Present software makes it easy to explore designs, in color or BW, meeting download or punching requirements, before any actual knitting takes place.
The digital explorations, and printing them tiled in a larger format than on our screens, can help to visualize whether the results, when tiled in repeat, meet our preferences or require further editing.
My latest blog posts do not include step-by-step instructions for using any specific software; rather, they illustrate some possible results, with files that can be downloaded and used as they are, or edited further if desired.
The blog index start helps to search and navigate previous posts, often in reverse chronological order, with added pertinent how tos. It offers more details than a topic search in the blog’s sidebar.
The previous post, Fair Isle experiments, offers a large collection of design repeats and samples.
This repeat was isolated from a weaving draft found online, adding to the collection of other weaving-draft -inspired designs.
The 38X8 electronic isolated repeat.
Cropped to 24X8 for use on punch card models. 
Using 24X8, 
mirrored Y, 24X16, 
making choices about what to keep or add, and adjusting the final height in the result, producing a 24X14 repeat.
There is a recurring, very wide 11-stitch float on the purl side, and the swatch image on the right shows variations in hooking it up on the same color stitch on subsequent rows.
Other ways to manage float control. 
The pattern may be positioned on the machine or programmed/ punched with a shift in the centered motifs. 
Using the even numbered 24X16 repeat in brick repeat, 24X32. 
The tiled repeat produces an easy-to-see horizontal effect, and long floats at the center of the oval shapes merit shortening by adding white pixel(s). 
It is easy to select alternate 24X8 bands and to test color inverting the contents. 
Electronic machine knitters have the option of a half-drop design, 48X16. 
Identifying its long float areas, 10 stitches in width, 
informs the choice as to whether to continue with the design as single bed fair isle, or switch to DBJ, which changes pattern definition and aspect ratio.
Another repeat inspired by a weaving draft, 38X38, has no exceedingly long floats 
and was tested on this shifted design, on 76 stitches. 
This repeat began as a 30X30 file, was tested on 60 stitches and for 60 rows.
A what if variation, the same design was color separated as for mazes/mosaics, with the second and every other row color inverted, and the result rendered double height, to 30X60, suitable only for FI or DBJ.
The results drawn in repeat, also shown color inverted, 
was tested on 60 stitches and for 60 rows, continuing on the machine above the first sample. The yarns and tension remained unchanged, but the segment with the large shapes measured half an inch longer than the one below it, a lesson in gauge and an argument for swatching each design variation. A few of the longest floats have been hooked up on stitches in the same color on subsequent rows, in the top swatch by simply lifting up, then by latching up in the bottom one.