ArahPaint in knit design 4

Reviewing ToolsGuess weave from Grid
ArahPaint continues to be user-friendly for multiple applications including knit design.
The developer shares how-to videos that are frequently updated
https://www.arahne.si/public/news/
https://www.youtube.com/@arahpaint4/videos
The same holds for their downloadable manual, and any questions are answered in a timely and informative manner.
I am often driven by knit technique curiosity first, then find myself circling back periodically to program explorations to shorten the process for drafting blog charts and repeats, sharing new information as I notice it in manuals or online.
A recently reviewed https://www.arahne.si/tutorials/how-to-import-old-pattern-drafts/ led to my first experiment.
When using the weave guessing function, it is good to know that the program looks at the center of the grid, and tries to ignore the grid itself. If the center is not a single color and is homogeneous, use averaging to smooth it out before color reduction. If it is not filled properly, use contour operations (thickening) to make it stronger.
When guessing the grid, make sure you use the “preview” function, so you see what the program sees.
The steps, relatively “winging it”:
as in resizing/scaling any design, accurate cell/ anticipated stitch and row counts are needed. They may not be given in the source, where grid properties, cell shapes, and colors may all vary.
For example, the grid in the original may be 6X6 for punchcard designs, 10X10, or even 5X5 for electronic models. Recognizing the blocks used aids in examining and adding up counts when they are not provided.
Load the selected picture, in this case, a random RGB one from a previous post, known to measure 24 stitches by 60 rows: Go to colors, and select convert to 8-bit palette,  resulting in these changes in the palette window on bottom right corner  Before reducing the number of colors to 2, adjust your background and foreground colors. Without disturbing the 0 value,   use the shift key and with the mouse select a light color from the 8-bit values, it will replace the #1 value.  Return to colors, set the number of colors to 2,
Magnify the image as needed, and use the rectangle select tool to eliminate the dark frame. There will be a dotted color dashed outline that can be adjusted,  use Image/ Crop to the selection to eliminate the unwanted border.
Select Tools/Guess weave from grid, and a new window will open.
The program automatically defines the size of the original pattern. If the value is not the expected one, enter the desired pixel counts, and click OK.  The “weave” will appear on top of the original pattern, surrounded by a bounding dashed line,     choose Image, and Crop to the selection, and save the picture as PNG. The result matched that in the previous post, with the Gimp chart on the left, and the Arah on the right. Check that the final PNG is in indexed B/W before any electronic download.  Select OK, Close, and save.  The Threshold adjustment slider is found in the reduce the number of colors window and may be used to alter B/W images at any point in image processing.
In addition to using Image/draw in repeat to check alignments, the View Repeat option will tile the design an arbitrary number of times automatically, providing a large-scale view, illustrated only in part on the right in the image below. The process is repeated with pattern #42, 46X56, from a Brother electronic pattern book:
the original is on the left, the ArahPaint guess grid result is on the right, colored differently to make it easier to check for matches and any pixel placement differences,  its B/W png.   The steps again with #3604, 24X240, once again comparing Gimp results to those obtained with ArahPaint  One of the challenges which can appear to varied degrees when converting files is the amount of pixel cleanup required on the resulting images.
One contributing factor that may be encountered is that the original to be processed may be askew, as only slightly in this image, #26 from the Brother 270 collection.  Using the unskew tool is one manner to fix the geometry of a layer distorted by perspective. Rotation may also be used.
Make a rectangular selection around the object which you wish to unskew.
Click on the Unskew tool  Drag the corners of the selection to the distorted part of the image, they are marked by hollow squares at each corner Click OK in the Unskew dialog box The selection becomes a normal rectangular layer. If uncomfortable working with layers, click on this tool to fix the image and remove the bounding box  Repeat the process already described, reducing the number of colors to 2 after cropping to the selection, the dark squares are not a true black. If the png is to be used for download to an electronic machine, change the grey to true black before saving.
The original, followed by the ArahPaint result and a tiled view of it The same approach may be used on large nonrepetitive images.
Hand-count the number of cells in width and height if they are not provided.
A scan from the Dover publication on Celtic charted designs, converting this 73X54 image proved easy.  The scan of a 130X95 stitch/row count chart from Charted Peasant Designs from Saxon Transylvania posed some issues.
The problem, in this case, was not the use of the basic technique, but that multiple areas of the chart were not marked with the black contained within grid cell borders.
Cropping problem areas, processing them separately, and pasting them in place on the previous result where needed appear to greatly reduce final pixel cleanup.  While weaving and many needlework drafts are often represented on square grids, some knit designs are published to reflect the fact that actual knit stitches with the exception of garter stitch are typically rectangular.
In the early days of electronics, knitting machine models began to have libraries of stitch designs stored in memory, cassettes, or floppies. Often manuals or booklets were printed as companions, visual guides to stored contents. Colors and counts did not matter, since the intent was not to provide reproducible designs.
This chart is from Studio, published as a tuck pattern.
My best results were obtained after cropping the original to 74X60 unit counts and scaling the scan’s A: 1733X992 to B:1320X960, a multiple X16 of both values.
C: the result of reducing colors to 2, followed by guess weave-from-grid for a successful match to the original, a final 60X48. The png would need to be color inverted for use with the tuck stitch setting. The png, after removal of a few wayward pixels, and color inverted for use with the tuck setting   Returning to that griffin, after resizing/scaling the original to multiples of 11, 1430X1045 pixels, the left portion of the design produced a clean match to the original, while the right segment with the off-grid dark cells still did not. The previously separately reduced segment was added on the far right yielding a far closer match.  Weaving and cross-stitch libraries offer a huge range of potential design repeats.
This is from a 1912 cross stitch pub, measures 165X 230 pixels From a similar source: is that a kitty protecting his shawl, and what stitch is that?! 169X142 pixels Some resources:
Weaving library: fressinet offers images in black and white
Patternbase: from Dictionary of Weaves
Archive.org: filet crochet

Beginning with a design selected from p.83 in the Dictionary of Weaves Color convert to 24 ->8, an expanded palette will appear. Press the Shift button and click inside the picture to manually select the colors, adding 63 in this case
Filters menu: choose Averaging, and follow with the second choice Repeat the last operation X10
Colors: set the number of colors directly to 2
Guess weave from grid to 18X18
Crop to selection, magnify and check results
Convert to black and white if needed
Check repeat alignment   Other ways to handle the same task: another ArahPaint tutorial offers additional tips.
From the Cross stitch book, a 40X40 chart using a straightforward setting of the number of colors to 2.  One way to convert the picture on the far right to black and white prior to saving it other than adjusting the palette colors is to use Threshold to reduce the number of colors.
1: select Black white, and Preview in the associated window
2: if an adjustment is required, the slider may be moved to the left or right, Undo if needed, and when satisfied stop
3: click OK and close the window, save the picture as bmp. An earlier design intervention for the final B/W png: after setting the palette to 2 colors, reduce the number of colors with the same 3 steps using Threshold for another successful result. Reducing the number of colors window instead of setting the number of colors to 2:
Color convert to ->8, an expanded palette will appear
Choose Averaging, and follow with the second choice, Repeat the last operation X10
Open the Reduced number of colors window  Press the Shift button and click inside the picture to manually select the colors for foreground and background, this did not work for me on my Mac with the latest OS. Selecting colors manually from the expanded palette by clicking on them is an alternative. The higher contrast between the two the cleaner the results.
Select Preview, if satisfied Click on OK, and Close
Select the whole picture
Guess weave from grid
Crop to content
Magnify, evaluate the results, adjust the palette to BW if needed, and save  Filet crochet pattern books also provide gridded sources that may be used in knit design. This 43X43 pixel file is adapted from Priscilla filet crochet book #1
The same process may be used on color separation templates produced in DAK

From a random Pinterest find with an original 330X474 RGB chart:
A: guess weave from grid, crop to selection
B: tools, find repeat, crop to selection
C: the final 47X46 PNG drawn in repeat  Adding colors to black and white pngs following the tip by the developer in the post comments:
Choose a black-and-white repeat, in this case, a 36X9 pixel repeat  Double-click on one of the two colors to protect/lock it Double-click on it again, and the lock disappears, the color is no longer protected.
In the palette, use + to add a new color, this may be repeated more than once to add more colors or go to colors, set the number of colors to a number, ie. 6, for a random palette group that may, in turn, be edited to other values.   Double-click on the rectangle tool to draw filled rectangles  In rectangle options, above the palette icon, there are toggle buttons for Horizontal and Vertical, remember to protect a color  Once your selection is made, draw the filled rectangle across a selected width and height while keeping the protected color intact. Draw the result in repeat to check for alignment the protected color may be toggled to white  If the designs are to be programmed for multiple color slip stitch or DBJ there are rules to be observed, and there may be restrictions on whether each palette color will be recognized as a third or fourth color by the download program ie. when using Ayab, where no two colors may occur in the same range of 8-bit values. For 4 colors, the ranges would be 0-63, 64-127, 128-195, and 196-255.
The img2track partial window with the associated color assignments for the first vertical variation.  The horizontal choice allows one to play with selections possibly matching yarn colors in fair isle knitting,          only 2 colors per row may be used, here the A feeder yarn remains fixed Remember to unlock the previous color choice if protecting new segment selections.
Visualizing possible FI striping results in progress Working with diagonal patterning in machine knitting introduced some approaches.
Following guidelines in Easily generate random weaves it is possible to quickly generate DIY designs for use in multiple techniques.

To begin with, load a new picture 12 pixels wide and one pixel high
Set the number of colors to 2, black and white if the goal is downloadable pngs.
Fill in a repeat, and multiply it by Y multiple times to achieve the final number, or fill in vertical bands using the pencil tool on the final planned starting canvas.
A single row repeat first multiplied Y X6, then X2 Select the measurement tool: The tilt tool shifts every next line of pixels, the width of the line in the X field for the horizontal tilt, or in the Y field for the vertical tilt Default values are set to 0 The selections for this design:  The resulting file, also shown drawn in repeat: Two more, with a starting picture total height of 24 pixels One repeat, multiple width selections  This repeat may be used for tuck or slip stitch, providing the final png is color reversed. The 12X24 initial result was multiplied X2 in height/Y to produce the 12X48 one. The image on the far right checks alignments Working in multiple colors using the same approach: These charts continue to use the selections with reverting back to the original after each variation, though steps may be made sequentially and reversed in a matter of seconds Any results may be modified by adding other program functions to produce drafts of expanded repeats ie. through using drawing in repeat/ random. The results may be suitable for large pieces ie blankets and likely best knit as DBJ.  The ease of designing needs to be paired with good notes on charting cause and effect and an understanding of the relationship between pixels/ punched holes and stitch formation using varied cam button settings.
Using Filters is an additional way to develop images that play with the eyes, sometimes with only a few keystrokes.
A description of filters and their use may be found on pp 88-101 of the user manual (thumbnails # 96-108).
Filter options: This first series uses only the contour filter and random selection of arrows from this tool

beginning with a 12X12 pixel design and developing it into a 31X31 one, not all doubled pixels are eliminated

