Stitchboard Admin message #2
Re: Hi I'm new here and need some help please
February 6, 2018 at 3:29:01 AM  (in response to AmyHamann message #1)
 
Amy,

Welcome!

I'm not sure I can give you a very simple answer, because what I'm guessing is you're not just looking for a step by step, "Do this in step 1, do this in step 2." I'm guessing what you really want is to know how to properly size your image so your blanket won't be too large or small? If I'm wrong about this, please let me know.

First, the most critical thing is your gauge swatch. Nobody likes to make the rotten things, LOL. But for sizing things properly, they're crucial.

What you need to do is make at least a 4 inch by 4 inch swatch using your chosen fiber and hook, then measure to determine how many stitches and rows in 4 inches. Then you'll take the number of stitches and the number of rows and divide each by 4 to get the number of stitches and rows per inch.

So if your gauge is 4 stitches per inch and you want your blanket to be 20 inches wide, you'll multiply 20 inches x 4 stitches per inch to = 80 stitches.

On the image side, the best image to use is a GIF or a PNG, and it's also best if your image is sized so pixels=stitches, as the freePatternWizard isn't a graphics program. So you would want to create an image that's 80 pixels across, for 80 stitches. (For the length it's a bit trickier, because you can't figure it to a particular length. For now, you'll have to play around with the image a bit, adding borders to get the correct length. In the future, our software will allow you to change the length to a specific, but it was originally written not to allow that, so people wouldn't skew or truncate their patterns.)

One caveat, though: if your image is a JPG, you can't simply save it as a GIF and expect it to behave like a GIF. It will still technically be a JPG, and will behave like one. It will have unexpected colors and not look very nice from things like antialiasing and smoothing of the image.

Hope that's not too much to throw at you at once! And I hope I've answered your questions!

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Stitchboard Admin message #4
Re: Hi I'm new here and need some help please
February 7, 2018 at 3:59:34 AM  (in response to AmyHamann message #3)
 
Amy,

In addition to needing a better format, I can see where this image could be problematic, even in GIF form. The problem with the image itself is that inner line. The freePatternWizard will do its best with it, but since the outer line is thick and the inner line is thin, it's going to have trouble designating which stitch is for which line. There's not enough space and too much line, too close together.

There are alternatives. You could make the fleur-de-lis as a solid and then cross stitch over your single crochets to make the inner line. Another possibility would be to surface crochet with your color for that inner line. That would probably look the best! You could also just do some simple experimenting...make a gauge swatch and see how it looks to surface crochet or cross stitch over your single crochets, to give you an idea of what would work best.

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Stitchboard Admin message #6
Re: Hi I'm new here and need some help please
February 8, 2018 at 3:20:53 AM  (in response to AmyHamann message #5)
 
Amy,

You're so welcome, and my apologies for not explaining about surface crochet!

Here are a couple of links for you:
http://www.lookatwhatimade.net/crafts/yarn/crochet/crochet-tutorials/crochet-surface-slip-stitches/
(Surface slip stitches are the same thing as the surface crochet technique, just a more descriptive name for it.)

And here's a video if you prefer those.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJ8FI5PJfvk

It's a super easy technique to do, looks cool, and I'm guessing you can accomplish that inner line nicely with it!

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