Step 1.2: Create and Number Your Grid

Layers: 2 (Layer 1, Numbers)

Scroll down for written instructions.

1. Create the remaining row numbers.
   1. Select the number and copy. Paste it outside of the grid until you have 1 number per row.
   2. Select 1 number. Click the A and change it. You may adjust all odd numbers to align left or wait and do it at the end as shown in the video.
   3. After you’ve changed each number so you have the appropriate number for each row, drag each one into place seperately.
2. Create guides for stitch numbers.
   1. Drag the first vertical guide until it is approximately 1/4th from left edge of the last stitch. (If I had more than 1 double digit, I would edit this to a whole number and do the math for the others.)
   2. Drag the next guide to the grid line between the last and the next to last stitch. Double click it and edit the value so it is 1/3rd from the left.
      Value at line = 303
      303 + 6 = 309
   3. Drag the next guide into place and edit it so it is 18 px from the previous
      309 + 18 = 327

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Step 1.1: Create and Number Your Grid

Layers: 2 (Layer 1, Numbers)

Scroll down for written instructions.

1. Create a 10 x 10 grid and set it to 18px square.
   1. Render > Cartesian Grid
   2. Set as follows:
      • Major X Divisions: 10
      • Major X Division Spacing: 18
      • Major X Thickness: 1
      • Major Y Divisions: 10
      • Major Y Division Spacing: 18
      • Major Y Thickness: 1
      • All Subdivisions: 1
      • Border Thickness: 2
   3. Click Apply and close.
2. Zoom in to 286%.
3. Create the first two guides.
   1. Click on the horizontal ruler, hold, and drag to create your first horizontal guide. Drag the guide until it is in the middle of the top border on your grid.
   2. Double click the guide and edit the “Y:” to the nearest whole number. Note the number. (Ex. 664)
   3. Adjust it so it is 1/3rd from the top of your square. (Edit the value. Don’t eyeball!)
      18/3 = 6
      664 – 6 = 658
   4. Click on the vertical ruler, hold, and drag the guide until it is flush with the outer left edge of your grid.
   5. Double click the guide and edit the “X:” to the nearest whole number. Note the number. (Ex. 284)
   6. Offset by 4 px left. (Ex. 280)
4. Create a Layer.
   1. Layer > Layers
   2. Click the green +.
   3. Create “numbers” below the current layer, which contains the grid.
   4. Click the lock symbol next to Layer 1 (the grid layer).
   5. Click numbers to select it

   .

5. Check your number position.
   1. Click the A in the left toolbar.
   2. Select Arial and set it to 12. Click the Right Align. (Note: Numbers on the left are always aligned right. Numbers on the right are always aligned left.)
   3. Click outside your grid and type “10″.
   4. Drag the 10 to the intersection of your two guides and watch it snap in place. If it doesn’t snap, go to View and click snap. Then try again.
   5. Eyeball the 10. Is it roughly in the center of the row and offset from the edge enough that it is legible? If no, adjust your guides. (Don’t forget to edit the values to whole numbers.) Then move your text until it looks right to you.
6. Create horizontal guides 1/3rd from the top of each row. (I do mine with a calculator while I work.)
7. Create the guide for the stitch numbers.
   1. Click on the horizontal ruler, hold, and drag the guide until it is flush with the outer bottom edge of your grid.
   2. Double click the guide and edit the “Y:” to the nearest whole number. Note the number. (Ex. 479)
   3. Offset by 4 px down. (Ex. 280)
8. Create the guide for the right row numbers.
   1. Click on the vertical ruler, hold, and drag the guide until it is flush with the outer left edge of your grid.
   2. Double click the guide and edit the “X:” to the nearest whole number. Note the number. (Ex. 276)
   3. Offset by 4 px right. (Ex. 280)

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Stitches

Scroll down for written instructions.

Needed

Aire River Font

Calculator

Adding Stitches

Always work in a new layer.