Blistered DBJ 2 and technique variations on a single repeat

Blistered stitches DBJ began to explore some variations for the production of easy knits which resulted in pockets separated by areas of joined stitches, and depending on the design and whether one bed knits more stitches and rows than the other, can make the surface appear 3D to varying degrees.
There are several things to consider in DIY designs.
In my recent browsing and being inspired by “The curse of truchet tiles”, this png was one of the resulting repeats, developed using ArahPaint.  It is larger than any previously tested with this technique.
Beginning with a 36X36 file drawn in test alignment to 108X108,    expanding the design through a diagonal choice into a 72X36 repeat  Large repeats require large swatches if gauge matters, but smaller tests serve well to evaluate tension and cam settings. It is a good idea to be consistent in yarn choice.
Thinking things through:
the white pixel areas will produce the pockets, separating from the ground, and the black pixel areas will compose the joined portions of knit.
To increase the effect, the height of those black pixel areas is reduced by changing their configuration in order to use the slip stitch setting to shorten them.
The first pattern fill requires doubling the height of the whole repeat in order to use the file in a tubular setting.  Rather than doubling the file in height, this brush is used to fill the same black pixel areas. After a few pixel cleanups, this is the final repeat, The png was tiled to the number of stitches planned, with the addition of a knit stitch border along each vertical side and knit on 88 stitches for proof of concept.
End needle selection is on.
The carriages are set to slip in opposite directions, in either arrangement A or B. In one-color knitting starting preselection side does not matter.
The tension used, since so many stitches will be knitting on alternate beds, needs to approach that used for the same yarn when knitting stocking stitches.
The red yarn stitches mark the knit side of the fabric.
The cotton ball illustrates the formation of pockets.
The color change happened when the first cone of yarn ran out.
The yarns are 2/28 Italian imports of nonspecified fiber content.
The piece measures 10.5 inches in width.
When the settings are changed from tubular to every needle rib, the fabric is considerably wider and ruffles as seen at the top and bottom of the swatch, which could become a planned design feature. A segment was cropped from the 72X36 drawn once more in repeat to 84X72, repeating the same steps for processing the file alignment check If the plan is to evaluate the effect of tuck stitch on the design, to begin with, the file needs to be color reversed, whether in the drawn png or using machine settings Exploring results with the ribber set to knit in on every row, the swatch below the red line was produced with the knit carriage set to knit in one direction, tuck in the other, while in the remainder the knit carriage set to tuck in both directions. The areas that in slip stitch would form pockets knit in every needle rib, while tuck stitch segments produce a lacy effect.  The same design, using the png created prior to color reverse, set for tubular slip stitch the transition between the changes in knit carriage cam settings results in changes in textures and added width The full tuck section (bottom) measures 16 inches in width, and the slip-stitch one (top) measures 11.5 inches.
Trying for a half-cardigan repeat with the same yarn produced an extremely wide knit with no discernible design.
Tired of double-bed knitting and swatches in a single color and large enough to cover pillows? the starting image reduced in size X4 to 21X18 pixels opens a new series of opportunities for knitting including on the single bed.  The design, knit here as DBJ, uses the built-in KRC color separation. At the bottom, the knit carriage is set to slip in both directions. The ribber uses the birdseye setting in both directions with the addition of lili buttons.
At the top, the knit carriage setting remains unchanged, and the ribber is set to knit in both directions, for a striper backing. The tension remained unchanged. The image illustrates the difference in the aspect ratio of the design and the height and width produced by the respective settings. The same design knit as single bed fair isle produces problematic floats on the reverse which would need to be anchored down in a wearable. When knitting fair isle end needle selection is used to keep the yarn in the B feeder anchored so as to prevent any separations along the vertical edges of the design.
Here the light color is 2/8 wool. The yarn in the B feeder is switched to a 2/24 random contrasting color, and the knit carriage is set for thread lace. The white pixels knit both yarns together. Programming a blank row and knitting 2 yarns in this manner is considered by some an alternative to using the plaiting feeder.
End needle selection is canceled. If needles are brought forward, push at least one back to B so the combined yarns knit. In a long piece, a repeat in the width of the planned number of stitches could be planned with one or two blank pixel borders on vertical sides.
Due to the contrast in yarn thickness, the thin yarn creates large stitches that bulge in areas where it knits with the thicker yarn floating behind it, and the areas with combined yarns recede.
The areas in double thickness secure the yarn that produces floats, so that the latter may be trimmed on the purl side, leaving cut ends in any length. When cutting floats, consider sliding something under them and the thin knit so as to avoid cutting it as well, the fabric will release and flatten. Using elastic, the background yarn used needs to be thinner, here a 2/20. The repeat program is left unchanged, but the position of the yarns is swapped so the elastic/ “thin” is placed in feeder A and the white/ “thick” in feeder B. There is a considerable change in size, observable at the top of the previous images.   Aiming for float control, the repeat is edited.  A test of the 18X9 repeat using the fair isle setting measures 6.5 inches in width,   while the same stitch repeat knit using elastic and the thread lace setting adjustments once more, measures just under 2.5 inches in width 

Developing tiled repeats suitable for multiple stitch types, including tuck

Punchcard machine users have limitations in terms of repeat width, depending on the brand and age of the machine. Those numbers might vary from 8 to 12, 18, 30, and 40, with a 24-stitch width eventually becoming the most frequent.
When electronic machines were first released decades ago, multiple built-in functions allowed one to manipulate programmed repeats. The latter were drawn with electronic pencils (Studio) or far more often with permanent jet-black ink on mylar sheets or “cards”. Passap at one point developed the initial Wincrea version with a very short dongle for downloading designs to the console away from the knitting bed.
Brother was the first manufacturer to allow programming multiple repeats on a single mylar sheet. It took Studio some time to play catch up to eliminate all the potentially wasted space on them.
Both brands used mylars with 60 rectangular cells in width by 150 in height.
Variation buttons for the Brother 910, for those not familiar with its options.  Building up a simple angular repeat can easily be done freehand filling in pixels, or with the use of the straight line tool in ArahPaint.  The 12-stitch design may be mirrored and rotated in a variety of directions. For use in a punchcard, this may be done once in width, and three times in height to meet the minimum length requirement.
It is not necessary when drawing to use only black and white to start with, though if the goal is ultimately to produce a programmable bmp or png, the final images need to be in those 2 colors.
It is easier to produce a design filling in fewer squares in lesser density and then to color reverse the results if that is required for the specific stitch type.
A: using horizontal and vertical mirroring yields the start of a diamond shape. Punchcard users may find it easier to mark the dark squares and punch everything else if the goal is to use the tuck stitch setting or to have a card “safe for everything”
B: checking alignment by tiling the file
C: if the intended goal is tuck stitch, and the minimum information is drawn in the design, then the repeat must be color reversed, whether in the program used to create the file or by selecting the built-in function in an electronic after download.
D: the color reverse image tiled, may be suitable for some interesting fair isle striping or exchanges of positive/negative spaces at the intersection of any of those rows where the double-height or double-width markings occur.
Red cells indicate two side-by-side unpunched holes or unmarked pixels. In theory, this breaks the tuck rule requiring a knit stitch/ unpunched hole or black pixel on either side of an unpunched area/white pixel, but it likely will be fine, producing something that looks more like a slipped stitch than a tuck.
The double-height areas marked in green would be a problem if one were to test the repeat by doubling its length, with a compounded issue in those areas where tuck stitches would then happen on side-by-side needles for 4 consecutive rows.
Usable with some care for knit weaving, slip stitch, and other stitch types. Results are not discovered unless actually tested.
Keep good notes. Breaking the design into segments to knit as a striped fair isle ie in these 4 places Variations are easier to imagine if one begins with colored repeat segments that can, in addition, be varied using color exchanges to resemble approximate yarn colors. Instructions on color banding using ArahPaint follow at post bottom. In the last post, the same image was mirrored using ArahPaint  The result is a 23X23 pixel design.
Any incrementally larger repeats would require the same operations, using the mirror X-1 and Y-1 options to avoid any side-by-side equal cells, but the process is easier with some understanding of isolating repeats. When the 23-stitch file has been formed, manually trim one pixel along the bottom or top row, and one along either the left or right side, down to 22X22 pixels tested in B/W repeat and here color inverted it is executable in double length thus offering the opportunity for color changing every 2 rows, testing the possibility of its morphing into a mosaic/maze design, remembering first to color reverse the repeat as given here,  which in turn yields a file that may be knit with color changes every 2 rows, a technique that can produce maze/mosaic designs with an appearance very different from the same pattern knit as fair isle.
In this swatch, 2/20 wool yarns were used. This results in a knit that can be steamed to stay flat.
The variations in the amount of tucked stitches and their placement expand in some areas more than others yielding wavy vertical side edges.
The striping occurred to enhance the visibility of stitch formations on the machine, but can be a deliberate way to add even more colors to such pieces. The same design, knit in 2/8 wool, begins to show that a pattern may produce very different effects with a simple change in materials or color choice Working outside straight lines and exploring random starts: the post Working with diagonal patterning in machine knitting introduced several larger initial repeats also suitable for tuck patterning when reversed, including this 12X24 pixel design,    and the companion larger file, 144X144 pixels The larger file can serve as the start for exploring knit pattern variations through the use of filters.
A description of filters and their use may be found on pp 88-101 of the user manual (thumbnails # 96-108).
A “fast pattern” user guide shared by the ArahPaint 6 developer October 2023 which demonstrates how to use filters with associated designs https://www.arahne.eu/pdf/fastpattern-EN.pdf
The associated tool options: This first series uses only the Contour filter and random selection of arrows from this tool

