GetCrafty Craft Facts

Q: What exactly do you mean by the "rows pulled apart". I write freeware software, and I might be interested in adding it to my software if you could explain it a little more clearly than your webpage does.

A: I have a question for those of you who have trouble reading peyote graphs and who use beading software (or are interested in using beading software). Some of you may have seen my 'Easy To Bead' peyote graph paper. If not, go to http://members.aol.com/EasyToBead/catalog.html and check out the three different sizes. It shows each row "pulled apart" so you can see the row you're weaving without causing any confusion with the rows above and below. 'Charlie Hughes' also recently offered a free pattern on her site with the rows pulled apart. You can see her pattern at http://www.beadyboop.com/freepattern.html, and go to the second graph linked from this page. If your bead graphing software gave you the option to print a working peyote graph with the rows pulled apart, would you use it? I have asked 'Mark Ramsey', Bead Pattern Designer ( http://beadville.com ), if he could include this print option in his new upgrade. He would like to know if this is a feature that beaders would find useful, but needs opinion of others, besides myself. I know that many of us have difficulty with regular peyote graphs and have resorted to many things to make this stitch easier. I think an electronic solution would be marvelous. Mark has always tried to accommodate us beaders, so please E-mail him directly at (beadb...@beadville.com). I have no connection with Mark, or his beading software. I'm just a customer. When I wrote my review of beading software for 'Bead and Button' last Spring, most of the peyote-stitch work had been of a design that could easily be deciphered with the grid intact. However, since then, I have developed several complex patterns which require intersecting designs and colors and have been trying to work out a better method of keeping track of my rows than crossing out stitches as I go (very slow going!). I thought I had finally hit on a solution by using the "print row-by-row" text feature included in all of the software I reviewed - but to my dismay, as I was designing a horizontal pattern, no deal! 'Beadscape' and 'Stitch Painter' both will print out a beautiful text of row-by-row instructions, but only in a vertically-designed piece. In other words, if I'm doing a trim strip for an article of clothing, I design horizontally, but the printed out text of row-by-row is top-to-bottom rows instead of end-to-end, or side-to-side. Frustrating! I have contacted both companies, 'Beadscape' thought this would be a good improvement to their software, 'Stitch Painter' and I are still trying to understand what each other mean, so... I think that both the pulled-apart graph capability and the ability to, in effect, rotate your design screen so that the text would print out properly, or to give an option of printing "side-to-side" as well top-to-bottom text rows would be very valuable. As it is, I finally re-graphed the designs because I decided it would take me less time to do that than keep marking on the pattern as I worked (also saves on printer supply costs).