Briar) are a new way to think about charts. They’re charts without the grids. But more than that, they’re charts that show you the relationship between stitches in a much more concrete way than traditional charts tend to. The easiest way to understand it is just to show you an example. Here’s what a feather and fan stitch looks like as a stitch map.
See how the stitches tip and lean back and forth and make lovely wavy lines? Very much like your fabric will if you knit this stitch pattern? Nifty isn’t it! And you can play with it a bit more. You can turn on row guides to help you follow each row all the way across the chart.
Or you can turn on column guides (very helpful if you want to trace out how columns of stitches behave, and a fabulous tool if you want to figure out where you can put a stitch marker or plan out where to place increases without disturbing your pattern).
Stitch maps are about as close as you can get to seeing the fabric before you put yarn on your needles. They let you visualize the finished result amazingly clearly. You can actually see that quite well in the stitch maps for Curls.
Isn’t that pretty? Looks an awful lot like the curl it makes too! There’s a part of my brain that almost wants to put it on a totebag…but that impulse is probably best suppressed.
Anybody can play with stitch maps for free, and there are all sorts of bonus features if you subscribe. Go play around and see what speaks to you!
really neat. much more the way I visualize. makes me want swatch.
I must say that these charts scare me. They remind me so much of crochet patterns that I’m unable to read at all (at least for now). I got so used to read grid charts with rows and columns, and I think it is easier to put some masking tape to follow your rows on a grid than on a floating structure like this map. But yes you do get a much better idea of the finished product. Still I think it will require some practice for a knitter who is used to standard grids.
I tend to think of them as an augment to, rather than a replacement for, more traditional charts. I’m not going to make anyone switch to them (or take away the more traditional charts), but they are a lovely new tool to have on hand for visualizing stitch patterns.