beginning with a 12X12 pixel design developing it into a 31X31 one, not all doubled pixels eliminated doubled pixels eliminated The Zigzag filter creates a zigzag from the image. The number of zigzags depends on the setting of the filter option (X, Y, and Value) and the direction (Horizontal, Vertical, or a combination of both).
X: determines the number of zigzags up and down, the number should be an even number ie. 144 divided by 12 would create 12 peaks
Y: creates the vertical direction of peaks
Value: set to 0 the whole image height is taken as amplitude
The variations can be endless, and exploring changes in settings will help develop a sense of what happens. The larger scale results may at times be reduced to a significantly smaller working repeat. Tools/Find Repeat often but not always will do that seamlessly.
The manual offers instructions for manipulating vertical bands of color. Such variants could be knit as intarsia or multiple colors per row, with limitations and considerations.
This 4X4, vertical repeat, tiled to 12X12 color reversed for tuck knitting drawn in repeat and filtered is knittable, but not interesting to me. The result, shown tiled for clarity Moving away from straight lines, these initial experiments employed limited variations. The red X mark marks the repeat suitable only for fair isle knitting Choosing individual results to knit in tuck stitch, in review: the smallest repeats may be isolated and pixels cleaned up if preferred, remembering to color reverse when needed. This 24X24 repeat is suitable for punchcard models with the black pixels areas punched. Testing is far easier and quicker using electronic machines, do not use double length The design is asymmetric, subject to personal preference, and as usual, with results dependent on yarn and color choice.
The yarn used at the top of the photo is a wool-rayon, knit single bed. It was hard to identify stitch formations, hence the swatch was short in height for a visual texture check. Because of the rayon content, all edges steam and press fairly flat.
The other yarn is all wool, knit in every needle rib with the knit carriage set to tuck in both directions, and the ribber carriage set to knit in both.
This type of knit is often referred to as pick rib. Depending on the tuck stitch distribution, the stitches are forced apart vertically and can produce an eyelet effect in a fabric that lies quite flat. A closer look at approximately the same part of the ribbed fabric.   A 58X16 file after some cleanup and cropping of one of the other variations is to be color-reversed for use with the tuck setting. Depending on the thickness of the yarn, double length may be used safely for added texture.  The swatch illustrates the difference between fair isle knitting and tuck stitch, even when the tension used in the knit carriage remains fixed. Fair isle is in the slip stitch family, so it is short and narrow, while tuck stitch tends to be short and wide. It is usually recommended that fair isle floats be no wider than 5 pixels. Many here break that rule and would need to be managed if the design were to be used in a finished garment.  This segmented and cropped to 17X144 pixelsMirrored X-1, 33X144 pixels I like to plan repeats for any intended piece when possible in a width matching the number of needles in use, which allows programming as single-motif in the 930 with img2track and eliminates the need to turn on other built-in functions or assign needle positions. Doing so also offers the opportunity to add borders if desired.
A 99X144 version was programmed, and the central 71 stitch width was tested, likely suitable for an accessory ie a scarf  Those side-by-side white pixels are “OK” since they are in turn sided by black pixels and do not repeat for more than 2 rows.
At some point, one needs to commit to actual knitting. The first proof of concept swatch was knit in a softly spun, shiny rayon that had a slight tendency to split during knitting and steams and sets nearly completely flat.  This swatch is knit using a 2/8 wool, retains its texture after steaming and pressing, and exhibits the usual roll to the knit side at the top and bottom of the piece, and to the purl side along the vertical side edges. The variations in the 3D surface that can happen with some tuck patterns appear here and are retained.  A brief look at Gradient filter included in post on Truchet inspired tiles.
Restricted use images may also be built from scratch.
Large published illusion-style designs even if beginning as black and white when scaled down in size can lose definition as a result rendering them speckled, needing a lot of pixel cleanup, or completely unusable.
This first attempted DIY version begins with a 31X31 repeat. The odd number allows for a corner-to-corner start. The lines are drawn using the straight line tool, with pencil size alternating between one and 2 pixels Using mirror X-1, Y -1 to 61X61 trimming by a single pixel and width and height for routine tiling avoids lots of doubled pixels. The final repeat, with small single pixels placement edits, is now 60X60  repeated in height only it could be used for perhaps a scarf, with or without solid borders at the bottom, top, and sides.   Drawn in repeat X3 in both X and Y directions it produces a 180X180 file large enough for a blanket, with a bit of wiggle room to add a narrow solid color frame if desired.      The design may be knit as fair isle for a quick initial test or for a final piece since the floats are all very short or knit as DBJ to produce a no-roll final fabric without floats.
In this test, softly spun rayon and heathery wool were used, resulting in a surprising color mix when compared to their original colors. There were a few spots where the rayon fiber split and knit with the contrast. The end needle selection was off, so there are tiny eyelets in some places where the contrast was not knit on the side edge, and the fabric separates a bit.  A variation for a different vertical repeat can easily be isolated from tiled drawings. This additional sample was also knit as a fair isle, with end needle selection on. Suitable for punchcard knitting: a 12-stitch simple geometric repeat visualized X12 modified using drawing X12 in random repeat for electronic machines.  20X16 30X30 When the planned illusion is simple line distortion
18X18 “Café Wall” distortion tested on a 60 stitch width, the bottom is double stranded birdseye DBJ with a shift to single strands at the top. The single plies produce a wider, softer knit imagining a wider piece 10X10 repeat Knit as DBJ, in 2/20 wool single strand, at as tight a tension as possible to allow for proper stitch formation, the bleed through is quite visible, the swatch is also 60 stitches wide There is discussion online whether adding a single row of a contrasting color heightens the illusion, a 9X10 repeat adding a third color
Shifting gears, a different 18X18  visualized X 9 modified using random  nearly the width of the full needle bed, 172X169 A 24-stitch repeat accomplishes an optical illusion of sorts. If only it would work for creating origami-style pleats!
A former Ravelry query prompted these designs working with blocks
a 16X16 file  color reversed combined for a 32X32 final repeat drawn in repeat 22×2222X3066X60

44X5442X46
from a weaving draft, 46X46 63X63 adding a third color is easy in the larger blocks, the standard 3 color automatic separations are likely to lengthen the design   BW trimmed to 62X62 to eliminate double stitches 66X66 Johann Karl Friedrich Zöllner (1834 – 1882), a German astrophysicist with a keen interest in optical illusions was inspired by a cloth pattern that he observed in his father’s factory and first published the illusion that bears his name in the journal Annalen der Physik in 1860. The acute angles formed by the intersections of the short and long lines make the spaces between the diagonals appear to expand.
My knittable adaptation: the 84X84 repeat Building tiny shapes into secondary ones inspired by weaving drafts
56X148 110X225 Removing doubled vertical segments, 106X225 Adding colors to black and white pngs following the tip by the developer in the post comments:
Choose a black-and-white repeat, in this case, a 36X9 pixel repeat  Double-click on one of the two colors to protect/lock it Double-click on it again, and the lock disappears, the color is no longer protected.
In the palette, use + to add a new color, this may be repeated more than once to add more colors or go to colors, set the number of colors to a number, ie. 6, for a random palette group that may, in turn, be edited to other values.   Double-click on the rectangle tool to draw filled rectangles  In rectangle options, above the palette icon, there are toggle buttons for Horizontal and Vertical, remember to protect a color  Once your selection is made, draw the filled rectangle across a selected width and height while keeping the protected color intact. Draw the result in repeat to check for alignment the protected color may be toggled to white  If the designs are to be programmed for multiple color slip stitch or DBJ there are rules to be observed, and there may be restrictions on whether each palette color will be recognized as a third or fourth color by the download program ie. when using Ayab, where no two colors may occur in the same range of 8-bit values. For 4 colors, the ranges would be 0-63, 64-127, 128-195, and 196-255.
The img2track partial window with the associated color assignments for the first vertical variation.  The horizontal choice allows one to play with selections possibly matching yarn colors in fair isle knitting,          only 2 colors per row may be used, here the A feeder yarn remains fixed Remember to unlock the previous color choice if protecting new segment selections.
Visualizing possible FI striping results in progress 

More Truchet inspired tiles, a brief look at gradient filter use


The latest ArahPaint user manual download,  updated on February 9, 2023, includes added directions for drawing in repeat including a truchet/Smith tile variant.
This post will not provide specific how-tos, the pngs can be downloaded and used to perhaps test Arah’s features or to aid in finding a personal, preferred method for manipulating DIY designs.

There are additional Arahpaint options for altering designs in width and height which may be used progressively on the same image. Some in the group of edits and rotations are evocative of the Passap console’s Alter programming loop.   Lower in the same menu, diagonal mirroring opens yet another series of possibilities. These samples were produced in a Passap workshop, using the console Alter, add commands. Note that mirrored areas have identical pairs of side-by-side pixels at their meeting points,  while ArahPaint offers an opportunity to change that, a thing to keep in mind when returning to simpler motifs such as those used for tuck stitch. Performing the rotations, however, will render the result with an odd number of pixels in width, often making them less likely to be usable in punchcard models  My area of interest has been primarily and still is in creating textures beginning with small repeats that may grow in complexity and size to make the structures programmable and thus easier to track and execute.
Presently I rarely engage in multiple color motif work ie fair isle or other large-scale textile pattern applications but my curiosity in applied techniques has led me down this potential giant rabbit hole.
The speed and ease of drawing variations for repeats using ArahPaint make the process addictive.
The source of inspiration for this design series is “The curse of truchet tiles”.
When recognizable circles are a goal, these tiled motifs often begin with starting sizes as wide as the 24-stitch standard punchcard repeat limitation, and the manipulated larger motifs are suitable only for electronic machine models capable of accepting software downloads. Adding lines and extra dots of circles
Isolating fractions and individually rotating segments to draw again rendering larger repeats More info on knitting DBJ using more than 2 colors per row:
DBJ: more than 2 colors per row 3 3/22
Img2track_multiple colors per row dbj, each color knitting only once 1/21
DBJ: more than 2 colors per row 2   12/19
DBJ: more than 2 colors per row 1
12/19

Adding one more color to the last repeat whole planning a knitting a test at a max of 3 colors per row knittable in a single track 
The img2track window Positions of the respective yarns in the color changer as suggested by the program result in accuracy prompts by the machine on which of the respective colors should be in use at any one time.  Planning gauge-dependent pieces using large repeats requires large test swatches, generally a minimum of 100 stitches by 100 rows.
Adding and varying the colors in the design draft to match the yarns to be used in the repeat helps to visualize the possible result, and allows for using the sequence suggested by the download program to help track the proper color changes.
The test here is 60 stitches wide, knit one full repeat in height, measuring 7.5 inches in width by 11.75 inches in height after resting. On rows where the colors for the dots and squiggles may knit in small parts or not at all, there will be a preselection of large groups of needles such as seen here.  Birdseye setting is used to decrease motif lengthening. The img2track user manual describes the steps necessary for downloading to different model knitting machines and possibly using more than single tracks. A series inspired by another of the tiles in the linked publication   
Similar to one of the source repeats, increasing the balance between light and dark Open areas or specific rotations in the visual space may be created by eliminating or rotating individual segments.
To change the mirroring type, place a mouse pointer over the arrow that you want to change, and press the left mouse button. The arrow will jump to the next mirror type. With only 5 mirror types, you will get what you want in a maximum of 4 clicks. If you press the right mouse button, it will put the arrow to the default orientation. The result of course is dependent on the original file choice. Combining duplicating repeat variations with drawing in repeat helps one develop a DIY library of favored tilings. Begin with a possible background Tools/ Find Repeat  Aiming for knot variations, a cross-over to add to segments of the ground, manipulating individual tiles, adding copy and paste More play with manual duplication of tiles as opposed to drawing in repeat Combining different scale repeat segments, starting with 54X36 pixels  And it’s not all about just circles, a 36X36 pixel design to play with A reminder, if the plan is to add color in continuous lines, it is best to place the colors after the full design repeat has been developed rather than on the individual starting tile segments, For some, this would be considered a design feature.  A very different look may be achieved using any of the available filters. A square image of any size may be filled with a color gradient while keeping in mind the fact that knitting is very low resolution and the maximum number of available needles for patterning is 200 or under.
Beginning with a 20-stitch file. Below the software tool options on the right, click on the tool in the area marked with the red shape to produce a design that may then in turn be drawn in repeat No edges were cleaned up in this view. The design meets the maximum 200 pixels/needles size Going larger, an 80-pixel start to end with a 160-pixel blanket or tapestry suitable image with some wiggle room for adding a frame/border. The concept may be used in various densities for use in an accessory such as a scarf, spaced and colored to your liking, or even sweater bodies and sleeves planned specifically based on stitch and row counts for each of the pieces involved. Filters may also be applied in developing other stitch structures in addition to working with color motif designs. That topic merits its own post.