1. Layer > Layers.
2. Lock the layer with the grid by clicking the lock symbol.
3. Layer > Add New Layer (or click the + sign in the layers window on the right side)
4. Create vertical guides.
   1. Click on the ruler on the right side and drag across your grid until the guide is 1/3 across your first column.
   2. Double click the guide to open it.
   3. Edit the X: to a whole number. (No decimals.)
   4. Drag a new guide to the second column.
   5. Double click it to edit. Add your Major X Division Spacing to your first guide’s X: value. Insert this value into the second guide’s X: value.
5. Repeat for each column.
6. Click in the horizontal ruler at the top and drag down to create horizontal guides. Place the first a little below 1/3rd of the row from the bottom. Edit the values as you did for the X guides, but use tho Major Y Division value and the Y: Division.
7. The Vertical Guides are normally in the right position, but the horizontal guides require a some tweaking.
8. Click "Create and Edit Text Objects" (the A symbol on the left).
9. Working outside of your grid, click to create a text area. (Absolutely do not create or paste text inside your grid. If you do, you run the risk of accidentally moving your guides or having problems picking up the object to move it due to snapping.)
10. In the font bar at the top, select the Aire River Font and set the font size. (I use size 12.) Then type your first symbol. (Each text box will only have one symbol.) Click Select (the arrow on the left) and then copy (ctrl + c or Edit > Copy) the symbol.)
11. Move your mouse somewhere outside your grid and paste.
12. Click on the first symbol you created and drag it to the center of your first grid with snapping enabled. (Since you haven’t turned it off, it should do this automatically. If it doesn’t jerk into place, Look in the upper left corner immediately below the new document symbol and see it the symbol with a blue and green box connected by an arrow is highlighted. If it’s not, click on it.)
13. Look at your first symbol on the grid. Is it in the center of it’s square? If it’s not, move the horizontal guide and then move the symbol. Repeat tweaking each guide as needed until the symbol is in the center. (Note: You probably will not need to move the vertical guides.)
14. Edit the tweaked guide’s value to a whole number. Then edit each created guide on the same axis as the tweaked guide and create any remaining guides. (Each square inside your grid should have a horizontal and a vertical guide. After you’ve done this a few times, you may limit your guides to the squares that have stitches.)
15. Using the first stitch you created. Copy and paste it outside the square. Drag it into place. Do this until you have all instances of that stitch in place. (Some stitches may require turning off snapping or editing your guides. So get all your purls into place. Then add your right slanting increases. Then your k2togs and so forth.)
16. Add stitches until all your stitches are visible on your chart.

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Colorwork

Notes

Undo: ctrl + z

Undo: Edit > Undo

Change Colors: Click inside the square and fill it with any color. Then select the new color from the color palette at the bottom.

Only Colorwork

1. Create your grid.
2. Click the Fill Bounded Areas tool. (The one on the left that looks like a paint bucket.)
3. Click a color.
4. Click inside the squares you want to fill in.

Colorwork with Stitches and Cables

1. Layers > New Layer.
2. Create a layer above.
3. Layer > Layers. Click the lock symbol to lock the layer with the grid so it doesn’t move.
4. Click the name of the layer you added for colorwork.
5. Then begin filling in. (See Only Colorwork above.)

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The Basic Grid

Note: Inkscape 0.47 defaults to 90 DPI. You should change the DPI settings when you export your chart. Do not change the Document Properties to different unit of measure. Leave it set on DPI.

Rectangular Grid Common Values

If you require a value not listed in the chart above, you will need to generate your own inches/centimeters conversion. I use Pixels to Inches and Pixels to Centimeters, both found at Mystic Nights. Set the DPI to 90 and enter your values. (Hint: Centimeters are easier because they use 10ths.)

I personally find anything smaller than 6 sts/in difficult to see. Please use your best judgment.