A “fast pattern” user guide shared by the ArahPaint 6 developer October 2023 which demonstrates how to use filters with associated designs https://www.arahne.eu/pdf/fastpattern-EN.pdf

Truchet/Smith inspired designs 2 meet ArahPaint

Added explorations of the Smith tiles.
Most common knitting machines capable of accepting electronic pattern downloads have a number of needles ranging between 180 and 200 on either of the available beds.
Punchcard machines have a 24-stitch constraint in width for repeats that are selected in fixed locations on the top bed, while height row counts can be endless if one keeps joining punchcards together.
The narrow repeat width does not allow for impactful tiling such as seen in the truchet variants.
A 24-stitch initial repeat can be created, but will not align properly ie. here:
the 24X56 png, colored in and repeated in width and height X3. It can, however, be drawn in repeat using ArahPaint to produce a new and successful design repeat ie this 48X112 pixels version and its appearance in repeat on a larger canvas: Electronic machines can be used to knit large, non-repetitive designs based on the number of needles available on their beds.
Unless knit-from-screen software is used, the size of the files downloaded to specific machine models varies depending on both the software used and the knitting machine’s available memory.
One of the issues using online generators as seen in the previous post is that the files tend to be high in pixel counts and rendered in RGB mode.
Changing image modes to BW indexed and scaling the large design to a smaller version have an effect on the edge definition of the shapes and are likely to require clean-up to remove or add pixels.
Beginning with small and clearly defined forms, tiling repeatedly to larger ones will allow for results that can be cropped to specific sizes with clean edges along the secondary shapes.
Beginning the proposed method with the Smith tile, a place to start is to choose the smallest successful circular forms.
The repeat works using quarter squares, so the file size needs to be an even number of pixels in width and height.
Getting a sense of the appearance of the edges of small circular shapes, with the intent of choosing one for fabric development, beginning with an 8-pixel diameter, and increasing it in turn by 2 pixels at a time to 20.  The 8-pixel circle is chosen for this exercise.
Following the steps outlined by the developer in the video viewable on Instagram and Facebook, open a new picture, and set the image size to 8X8 pixels The goal is to create a clean design outline forming shapes that may be filled in to yield the secondary tiling designs.
To zoom in or out in ArahPaint: use Shift+ or – on Mac, click on the magnifying lens icons in the toolbox, use the command key and roll the mouse wheel or scroll along the vertical center line of the mouse, or press any number from 0-9 on the keyboard to change zoom directly to that level (1 means 100%, 6 means 600%, O means 1000%).
In RGB mode even if the shapes are drawn in black, when converted to indexed BW some pixels will be lost. If any lines are broken, control in using the bucket fill tool on only selected areas is lost.
To begin with, set the number of colors and the pencil size to one pixel   Use the draw circle tool, and select drawing from the center Draw a quarter circle starting on the bottom right of the square, and ending in the center of this image. In this case, there will be 4 white pixels on the left of the line, half the diameter of the planned circle. Click on the pencil tool to set the image. Repeat the Process, drawing a mirrored image beginning on the upper left pixel position, and ending in the center of the image as well Open the drawing in the repeat window and set the number of repeats vertically and horizontally, done here first in standard alignmentDo not click on random, select new picture, OK. If satisfied, save the png. Undo may be used to revert to the original file unless new picture was left unchecked.
For the Smith tile repeat, do click on random to apply different rotations of the repeat.
Load the 8X8 file
Zoom out to check the pattern and view changes adequately
Open the draw in repeat window
Click on random, and the proposed rotations will appear as symbols,  click on new picture and then on OK to view the result, a file that will now be 32X48 pixels. The result can be saved. To preview other arrangements:
choose undo, return to draw in repeat, random, preview, and with each repeated click on random a new image will appear on the screen. At any point select a new picture, OK, and save the result.  The final png for test knitting for my test swatch Its segments bucket filled with black  If bucket fill fails selectively and floods the whole image, return to drawing in repeat and click on close. Return to the image and continue the fill-in process.
Developing a larger repeat to select an area of interest while keeping in mind the maximum needle width of 200. This repeat is perhaps usefully cropped to blanket size.  Seeking a shorter and narrower motif for a scarf, in the range of 60 to 100 pixels in width that may not require too many tracks when programming the 930, the same 32X48 design is drawn in repeat X4 in width, X2 in height to 128X96 pixels. The above is split directly in half vertically for this exercise, rendering two files, each composed of 64X96 pixels. The left half,   and the right Checking vertical alignments and committing to the one on the right for the test swatch, knitting on 60 stitches for 120 design rows, using KCI, and starting with dark color from left.    That shape in blue that looks almost rectangular is actually not quite circular in the repeat, seen here color-reversed on the bottom right, with the definition also slightly lost in the knit due to the stitch size and birdseye stitches twist.  Comparing the 3 swatches in scale and shape definition: A tiny repeat formed with a thicker line Drawn in random repeat Dividing shapes into symmetrical segments is easy after configuring grid properties, in this case into thirds 12X12 in repeat adding an outline to change the weight of the lines by a single pixel all over without using more specific options Using the filled in double circle 18X18 repeats drawn in repeat While the definition of true circular shapes may be an issue for some when knitting the Smith variant, others may enjoy variations made by playing with other shapes and angles, here a 16-pixel square was divided into quarters adding a single pixel contour combining quarter circles sith full squares   Building larger repeats with interwoven intersections Playing with adding colors. In many instances when tiles are drawn in repeats requiring rotations of the original file, coloring in needs to be done after the final image has been composed.   Color exchanging fine black outlines to white, or filling the white background with black in order to reduce files for knitting no more than 3 colors per row.  The more complex designs become exponentially larger, require electronic downloads, and must meet the limitations of machine memory. The maximum equivalent for pixel per stitch is 200 pixels in width on 4.5 mm knitting machines, and 180 for Passap, with the possibility of separating the width and length into panels for large pieces ie tapestries, or blankets. Long vertical design segments, depending on their height, may also need to be separated in steps for programming them to produce narrow, long, pieces such as scarves or shawls.
The truchet triangles pose a different issue in knit design.
Quilters are familiar with block designs easily found in print and online that technically may be broken down into triangular blocks joined and meeting to form sharp points. Truchet in his publication used half-square triangles and assigned letters to the segments,   providing alphabetical references in illustrations for the permutations,  all far easier to achieve nowadays with the aid of software.
In ArahPaint, begin with choosing a square size, in this instance, 8 pixels by 8 pixels, matching that in the exercise using circles, and draw a triangle filling the canvas from corner to corner Drawing in repeat, the choice is made to repeat the triangles twice in both width and height, the preview symbols for the rotations of the shape are illustrated pointing in the same direction by default.  Clicking on any of those half-arrow shapes will rotate the specific shape in the tiled design, this becomes an action that may be influenced manually.  Selecting new image will render this,  which illustrates what happens when those triangles are used in knit motif designs. Inevitably, there will be areas where corner pixels meet to join others and the choice will need to be made between using the original or the color-reversed version of the repeat. Designing for a maximum 200-pixel design, the number of available needles on Japanese knitting machines, and continuing with random selections, paste 25 times in each direction, ultimately saving one of the new images:
its color reversed version Deciding on the first, an isolated area can be cropped to be used in an accessory ie a 72-stitch scarf, retaining full triangles, using the full 200-pixel height. Wanting to retain a 96-row max height for use on the 930, what happens when repeats line up vertically?  the isolated 72X96 design The assumption is that any change in vertical simple repeats will line up forming new triangles at the intersections not visually interpreted as patterning errors, the above repeated 3 times in height to 72X288 Committing to a test swatch: the wool ply is 2/13, and the space dyed rayon 20/2 and thinner in appearance. The contrast is not high, to begin with, and since the sample is knit as DBJ, as a result of the difference in yarn thickness the dark color bleeds through behind the lighter, reducing that contrast even further.
The places where the single pixels at the individual shape corners meet other shapes in the repeat can still be easily located.
The sample repeat size is 68X96 pixels, designed to include 2-stitch vertical borders drawn with dark pixels, the knit carriage was set to KCII, which allows the formation of distinct single color edges  Another alternative: beginning with a 9X9 repeat, drawn in repeat to 225X225, shapes do not touch in this rendering,  but do if color-inverted.  Isolating a repeat from the “floating” triangles, 45X81 tiled X3 to 45X243 may look ok but aside from the issue of choosing visually floating shapes vs still touching ones,  the big problem to be considered is the fact that for the machine KRC color separation to happen correctly, the repeat downloaded must be an even number of rows. A workaround may be to double the original height to 162 rows prior to programming it since one cannot use double height and KRC buttons at the same time in many machine models. Pursuing personal preferences can be endless. I am increasingly fond of the repeat that began with the 8X8 square.
Working with quarter-filled segments:  multiplied by 20 in each direction to a 200-pixel repeat. Drawn using random/ preview/ prior to saving the file  Its color reversed view

Working with diagonal patterning in machine knitting

After a slow down in my blog posts for a variety of reasons I find myself playing catch up with the eternal list of knit fabrics that I wish to explore out of my own curiosity and the attempt to answer questions from knitters who contacted me directly via the blog or have asked them in the online forums in which I am a member.
Stephen West is a prolific designer of colorful hand knits in a variety of techniques and complexity. This honey-striped scarf is an example.   Slip-stitch patterning is a likely way of knitting a similar effect combined with
the use of the concept familiar to many when making bias cast-on rags.
A fixed number of stitches is cast on and positioned as far to one side of the machine as possible. They are then decreased on a fixed side and increased on the opposite one.
The strip moves across the needle bed, when far enough on the side opposite to the starting one, it is returned to the original needle bed position and the process is repeated until the desired length is reached.
If the moves to and from are performed on solid color rows matching needle selections may not be an issue. If the repeats in other cam settings are to match, then proper needle placement can be assisted by marking the metal bed, the factory-supplied needle tape, or a custom-printed one, and hand-selection for the first design row may be required and planned.
This chart attempts to visualize the proposed movement using colored stripes. Stitches are bound off on one side and cast-on on the other to maintain a fixed width with shaped edges.  If the goal is to maintain straight bias edges, the design repeat would need to be rendered wider in order to compensate for the shifts on the needle bed in turn modifying increases and decreases at a different rate The black cells represent the adjusted stitch counts needed for each pattern band.  When an item such as a scarf is worn, both options will appear as diagonals. If any picture knitting is included and the direction of it matters when the piece is worn, appreciated particularly in representational fair isle, such accessories are best knit as 2 pieces knit from the bottom up, and grafted together at their center after the fact.
Increases and decreases are calculated based on the knit gauge carefully for garments. The approach to accessories may be more casual.
Stripes heights are varied to accommodate any specific design motifs or cam settings and in turn, are added to the base visualization charts.
Here an attempt at 45-degree striping is made by beginning on a 3-stitch tab.  Increasing on the carriage side creates loops, while those opposite the carriage form knots.
Increases and decreases are indicated by arrows.
Increases are made on alternating sides, opposite the carriage, to produce matching edges.
The red cells in the chart represent the carriage side prior to each pass.
Table cells have been rendered rectangular in a 4 to 3 ratio, estimating the difference in gauge between stitches and rows.
Striping for an even number of rows matters if color changes are made on a fixed side ie if a color changer is in use. Yarn ends at color changes may be cut or the yarn can be carried up the side depending on preference and the number of rows involved. If carried up for long stretches, the alternate color yarn not in use may be secured by e wrapping it on the end needle periodically. Care needs to be taken that the float up the side is not so short as to have an effect on the swatch length and having an effort to remedy that will leave yarn ends too short to be secured.
The result is not going to produce a proper square, garter stitch is the only knit stitch that results in approximately true square shapes.
If the center of the machine is always used for swatches, keep an eye on the stitch formation. If loops are formed repeatedly on specific needles akin to tuck stitches or problem areas such as those in the center of this swatch are encountered, they can be caused by damaged needles or sticky latches that may result from frequent use. Diagonal lines in knits that maintain straight sides are also achieved using short row/holding intarsia techniques. Segments are planned in specific orders which can be varied to form added shapes.  Chevrons would be more easily created by knitting separate strips and seaming as you knit or after the fact. The addition of small-repeat fair isle patterns is also possible. Keep in mind when bringing needles back into work to reverse shaping, needle preselection for accurate patterning in Brother machines needs to be maintained by hand selection.  Some of the published punchcard patterns can serve as a source for diagonal lines that may be tiled and programmed for the full design in addition to being used for their original intent. Numbers 52, 384, and 328 (published with error), are suitable for tuck, slip, and FI with moderately wide floats, while 335 would fail as a tuck stitch.
For added ways to develop diagonal patterns using brush fill see post on developing designs using pattern fill for use on a range of machine models

Tiling as in any patterning will reveal errors, such as here for 328.  The latter was edited to a 22-stitch wide repeat, becoming suitable for only electronic machine models.
The charts with the red grid on the top row were rendered as tables in Numbers. Since their end use is different, they are the color-reversed version of the cards, whose screengrabs were in turn processed in Gimp to create knittable pngs.
The smallest repeats suitable for electronics are given in the center row of images, the amended 328 cannot be reduced in size. The last row illustrates tiling for all files as BW images that may be opened and amended to suit the size of the pieces planned.
Files in png formats for the group: if pngs generated by me in BW indexed mode are downloaded and opened in editors such as Gimp, they will open in RGB mode. To make them suitable for download programs, convert them to indexed BW mode again and save the result. There should be no loss of data.
384, 12X2412X48 144X144328, 22X44
176X176
335, 12X24
24X48 144X144  52, 8X16
24X48 192X192 The black lines formed by units 2 rows in height can be followed or erased to establish short rows shaping a stitch at a time every two rows, in a view of at least 2X2 full repeats to check color placement as seen here. The method was used to isolate the previous ungridded color illustrations. Another instance of a published Toyota 901#11diagonal tuck card, in this case, incorporates a combination of 2 and 4-row tuck patterning. The repeat is 24X48 The previews may be used to replace color selections with those matching yarn colors used in the project to develop some idea as to how color shifts might affect the final piece.
EON diagonal patterning surrounding blocks containing other shapes may be maintained with slight variations in the size of the shapes used to fill those blocks  References published for weaving can be a source of charts usable for this type of design.
The repeats are given in terms of width (shafts) and height (picks). For proper alignments, the provided charts need to be reproduced in full, or in DIY adaptations careful editing with erasures or additions can still maintain the proper tiling.
A page from an 1898 pub   Playing with using #20 and #16 mirrored, isolating, erasing, or combining elements of each while keeping fixed some of the details that move diagonally to touch sides of the repeats, with the process illustrated in color.
Consider the width of the floats if planning for fair isle patterning.
Check the original for any errors, marked in the color chart in black. They are often not noticeable until the design is drawn in repeat.   The editable png for the center 24X24 design is tiled on the far right above. It is also suitable for punchcards  

Handweaving drafts such as those found at handweaving. net provide endless inspiration for designs, including diagonals.
8X812X12
drawn in repeat X712X12drawn in repeat X715X15
color reversed  using color invert and quarter rotations to 30X30  16X16
16X16
16X24
drawn in repeat to 160X168 20X20
32X32 with rotated segments  playing with rectangles, squares, and fill-ins24X24
Chevrons can be developed from partial repeats. This is from Toyota 950#12, 24X20 drawn in repeat to 144X140  Whether in use for a punchcard model or an electronic one, the convention if the end goal is a tuck stitch fabric, is to color reverse the design  It is possible to generate DIY designs easily using ArahPaint.
Taking diagonal patterning to the double bed for creating pintuck effects using the slip-stitch setting, this 24X48 repeat explores some of the potential spacings and the resulting ridges.  The next 2 repeats tested, both 24 stitches X 48 rows:  The red line is a reminder that the slipped stitches are being held for as many as 8 rows. It is best to use thin yarn that does not break easily and to watch for the knit stitches riding up.
Slipping in one direction produces a very subtle texture,  while the color-reversed design produces even-sized identifiable folds Adding lettering or small shapes and maintaining the diagonal can result in distortion of the motifs.
One option to add such motifs is to form the knit by beginning on 3 stitches as in this shared swatch and planning the stripes to heights and widths that accommodate adding designs or fonts. Short-row intarsia will also produce diagonal striping, from simple to complex as seen in this chart, with knitting sequence numbered for each segment.  complex_number_01A limited number of rows may be knit in stocking stitch in areas following shapes not simply to travel to the opposite side and reverse shaping,  but also to add small rolls or hems.
Another use might be to add small vertical motif details or patterning in their usual orientation.
The limit appears to be a maximum of 8 rows of alternative patterns, in order to keep the short-rowed areas from developing into distorted edges, which may be variable depending on the yarn and pattern used.
This first swatch was knit using progressively thinner yarns, wool, wool rayon, and a 2/24 acrylic in the FI segment. FI is a slip stitch that narrows the knit. The dark acrylic color stitch definition here gets lost. The band is seen pulling in the short-row segments on both sides. The shaping in both the top and bottom segments is by 2 stitches at a time.  The result in different yarns of equal thickness, with the FI band knit at a tension one full number looser than the stocking stitch areas, with the top and bottom solid color segments now shaped 3 stitches at a time. There is a trick when making A-line skirts to change the triangles that would poke out normally at the bottom if shaping were to begin immediately used as a design feature in many runway knits recently. If between an inch or 2 are actually knit up straight before shaping starts, the problem is eliminated. Depending on the design this may be a solution or it may read as a patterning error.
There are some conventions and “rules” for short-row techniques, but they do not always apply.
Keeping good notes helps to make successful experiments reproducible.
Two more tries began to experiment with working on the first and last groups in the holding techniques on a different number of stitches than the remaining shapes, noting differences. In the first an all-knit row is made across the short-row eyelets, reducing the planned FI band from 6 rows to 5. A rough spot in maintaining even stitches on one side is noticeable.  Progress: holding happened at the start of the bottom wedge, the FI was knit at 2 tension numbers looser than the stocking stitch, for 6 rows.  The goal in the short row shaping for the triangles is to maintain vertical edges that appear as straight as possible to the eye. One need not work on large swatches, small ones can provide clues as to differences resulting from variations in the starting side of the short-row shapings.  Studying the results can lead to many variations. There are student theses and careers based on exploring limited techniques to the max.
Building a theoretical true square or other predictable shapes is subject to the yarn and tension used. Beginning with a small sample, this shows the order of knitting 2 triangular shapes with the carriage beginning to knit each shape from alternate sides. In this case, 2 stitches are to be brought in and out of holding at a time. Because each color knits for 2 rows, small slits happen in the fabric resulting in eyelets. They may be used as design features, or attempts can be made to reduce their size. One way to do so is to have plain knit rows between holding selections to keep the small slits from intersecting and becoming double height. On the left swatch, one yellow row was knit to the left before reverse shaping in the same color. In the swatch on the right, in addition, 2 rows were knit in the blue prior to reverse shaping.  Reviewing the concept and developing a chart for larger swatches: the cyan color cells represent stitches in the hold position and the white cells stitches that will be knit.
At the top of the first wedge, most needles will be in the hold position, return them all to the B position manually before knitting the next row.
With the carriage on either side, set it for KCI with the cam buttons to slip for a free pass to the opposite side, the first FI pattern row will pre-select. Holding need not be canceled, since no needles are brought far enough out for the technique.
Cancel the slip setting, change the cam setting for FI knitting, place the pairs of colors in their corresponding feeders, and knit 6-8 rows of pattern.
Bring all needles out to hold except for the first desired group, if the holding lever has been canceled, reset it and commence reverse shaping.  Merrily knitting along and you forget to loosen the tension for the fair isle stripe: And what if the FI were to actually follow diagonal colored stripes? The approach is the same. I am right-handed, my default is often to begin on the right. Left-handed knitters can mirror charts as needed to make them easier to follow.
The first triangle is shaped from right toward left, subsequent ones begin on the left, then to wrap or not wrap becomes the question. Review of wrapping, which does not disturb the stitch on or the position of the wrapped needle:   bothI obstinately use random yarns at hand, sometimes too thin for the task at hand, true here. Any type of intarsia, of which holding is one, will be accompanied by lots of yarn ends that will require weaving in. Some of the stitches were wrapped here, some not, and maybe the eyelets could be considered a pleasing design feature. The 8 rows of FI, knit at 2 full tension numbers higher than that used for stocking stitch, minimizes the size of the eyelets all on their own on both sides of its stripe. Errors in bringing an added group or not into work may not always be immediately visible, frogging this type of knitting can be painful.
I would not use the last 6 stitch modification in any future swatches. Elizabeth Zimmermann published many patterns for hand knitting utilizing garter stitch and striped diagonal wedges for garment shaping.
Multiple colors per row patterning may be maintained by beginning planning with diagonal straight lines, seen here in a 32X32 repeat.  Opened in img2track The design will be elongated, and 256 passes are required to finish a single repeat Each color may be edited to suit. Quick visualizations of a few of the possible repeat arrangements using the file as is Avoiding lots of extra knit rows by eliminating one of the colors.  The larger designs may need to be knit in sections depending on the available memory in the knitting machine model being used.

Machine-knit stitches do not form as close to square ones found in garter stitches. Rendering the full-scale garment on a knit leader would make knitting to gauge while avoiding tons of math calculations possible.
DIY is a bit like assembling paper cut-outs that are required to fit together, first attempts at planning do not always succeed. One may begin at different parts of the piece and seam two halves together if necessary in order to keep matching stitch formations in both directions. Stripes may be added to form secondary intersecting shapes. On the left is a simple one-piece vest concept with no miters in the back panel, which may be knit from the bottom up or as two pieces with a center seam.
The bolero style is repeated in 2 separate pieces with mirror shaping in the second and would be joined at the center back.
The knit gauge is easier to maintain in short or small wearables.   Many garments may be made following the concepts for creating “pies”.
Decades ago batwing sweaters based on a sideways circular knit concept were standard presentations at knit seminars. Short-row diagonal graduated wedges were followed by varying amounts of all knit rows.
This idea for a short sleeve garment is from a Japanese magazine. In creating such illustrations because of the scale of the publication, the aspect ratio is distorted. In the final garment, the bottom circumference can in fact be far narrower than it might appear to the eye in the sketch and may be gathered or left released depending on design goals. The neckline diameter at the end of the project, after joining one shoulder, is gathered with evenly distributed decreases to the desired measurement prior to knitting the collar.  A way to form a long sleeve item, using binding off and casting on stitches in addition to shaped wedges followed by all knit rows. Knitting a garment on the bias at 45 degrees will produce a knit fabric that drapes differently.
Horizontal patterning can turn into diagonals and chevrons, and fancy decreases may be used in the center shaping of the garment.
Pre-computer programs and knitleaders, an easy way to sort out shaping for garments, was to begin by drawing on large sheets of graph paper. An all-square grid is fine.
Calculate a 10 cm/4 inch knitting gauge to the second decimal point before any rounding off. For example, if the gauge works out to be 5.728, and the measurement needed is 19.5 inches, the multiplied value result is 111.696, which can be rounded off to a 112-row line on the graph paper.
Working in cm can actually lead to easier calculations and is required when using a charting device.
Each cell in the graph paper grid equals one stitch and one row.
For knitting on the straight grain, based on gauge, draw series dots placing them on the beginning and the ending pots for each measurement, and connect them with straight lines.
Curves such as those necessary for necklines may be composed of short straight-line segments.
When knitting from the bottom up, continue with a colored pencil, filling in squares as they jog in or out, maintaining the new outline as close to the first as possible.
For the bias knit, whether on graph paper, the computer, or a charting device, begin by drawing a 45-degree line.
Rotate and trace the unmodified original straight-line image in place, follow the lines, and mark in and out jogs once more in color for contrast.
This is a very small chart so outline jogs in far larger pieces cannot be reflected. They would produce edges not as straight as in standard knitting, which will need to be considered when joining finished pieces.
As the piece is rotated, a wider grid base is required. Consider that the motif images as they are worked on the purl side will be mirrored horizontally on the knit side, a particular consideration if any text is introduced. Comparing theoretical purl as opposed to knit views on the left, two purl views on the right.   Fonts in various stitch and row counts are useful when planning knit text.
The point at which the text or pattern is introduced needs to have enough stitches in work on the machine to contain the intended words, ie for the above, a minimum ground, independent of shaping, would need to contain more than 9 rows if solid color stripes are to be added above and below it, and 26 stitches in width in this case.
A proof of concept swatch with arbitrary shaping on every other row illustrates the need for shaping based on a calculated gauge if a square is indeed the aim.
I knit on a 930 where mirroring is automated for programmed designs, so the text was programmed as drawn.
Sometimes less information is more. It became evident very soon that the placement of the text on the left was wrong if the aim was to have it centered in the final shape, and that more rows were needed at the top of the design.
On the right, the purl side as it faces the knitter is shown, with black pixels used to represent increases and decreases. The center red line separates the needle placements on either side of 0, and the text is shown in the default mirroring. The respective swatches after their rotation preview one of the potential results A true diagonal repeat may be planned for motif patterning knit from the bottom up. The drawback is that for executing a fair isle using more than 2 colors or with multiple color changes, partially illustrated on the far right, the 32X32 repeat would need to be rotated and knit as above.  