Create Your Grid

1. Note your stitch and row counts and gauge. (In the example, I use 20 sts by 30 rows set to a gauge of 5 sts per inch.)
2. Go to Extensions > Render > Cartesian Grid.
3. Set all subdivisions and subdivisions of subdivisions equal to 1 to remove them from the grid.
4. Set your Major X as your stitch count and your Major Y to your row count.
5. Using the char above, set your Major X Division spacing to your gauge. Repeat for your Major Y.
6. Adjust the major line thickness to between 0.5 and 1.5 px. (The example uses 1 px, but you may prefer a different value.)
7. Adjust the border thickness to the desired px. I like a heavy border around my charts because it makes them pop off the page so I set mine to 2 px.
8. Click Apply.

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On Publishing, New Year’s, and Family

New Year’s isn’t a day that I normally use to stop and take a breath. I typically spend the day planning out my strategy for the next six months, reviewing accounts, and such. In essence, it’s just one of many days that I spend working.

This year is different. The past month has been both busy and fruitful, but mostly busy. After several years of beating on the doors and getting enough rejection letters that they’d probably be hip deep if I printed them all out, three of my poems were accepted and published in the latest Fib Review. (I’m actually more excited about these than I am about anything else I’ve done in the past year. Sad, isn’t it?)

I also had a completely random moment, wrote a little tweet about a father telling his son a blinking red light was Rudolph, sent it in to Thaumatrope because their tweets seriously make my day, and had that published too. The inspiration for this one was my father who used to tell us that the light at the radio tower was Rudolph. I was seven before I noticed that the light was there year round, but even then it never failed to send both of us running for our beds. (And some of you are probably wishing I’d posted this little tip before Christmas…)

I finished the deadline knitting. And for the record, loosing your chart, having to recreate it from the sample, and then screwing up badly enough to have to rip the whole thing out after you’ve finished 2/3rds of it, isn’t fun. It’s done. It’s gorgeous, in my not so un-biased opinion, but it’s a miracle I still have any hair left.

Then my father got a cold and promptly gave it to everyone in the family as a Christmas gift. I got sick two days before Christmas and I’m still not over it. It was bad enough to interfere with my last minute knitting, which means his Christmas gift is still in my basket.

I’m still busy with secret projects and the Newsletter, which will launch on January 5. The Newsletter is a new step for me, but I think it will be a good one. It features a monthly drawing, and I’m experimenting with a Ravelry notebook ad to build interest. If anyone wants to mention this month’s drawing ($25 WEBS gift card) on your blog or tweet it, let me know. I’ll be happy to reciprocate. If you’ve already signed up for the newsletter, you are automatically entered in the drawing.

Here’s hoping this year’s better than last!

Kristle

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“Back It Up” Published

Just to let everyone know… My article “Back It Up” is in the August 2009 issue of Freelance Writer’s Report, published by Cassell Network of Writers.

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Links, Tutorials, and Non-Knitting Help

Here is a list of non-knitting tutorials, help files, and YouTube videos. This page will be edited regularly to add new links and keep the old ones up-to-date. If you don’t see your favorite Inkscape Reference on the list, leave a comment or contact me through the about page. Please make sure you include the url as text only (i.e. copy it and paste it into the comment or the form without telling the system it’s a link).

• Official Inkscape Tutorials and Help
  • Inkscape: Guide to a Vector Drawing Program
  • Inkscape User Documentation (List of Official Tutorials)
  • Inkscape for Adobe Illustrator Users (Useful for converting Adobe Illustrator Tutorials…)
  • Inkscape Tutorials Blog
  • Inkscape (FLOSS Manual)
• YouTube Tutorials (YouTube, bastion of internet video, has some nice hand-on tutorials.)
  • Heathenxyt’s YouTube Tutorials
  • Learn Digital Design’s Inkscape Tutorials (These are quite possibly the best tool by tool introduction I’ve seen to date.)
  • Rfquerin’s Inkscape Tutorials
• Other Unofficial Tutorials
  • Pixel2Life Tutorials (These are mostly geared towards graphic artists, but there’s still some interesting ideas here.)
  • 25 Tutorials to Get You Started With Inkscape
  • Inkscape – Mosaic
  • MicroUgly’s Quick Guide to Inkscape
  • Nicu’s Gimp and Inkscape How Tos
  • Learning Game Tutorial: Inkscape
• Blogs
  • Heathenx’s Inkscape Screencasts
  • Linux for Designers Inkscape Posts