From the Brother machine knitting techniques book, a suggestion for dividing a sweater front into diagonal halves created by using the holding technique  

The idea of chaining the eyelet areas to reduce the size of the slits is an interesting one that up to now I have not tested.

Diagonal pleats

ArahPaint and Gimp in knit design 3

Previously published:
ArahPaint and Gimp in knit design 2
ArahPaint meets Gimp in knit design 1

Subsequent posts on using Gimp Layers to process images:
Using Layers in Gimp for color separations
Layer/Transparency/Color to Alpha Gimp Update for Mac 3_more on color separations

Gimp allows one to work on multiple images with only a single window open, left mouse clicking on any one of the images will bring it into view for editing. In the dark theme, it is hard to see the difference, but a lighter border actually surrounds the active image distinguishing it from the others, outlined here in yellow In Arah, multiple windows may be opened at any one time, and left-clicking on any one of them will bring it to the front for editing.   When working using the same file in more than one window, the degree of magnification needs to match in each.
Spreadsheets and paint programs may be used to achieve color separations for designs intended for specialty fabrics, many worked on the double bed.
Two places to begin exploring them here are for knitting single-bed mosaics and double-bed jacquard in its form where each color in each design row knits twice.
It is unlikely to happen often in knitting that more than 6 colors are used in any one fabric except perhaps in an elaborate color-changing fair isle.
The palette that appears in Arah when opening a new file is random, as seen here when two new files of the same size are loaded  If one’s preference is to reduce the number of colors, the specific number may be set by choosing from the colors menu, editing the number identified as that for the working palette, changing it to the new value, in this case, 6, and the palette reduction occurs as seen in A. For most knit repeats a black color is handy, any one of the 6 colors or more may be adjusted as described in the previous post, seen in B, where black has been added, replacing the color in position 1. More Gimp information: https://docs.gimp.org/2.10/en/gimp-palette-dialog.html
Some of the related content in brief: the former versions of GIMP had a “Save palette” command. Palettes were stored in a specific folder via the preferences pane. Easy to do and manage. It no longer exists.
To save the palette of an image, indexed or not, you must now import it from the image.
The “Palettes” dialog is dockable: from the Image menu, select Window, Dockable Dialogues, Palettes.
A few dozen more or less randomly chosen palettes are supplied with GIMP.“Import Palette” allows you to create a new palette from the colors in a gradient, image, or palette file.
Right-click in the space to the right of the illustrated palettes to call up the import option, or for palette editing. It is not necessary to index the image, this image was used in RGB mode. A palette name can be assigned, and if previously used, a number will be appended by the program.
The number of colors: the default is 256, you can set the number to any you choose. Gimp will try to create a palette by spacing the number of colors evenly across the range of the gradient or image. Each screengrab in the top row shows the initial selections for gradient or image, and the second row of screengrabs notes other changes made when choices were available and the results. White dots mark selections as seen while using the program.   Using the same image, indexed to 5 colors, the custom palette is rendered in a one-step process. The gradient seen in the first position on the top left was randomly assigned by the program and does not influence the results. The Columns selection number settings only influence the way the palette is displayed and have no effect on the way the palette is used. The lower the number, the larger the display size of each color unit.
Double-clicking on any palette color will magnify the palette view on the theme color background. Left-clicking on any color makes it available for drawing, the selection will have a dotted bounding line and the selected color will be assigned to the foreground position,  Right-clicking on a color results in these options.  The imported palette will be added to the Palettes dialog and is automatically saved in your personal palettes folder when you quit GIMP so that it will be available in future sessions.
In Arah, the color palette will always display the colors of the active layer. The working image contains colors intended for use in my designs.  In addition, please see the note from the developer in the comment at the end of the post.  The palette tools: A: if you press this icon the program will underline the colors actually used in the image, since all colors are used in this case, each color is underlined in either white or black in this instance  D: adds color(s) to the palette  B: removes unused colors in the above palette, it would restore the original colors
C: removes duplicate colors, not applicable in this instance
E: removes the last unused color, will not work if all colors are used.
Changing color positions in the palette: to switch the position of two colors in the palette, click the chosen color in the palette, move the cursor to the color you want to switch the position with, and press the left mouse button while holding the Ctrl key on the keyboard. In this instance, the color was duplicated in the new position.  Knitters designing for dbj are likely to work with a limited range of colors, often 3 or 4 max, in specific palette ranges to ready images for download.
If color separations for 3 or more colors are done in shades of grey in terms of technical details, you need a pattern image that is 8-bit greyscale, with each color in a range of 8-bit values. So for 4 colors, it would be 0-63 color 1; 64-127 color 2; 128-195 color 3; 196-255 color 4.
Binary images have only 2 possible intensity values, normally displayed as black and white with values of either 1 or 255 for white, and often 0 for black.
That convention may have led to the selection of white as color 1 in automatic separations such as the KRC Japanese one, where white is selected first. In a greyscale or color image, a pixel can take on any value between 0 and 255. Designing for fair isle, or when attempting to visualize and illustrate slip and tuck fabrics with frequent color changes, more colors may be required even though the final download will be in black and white. There is a quick way to add random colors assigned by the program and based on the initial palette: The magic wand tool allows you to work on consistently colored areas without having to select and outline each.
To alter a single color using the bucket tool, click on the wand, then on the color single color area you wish to change, it will become outlined by bounding lines.
Click on one of the colors in the expanded palette, and it will automatically appear in the foreground color position, and it may then be used to bucket fill the chosen area. Flatten the image using the merge-down tool.
If the foreground color, in this case, white/0, needs to be changed, in order 
to choose all pixels in the foreground color, click on the wand, and use Tools > Select by color or Shift+W. This function works only on 8-bit pixel images. Click on the color you wish to use to replace the ground, and bucket fill with the newly selected color. Flatten the image using the merge-down tool.
Changing multiple color blocks in the same color could be selected by the tool, but filling each of them one at a time was required.  In Gimp a similar tool is the fuzzy select, which also allows for changing the color in a selected area or for selecting and changing all pixels in that color. Selected areas will also be outlined in dashed bounding lines. Bucket fill may then be used to replace color(s). The option is offered to choose either foreground or background for the fill.  2023 in Gimp 2.10.34 use and hold the shift key prior to selecting and using the bucket fill tool to change all the areas outlined by dashed lines. The bucket-fill tool itself now works again on any area with a defined boundary, no other, following action is necessary.