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On the Importance of Grammar

Regardless of your subject matter, grammar is important. Unless your name is William Faulkner, deviating from standard English grammar is not a good idea. Now, I realize many schools stop teaching grammar once students can identify verbs and nouns. This is an unfortunate decision that our society will regret. Contrary to popular belief, learning grammar does not stifle creativity. Think of writing as building. Words are the concrete and grammar is the rebar. Just as with construction, grammar reinforces the words by making them stronger and giving them structure. This helps you connect with your readers.

Over the past several years, many sites have cropped up for aspiring authors to share their work with the world. While some of the authors are excellent writers, others begin their stories with long disclaimers stating why they do not write with proper grammar and commonly accepted spelling. Generally, their disclaimers are better written than their stories. After skimming through the first two hundred words, I leave and read someone else’s story. Although they may have an excellent story idea, their grammar usage made the story difficult to understand, and I could not easily read it. Compare the examples below and see which one you would prefer reading.

Examples

Example 1

john stealthily klimbed the tree. hoping to sneak back in the house without being caught. he is slowly pushing his bedroom window open when an earsplitting alarm goes off. shocked that his parents rememmbered to turn on the alarm he jerked back, lost his footing, and plummeted to the ground. ten minutes later his father found him moaning in pain clutching his broken arm.

Example 2

John stealthily klimbed the tree, hoping to sneak back in the house without being caught. He is slowly pushing his bedroom window open when an earsplitting alarm goes off. Shocked that his parents had actually rememmbered to turn on the alarm, he jerked back, lost his footing, and plummeted to the ground. Ten minutes later, his father found him moaning in pain, clutching his broken arm.

Example 3

John stealthily climbed the tree, hoping to sneak back in the house without being caught. He was slowly pushing his bedroom window open when an earsplitting alarm went off. Shocked that his parents had actually remembered to turn on the alarm, he jerked back, lost his footing, and plummeted to the ground. Ten minutes later, his father found him moaning in pain, clutching his broken arm.

Although I made up these examples, the first is based on several pieces friends have sent me over the years. When I receive documents similar to the first example, despite my personal feelings towards spell check and grammar check programs, I tend to return them with the words “spell check and grammar check” in bold print. As you can see in the second example, even with the tense issues and the spelling errors, proper capitalization and commas, it is easier to read than the first example. The third example is even easier to read.

No one has perfect grammar, but perfection is something every writer should aspire to. The next time you suffer from writer’s block or just have a few minutes to devote to your craft, take a look at the following books and grammar exercises:

• On the Art of Writing by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch (1916)
• The Elements of Style by William Strunk (1918)
• The King’s English by H.W. Fowler (1908)
• The Columbia Guide to Standard American English by Kenneth G. Wilson (1993)
• Grammar, Punctuation, and Spelling Writing Exercises
• Graded Lessons in English an Elementary English Grammar Consisting of One Hundred Practical Lessons, Carefully Graded and Adapted to the Class-Room by Alonzo Reed and Brainerd Kellogg (1904)
• Hints and Helps on English Grammar: A Discussion of Difficulties Found by Albert Newton Raub (1904)
• Higher Lessons in English by Brainerd Kellogg and Alonzo Reed (1902)

As you’ve probably noticed, many of the references listed above are old. They are still relevant.

Now, I shall leave you and spend the next thirty minutes working my way through my self-made grammar refresher course.