Click on the rectangle select tool and then on any spot in the work area or on the image to set the image. The dashed lines will disappear.
In terms of saving the palette in Arah for future use, I saw no specific directions in the manual.
The color palette displayed is always the one used in the active layer. As a workaround: open the image, and the associated palette will be displayed. The repeat begins drawn 24 pixels in width, by 24 in height.
Select clear from the edit menu, or bucket fill area with white
If the size of your intended drawing area is different, choose the option Resize Image from the Image menu. With the chain link intact, the new canvases are created keeping the aspect ratio. Enter a new value for width/height, hit return, or move the cursor to the alternate value, and its number will automatically change to a matching one. Click OK to use the new canvas, or reset if you wish to return to the original 24 by 24 pixel one for a different edit.
With a broken chain link as one of the two values is altered, a preview is available. If both values are to be changed, break the chain link, enter the two values in turn, and a preview appears for each step. Ok is used again prior to saving, or choose reset to return to the previously used setting. Color separations can make specialty fabrics possible to knit which are outside the possibility of doing so simply by changing cam settings. Two instances are mosaics and DBJ where each color in each design row knits twice. Separating each may be done in two ways. The first method, convenient for longer repeats, requires that the result be elongated X 2, whether in the repeat design software or after download to the machine or using the elongation X2 function in the punchcard models. For illustration purposes here I will be working to create files that do not require elongation.
Mosaics and Mazes are constructed in similar ways and are sometimes referred to as floatless fair-isle even though technically speaking usually 2 stitch floats do appear on the purl side in the alternate color used with each color change.
Many such repeats may be knit using both the slip and tuck settings, the latter is the more interesting of the two on the purl side.
When learning structures it may be worth beginning with a published design.
Kathleen Kinder decades ago published two books, one with 24 stitch repeats, the other with 40 stitch repeats, with the separations included as well This, by Barbra Walker and intended for hand knitting, offers a huge library of designs for inspiration and conversion Following specific rules it is also possible to develop DIY repeats from scratch. That said, the repeat used in this blog post happens to have a known value of 12 pixels by 12Magnification in Gimp is achieved by selecting or typing in new percentages at the bottom of the window.
Entering and exiting the full screen may be controlled via the view menu To exit, it right-click at the very top of the window to expose menu options and select deselect full screen.  In Arah, if you press any number from 0-9 on the keyboard, you will change the zoom directly to that level (1 means 100%, 6 means 600%, 0 means 1000%). The plus + and minus keys- as well as the magnifying lens icons, will zoom in and out To use the entire space available in the window, choose Fit to Window from the view menu or select Ctrl+zero.
If working in more than one window this option makes repeats the most visible, scaling back can be done by counting the number of selections, helping to match the new picture magnification to the first.
Press the escape key on the keyboard to return to the original 100% view.
To work using the full screen, select the option from the view menu. To exit, right-click at the very top of the window to expose menu options, and select exit full screen Separating the design: ultimately the planned final graphic repeat would be a BW png used for electronic download, programmed as a fair isle one, but knit using tuck or slip settings, it may be drawn initially using only in those 2 colors. Black may need to be added to the palette selections.
One may always draw on a large canvas and then crop as needed, but as a starting point, it may be easier to simply match canvas size to the published repeat being used.
It is handy to have an extra column to help track image processing during the separation, the repeat above is identified as being composed of 12X12 pixels, one could begin with a 13X12 canvas.
A second way to provide the 13th column is to work using 2 windows, matching magnification,  and the second with a different, larger pixel measurement than the first. Copy the contents of the original work area and paste them into the larger canvas in the other window. Crop to new size if necessary.
To illustrate the two-window process, here the original BW repeat has already been drawn and elongated X2
A. Use the rectangle-select tool to capture the whole image in the first window, bounding lines in the colors of the palette in use will outline the selected area
B. Use the edit menu or command C to copy the selection, edit paste, or command V in the new window to place it.
When pasting on a different size ground, the bounding lines will also appear in the new image, the contents remain moveable,
C. Place the selection where desired on the new canvas,  when satisfied use the X, merge down tool to flatten it.
The quicker method begins with a canvas one pixel wider than the repeat, 13X12.
Adjust magnification, for comfortable viewing in the editing process.
View: show grid 2
Colors: set the number of colors to 6, and adjust the #1 color to black, white is in position 0 in the palette by default
Activate the pencil tool, and draw a vertical line on the far right in an easy-to-see color choice other than white or black
Using black, fill in pixels for your first draft of the pattern repeat
Image multiply YX2, resulting in 13X24
Using the pencil tool fill in the first 2 design rows followed by every other pair with white. Magnify image A to a comfortable work viewing size.
B and C: using the rectangle select tool, with the left mouse button, place the pointer on the purple pixel, drag the mouse across each pair of marked rows, release the mouse, and use Command I to color invert, and merge down to eliminate the bounding box.
The purple pixels will change color as well, making it easier to track what rows have been altered already.
D: crop the image, removing the row with colored cells for the final repeat
If for some reason you are processing an image that is color reversed, the steps are identical, but tuck or slip stitch fabrics, black pixels or punched holes knit, white pixels or unpunched squares tuck or slip. For this reason, the cropped final result would need to be color inverted prior to knitting or punching holes. This separation for 2-color DBJ results in its potential use in many fabrics other than DBJ and may be performed by some programs used to download multiple color patterns to the machines prior to knitting the fabric. One such fabric is drop-stitch lace.
Punchcard machine users would need to separate the colors manually, or if Dak is available, the separation may be done using the program and a corresponding template may be printed as a guide to punching holes.
This method is the automatic default one for any 2-color DBJ knit on the Passap.
Each color in each design row will be knit with each pair of consecutive color passes. Completing one design row containing 3 colors will require 6 carriage passes, 4 colors 8, and so on.
The built-in color separation in electronic machines wherein each of only 2 colors in each design row knits only once does not apply when using more than two colors,  though it is possible using Dak or by downloading a special card reader technique to program separately from the design when using the Passap E6000 in addition to the pattern repeat.
This separation of a 2 color pattern results in an elongated version of the design regardless of any dbj backing used.
Begin with a 2 color image,  an extra column of pixels is added here as well:
A: multiply YX4 to 13X48
B: mark alternating pairs of rows in the extra column with a contrasting color
C: following the color cues on the far right column, on rows with no added color use the pencil tool to replace black pixels with white, leaving only the orange cells
D: on rows marked with the third color replace the orange pixels with white, leaving only the black pixels
E: crop the image eliminating the extra column
adjust the remaining orange color to black
index the result to B/W, and the image is ready to save and use The difference between single repeats for each type of fabric, no further elongation is required. A: mosaic, B: DBJUsing layers in Gimp opens up the possibility of several color separations for fabrics using only 2 colors.

Both img2track and Ayab are capable of opening 2 color images.
In img2track this is what would appear, after the download the KRC function needs to be activated in the knitting machine.  Ayab: the repeat should be programmed in width equal to the number of needles planned to be in use. The color change happens as the file is loaded into the program, the ribber classic option is used to render results that would match the KRC knitting machine selection after an img2track download. Here the repeat is also tiled in height.  My personal preference is to work with images designed in black and white. With the 910 presently stored, my blog swatches are knit on a 930 using img2track.

A note for Mac users like myself using desktops with the M1 chip and Mac OS Monterey. Img2 track requires an FTDI driver for its download cable, on June 6 finally released a beta version of a more recent driver, I do not plan to install it at this moment, function in the upcoming Ventura OS would be unknown.   Ayab does not launch automatically. These are the steps necessary to run the program, following suggestions by Adrienne Hunter via the Ayab FB group:
open a Terminal window (Applications/Utilities/Terminal) and type these two lines:
cd /Applications/AYAB.app
./Contents/MacOS/AYAB
The app may also be found and then opened via using Spotlight search if you prefer  Once the program is quit unless you choose to keep the terminal icon
in your dock, it will disappear and the above process will need to be repeated. Once the text has been entered, and Ayab has been launched, a message similar to this will appear, showing your last log in. To launch Ayab again, simply use the up arrow key and hit return to repeat the command  Creating an AYAB desktop shortcut for Mac that will work without opening the terminal each time
Using Finder, open Applications and find AYAB. Right-click on AYAB and select “Show Package Contents”.

Locate “AYAB” under MacOS. While holding down the command and option buttons, click and drag that icon to the desktop. This will create an ayab shortcut that does the terminal stuff for you you can change the icon by copying and pasting the icon image in “get info” but it works fine without it. These icons will appear in your dock after double clicking on the icon   The ayab window opens with only the load image option highlighted Click on the load image file to open an image, and the remaining features of the program will now be available If you quit ayab, the terminal window remains active Quitting terminal called up this window for me only the first time I did so.

ArahPaint and Gimp in knit design 2

My previous post, ArahPaint meets Gimp in knit design 1, provided some information based on the assumption the reader had previous experience with a paint program, more specifically, Gimp, and an understanding of the development of knit repeats for various stitch types and techniques. At the time I had planned on expanding it. The information included some points on the following topics:
Magnification
Grids

Drawing in repeat
Image duplicate X
Drawing lines
Color exchange
Image scaling
Fill with custom brush repeat
Designing a tuck and a lace mesh repeat
Dividing large images
Returning to the topic now, I am including more information on designing repeats for knits that are by necessity limited in size and resolution, and am exploring some of the new features.
The updated program may be downloaded from https://www.arahne.si
The company provides a thorough manual that has been amended with the addition of 14 pages to include recently added features/ changes  https://www.arahne.eu/pdf/apaint4-EN.pdf
The present menu options in Arah:    Examining the toolboxWhen positioning the mouse pointer over any tool and a brief period of hovering over it, the information on the tool becomes visible as a brightly colored rectangle. The name of the tool appears below its pointer, its keyboard shortcut is also displayed to its right.  Selecting the tool changes the color of the box containing it to a darker grey as seen here for the draw circle tool on the left The “empty” shapes may also be used to highlight specific spots in pre-drawn charts or images while controlling the size of the line, seen here over the square tool.   Double-clicking on the shape drawing tools will fill shapes with color, enabling drawing each of them with color or fill The foreground color in both programs determines the color used to draw. In Arah, the foreground color (black) is drawn with the left mouse button, and the background color is drawn with the right mouse button (white), making it possible to work with any chosen pair of colors without the need to constantly change the drawing color positions. There are other operations in the manual where the use of middle mouse clicks is suggested. In the magic mouse, Apple has eliminated it. There are some third-party downloads available for anyone wishing to restore it. 
Options for tool
s appear below the toolbox once a specific tool is chosen, they may apply to only one tool or to several.
Rectangle select in Arah will have a moving dashed colored lines bounding box formed around the selected area.   Placing the pointer inside the area will move the selection. Moving the pointer to a corner using the left mouse button on the dotted lines of the dashed rectangle will resize it.
Clicking on the merge down/drop selection tool will remove the dashed outline. In the drawing mode, the default for standard drawing is indicated by a pencil. Clicking on it with the size set to one pixel brings up options shown in A. If you set the width of a line to be more than 1 pixel, then you can choose the shape of the pen, which influences the look of the starting and ending points of the line and the shape of a single-click drawn object.
Line width sets the width of lines, rectangles/squares, ellipses/circles, arcs, polygons, and brushes, B.
The options appear when a number greater than one is entered. If you break the chain’s link by clicking on the chain icon, you can set the width in the x and y direction independently, C.

Gimp still fails to create square pencil brushes accurately in consistent increments in size, leaving the only option for using the desired shapes to be saved in preference folders for repeated use or to work temporarily from the clipboard.
The built-in circle brush may be used, with the following results for values entered from one to eight Other small shapes can be drawn by filling in individual pixels. Using the rectangle tool, and a variety of other means, patterns are saved for future use or from the clipboard (until one quits the program), or in the preferences pattern folder, becoming a handy feature for filling in backgrounds or pattern segments for specialty fabrics.
Both programs share chain links that may be kept closed to preserve aspect ratio in the designs, or broken to allow for disparate pixel settings.
In Arah, a personal brush library of pngs may be saved in a personal folder for repeated use.
Drawing in repeat makes for easy creation of a filled canvas including pattern shifts, for example, the punchcard repeats are a fixed 24 stitches wide and a minimum of 32 rows for the card to rotate continuously. An even number of repeats in height will produce a correct brick punchcard configuration.  For any DIY pattern design, it is helpful to understand some of the rules for the specific knit fabric and how smaller repeats need to align in width and height.  
Users of electronic knitting machines can isolate the smallest repeat, use that, or tile it for use on a specific number of needles in work.
Line drawing may be set to preferred widths. The options associated with the chain link next to the line field allow for changing horizontal and vertical directions independently by breaking the chain link and typing in desired X and Y values.
Each drawing tool can use the additional modes displayed for the pencil icon. The brush menu uses gradients in the direction of the gradient effect, which may be used to produce pixelated lines or borders, or set to apply to the whole image, here the polygon tool is used. It creates a series of straight lines that are connected. If solid-color pencils are used, coloring the shape will not leak out into the ground.  To start and end lines, click the left mouse button, to end them release the mouse button, and press the right mouse button to stop drawing connected lines. The width is set at 5   
At any point pattern fill may also be added in variable patterns, here using the stitch tool set at variable lengths Easy and fast dithering effects to part of an image or all of it, here an 80X80 pixel canvas is used along with gradient fill on what begins as a square filled with a solid colored ground
Freehand drawing is achieved by activating the pencil tool.
Rectangles, squares, and ellipses may be drawn from outlined to filled.
Double-clicking on the icon will activate the fill function, doing so again will return it to empty shapes, and one may easily toggle between them in the same design. Wider lines or filled shapes may be set to be solid or gradient fill. The process is easy and quick.
Keep in mind while having fun drawing that especially when you enter the territory of multiple colors per row in machine knitting the color separations for programming them in any machine become more complex, and are far easier in electronic machines if software such as Ayab, img2track (my preferred), or DAK with their respective cable connections for download are available. Dak allows for a print template of the separations which may be saved and in turn be pixel-redrawn or punched for use outside its universe.
This is an 80-stitch design, committing to it for knitting a scarf, 80 stitches are likely if knit on a 4.5 mm machine to yield somewhere between 7 and 10 inches in width. Tiling in Gimp, or drawing in repeat in Arah helps visualize the full piece and estimate the minimal number of rows to be knit based on the gauge while remembering that 6 carriage passes will be used to complete each design row unless using the heart of Pluto separation in Ayab or separation B in Dak are used. Here 800 design rows are represented. Changing colors in the image further helps one decide whether it is worth committing to knitting it.
The new color test image, also 80 pixels by 80: The paint bucket tool Gimp in the latest update no longer works on specific areas of the design, but rather, fills the whole canvas. The fuzzy select tool is now used to fill in isolated areas or switched to select by color to fill all areas drawn in that specific color. Selections will be outlined with a bounding line A, bucket fill is used to alter the selection B. Click on the rectangle tool and then in the working window outside the image to remove them and set the results prior to exporting them. Selections are filled with the foreground color.
Selecting and replacing all the red will also fill in individual, unconnected pixels in that color, which in the past may have required manual “cleanup” In Arah simply click on each area to be filled in with the new color sequentially. There are, in addition, other fill options in Arah: 
Fill to border fills in all pixels in each area selected no matter which color they are until the background color is reached, in this case, white
The whole image option works on foreground color selection including in those pixelated areas where pixels are not connected here as well. For 2 color knitting and downloading to knitting machines, depending on the software, the best files may be those created in BW indexed mode. Here a square is filled with a gradient to start with, and then the fill option is used again, taking the dither to the border of the image resulting in different densities. Note that threshold and fill % can be individually set to vary the results.  