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My Friend, the Rich Text Editor

Recently, my grandmother and I were talking while I installed some drivers on her computer following an operating system failure. She was worried that her Word had changed and she wouldn’t be able to use it anymore. Although her situation was different, her fears were an eerie reminder of the utter panic many of my friends and colleagues expressed during several other software transitions, including the dreaded WordPerfect to Word. Since I was always one of the ones behind the transitions, I tried to keep an open mind, listen to their troubles, and find solutions for them. As an expert user and macro programmer of Word, WordPerfect, and OpenOffice, I was constantly conducting one-on-one and group training sessions and sending out tips and cheat sheets. It was not unusual to receive weekend phone calls from panicked secretaries, and I’m still slightly shocked that some of my colleagues didn’t push me in front of the commuter train. Then again, it was their attempt at formatting that caused the panicked phone calls. Every experience highlights one key principle: technology changes rapidly, but people don’t. Throughout every panicked reaction, I always fought the urge to ask why they were using a word processor.

For most things, word processors are massive overkill. For starters, they are large programs packed to the gills with features most of us will never use. They consume memory when running and slow down older computers. Do you really need something that can generate labels from a database to type an email? Plus, some of us, even as adults, have a distressing Dennis, the Menace mentality and are easily distracted by all the pretty buttons just begging us to push them. All the bells and whistles distract us from our primary purpose–writing.

Thus, I wish to introduce you to my little known friend, the text editor. Most programmers are already well acquainted with text editors. We love them. They’re quick, easy, and highly versatile. As a writer who frequently programs, I also write in my text editor. Many text editors, including my personal favorites (KEdit (part of KDE) and Bean (Mac)), allow you to show a few rich text styling options. In Windows, the long-forgotten WordPad is a good basic rich text editor, but NotePad also works quite well for basic writing. Yes, the text is frequently quite ugly and unformatted, but in many cases, that is a good thing. Once I have completed my rough draft, I can either print it out for proofreading and edit it in the text editor or I can close my document and open it using the word processor of my choice. When I open the document, the word processor will apply its default paragraph and header settings without any action on my part. If I need to set additional headers, all I have to do is highlight the text and select the header level from my pull down style menu. Then, I’m done.

If I work in an office where a secretary will be taking my document and merging it together with multiple other documents, I probably just made her day because my document is clean. She doesn’t have to spend a day reading the document codes in Word Perfect or clear all the formatting in Word and then reformatting. Everything that I provided was clean, free of the many extraneous document codes that wreak havoc on master documents.

Now, let’s take the text editor a step further and pretend that you are maintaining a blog or a website. Writing your text in the text editor will save you a lot of heartache. As a general rule, word processors do not produce clean html. This means that if you write your text in a word processor and paste it directly into your blog post or your page, you run the risk of importing many other things that although you probably do not see them, can and will alter your page layout. In my experience, saving the document as a web page produces worse results. Even if you are only using a simple cut and paste text operation, you run the risk of pasting some rather ugly stuff when you paste from a word processor to the web.

Recently, a client was showing me a page on his site. He’d written the content in Word, copied it, and pasted it into WordPress. On the page, there was a strange box floating on top of the main content with some illegible text. Looking in the code, I realized the box was an image. When asked, he confessed that when he didn’t like images in Word, he simply moved them behind the text instead of deleting them. In another case, strange coding in an OpenOffice document actually pushed the sidebar so far over you had to scroll to see it. These are only a few examples of what can and eventually, will go wrong and writing the content in a rich text editor would have prevented these problems. Do yourself a favor and use your rich text editor for writing blog and web content.

You may wonder how I run spell check and grammar check as these two features are not always available in text editors. I don’t. Several studies and personal experience have forced me to conclude these features are more likely to introduce errors into my writing than improve it.

Author’s Favorite Text Editors

• Mac
  • Bean
  • TextEdit (pre-installed application)
• Linux
  • KEdit (You can install KDE on most desktops including Windows and OSX.)
  • GEdit
• Windows
  • Notepad ++
  • Notepad (standard Windows install)
  • Wordpad (standard Windows install)
• Online
  • FCKeditor
  • XStandard

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