Changing single colors globally is easily done by adjusting the palette for the specific color. Double-clicking on either foreground or in this illustration the background color will load a palette window including it. There are 2 ways to alter the shade, one is by moving the cross-hair, outlined by a circle, and the second by using the slider, pointed to by an arrow. The new color is then changed after clicking OK, in this case altering the foreground color, no need for using the paint bucket.  The spray tool, on the left, may appear similar in appearance to the color picker in Gimp, shown on the right, but functions very differently, creating a spray in the foreground color. The shapes of the pixels and their size may be set in varied values, but the function is of limited use in small repeats.  The way to activate the color picker in Arah is to press the Shift key, the mouse pointer will change to the familiar dropper and then click on the pixel in the desired color to select it.

The stitch-tool is an interesting new addition, is useful in drawing points to break up long floats, ie in fair isle knitting, where floats longer than 5 stitches are not recommended. The provided repeat, intended for plain weave, is fixed in size, 2 stitches wide, and familiar to machine knitters as the one found in basic punchcards provided by manufacturers, with the card often numbered one in the packet. The repeat filled the card, with no breaks in the pattern. There was a whole publication on using CARD 1 in 100 fabric variations by Kate Armitage.
Using the tool:  changing the pencil size or leaving it at 1 does not have any effect on the results, the pattern is a fixed alternating 1X1.
The arrows determine in which direction the stitch line will follow the shape. The length is set to the distance between the two points in any direction.
To enable the tool, click on the box to the left of its icon. The resulting effect depends on the base image size and may be used on more than one color. Here the effect was used on filled circles Using the options on full square canvases yields results that can easily be translated into knitting patterns. Note that the effect, however, does not extend to borders in all directions. The saved “stitched” image can in turn be cropped to meet knitting repeat needs.
Some effects: without enabling the plain weave repeat Engaging the repeat: the intermittent stripes may also be easily rotated If no direction is highlighted, the bands form horizontally by default. After spaced bands are drawn, clicking in the horizontal spaces between them will form secondary motifs.  Square grids can appear to be suitable for tuck or slip stitch patterns,  but the individual repeat would need to be isolated, and those horizontal lines would need to be converted to solid color as well, representing all-knit rows.
A workable reduced repeat:  Testing its alignment may be achieved by tiling in Gimp and drawing in repeat in Arah. There is another quick preview for doing so, the drawback is only that any repeat appears to be multiplied by a fixed X10 in height and width. Here the 4X5 original is repeated to 40X50 pixels an 8X5 design repeats to 80X50 pixels If you prefer to work with colored shapes rather than black and white ones, whether intending to print punchcard repeats in black and white or to use the file for download to electronic machines as a BW png, the easiest way to create the repeat is to begin to do so using a single color on a white ground or the reverse, and then to use the select by color tool in Gimp to bucket fill the color with black, or adjusting the color palette in Arah.
Large image color reductions or steps for color separations for more advanced fabrics aside from the size of the repeat require their own post.
A beginning idea for future discussions on methods for performing them and the question as to whether the presence of white or specific hues in pattern palettes matter in downloads

More shapes on ribber fabrics with tuck patterning, fantasy fair isle

Fantasy fair isle is the term often used to refer to dbj fabrics created using tuck settings on either or both beds. Typically in the required color separation used each design row in the repeat is expanded into 4 rows, with the same selection occurring for each color pair of consecutive rows. A tuck/plain combination is used here, with the backing essentially being a striper one, where each color knits every stitch on the ribber on every row.
In this illustration, the blue symbols represent knit stitches on either bed, the red, the tucked stitches on the top bed. The chart represents a single design row expanded into 4, the results would, in turn, be rendered double length in knitting the final fabric.  The last post related to this topic: 2021/09/07/geometric-shapes-on-ribber-fabrics-with-tuck-stitches-3/
Recently a friend shared images of a punchcard skull pattern she was using in a hat and followed with a query as to the possibility of using the pattern on a mesh grid. The inspiration for the conversation began with this image, the work of Claudia Scarpa. The possibility of adding images on a true mesh transfer lace or mesh-like thread lace images may be found in 2021/12/14/to-mesh-or-not-to-mesh-9-more-on-mock-filet-design/
My DIY skull image in a potential thread lace pattern, in a 100X92 pixel png.  Concurrently the topic of illusion knits on the machine has also resurfaced in FB with some spectacular panels executed using the Garter carriage and changing colors every 2 rows. Some small geometric shapes begin to have a somewhat “similar” appearance using this technique, but as with beauty, the success in the imitation is in the eye of the beholder.
The techniques involved: my proof of concept was knit using img2track on a 930. Traditionally two-color designs may be opened and then downloaded, using the standard dbj built-in KRC function for the color separation, not suitable for this dbj version, while for designs in 3 or more colors the program will separate the repeat in a way that each color for each design row is knit twice, the separation required here.
At this point, the color separation is executed by filling in pixels and observing a variety of rules. DAK produces templates of jacquard separations of varied types that may be printed for use outside its universe. The same file may be screengrabbed, traced, and redrawn pixel by pixel for use in a Brother download using other download software.
Passap by default separates knits for 2 color DBJ with each color for each design row knitting twice mode. Tucking on either or both beds is made easier because of the way stitches are formed on the Passap beds, along with the use of strippers which push down on tuck loops with each pass, ensuring that they will knit off properly. The fabric widens considerably when off the machine, requiring loose cast-ons and bind-offs. The dbj variant, dubbed fantasy fair isle, is often used to create lap or quilt blankets.
The Passap built-in reader techniques that are often recommended for large knit pieces ie blankets using the same design are 186 for throw size, 187 for lap blankets, and 183 for crib quilts. All three share the fact that the front bed pushers are selected in pattern in the up/knitting position alternating with the down/slip/tuck position alternating every 2 rows, producing the jacquard discussed here.
Slip settings produce narrow, short results, tuck short and wide ones. For non-Passap knitters, N is Passapese for plain knit, KX is tuck with patterning on the front/ knit bed, and AX for tuck patterning on the back/ribber bed.
Back in 2018, I began another post I meant to return to on traveling between the two brands.
My Passap E6000 manual is filled with scribbled notes from decades ago, expanding on how each technique may be used for a variety of fabrics.  In Fantasy Fairisle knitting using 187 with alternating up and down pushers on the back bed and AX with 2 arrow keys would match Brother ribber knitting with lili buttons used on an even number of needles set to tuck.
Working with the large skull image the setting of knit every row on the ribber and tuck in both directions on the knit bed is used as in technique 186, with a critical difference. Passap knitters may download the original black and white image while for Brother knitting a color separation is required.
The original skull image is 100 pixels wide by 92 high.
Converting the white ground layer behind the skull to alpha produces an image on a clear ground that can be placed exactly where desired on a new file with a white ground using the grid and guides
The alpha double long skull, now 100 by 184 pixels For the 1-pixel grid in Gimp to be visible on an editable image, a magnification of at least 800 is required. The options offered by default
can be changed to suit by simply typing in a new number.
As described in other posts including in Gimp update for Mac2, I chose to mark every other row with a red pixel, making it easier to track color-inverting every other row.  This is achieved by selecting the rows with red dots using the rectangle tool one row at a time and choosing Invert from the colors menu. The red dot will also change color, making it easy to locate converted rows in more complex patterns. The dotted blue line is a guide for placement. in progress   the processed image the trimmed 98X182 png doubled in length once more to 98X364 Knitting process on a 930 using img2track:
the 930 has a tiny brain, so the image is broken down by the software into multiple tracks of 96, 134, and 134 respectively. One of the critical differences when using this type of DBJ color separation is that the first preselection row is made from right to left toward the color changer rather than from left to right as in KRC separated 2 colors DBJ.
The first and last needles are in work on the ribber to ensure the edge stitch on that bed will knit every row.
The knit carriage is set to KCII, canceling the end needle selection.
Once the first row has been preselected and the planned color is chosen, with COL, set the main bed to tuck in both directions, leave the ribber set to knit, and continue knitting changing color every 2 rows.
In my swatch, the dark contrast color was used for the initial black pixel all-knit rows.
The work on the machine: A reminder: in my experience, the Brother cast-on combs are usually chrome-colored, Studio grey, and Passap, and I believe Superba ones were traditionally green. The first 2 were designed for 4.5 mm machines, the latter for 5mm. The different mm spacing does not make the 5 mm combs suitable for casting on on Brother, but they can be poked through the knit in progress. I like to leave the first comb and weights on, insert the new comb closer to the beds, and then move the weight up, and then remove the lower position comb.
There are lots of side-by-side stitches tucking on the main bed, made possible by the fact that each is anchored in place by a knit stitch on the opposite bed.
The tension needs to be set so that the stitches will knit off properly while having tuck loops not so loose as to get hung up on gate pegs. It can take a bit of trial and error to find proper settings and they, in turn, may need to be adjusted again when moving from small swatches to knitting on a far larger number of needles.
The finished piece measures 25 inches in width by 24 in height.
The appearance on the bed set to N, in this case, the ribber: Those white lines on the right are spots where the color changer picked up both color threads, a problem that does not occur in Passap knitting, where each color is picked up in its own yarn holder. In the Brother model, sometimes the yarn is left in the wrong place below eye level rather than its own individual one corresponding to its button, and both yarns are picked up with the next color change. The more textured knit side of the piece,  a close-up of the texture at an angle  Claudia Scarpa developed a skull variation using only layers in Gimp and has been kind enough to create a Youtube video illustrating the process. The separation is easy and quick as opposed to my more prolonged hack, and I will return to attempt to use it for various fabrics in a follow-up post.
This skull is more compact and better defined than mine. With the double-long original image superimposed on alternating pairs of black and white rows, the resulting png can not be lengthened again as tucking would then occur for 4 rows, not likely possible in a Brother machine. The variant is a very interesting cousin to mine.

In DAK using Method C color separation each color row separates into 2 rows of knitting and when using the result rows do not have to be repeated in pairs but the double-length switch will need to be used in Japanese knitting machines if working within the program. For those intending to use the separation outside the DAK universe, the color separation may be printed, traced/redrawn to create a png or bmp, scaled double length, and used as in the skull swatch. The template for the double long triangle in the post and the associated 24 stitches by 32 rows png, followed by the associated drawn png The png doubled in length, 24 stitches by 64 rows. This is a small repeat, suitable for punch card machines. The test swatch is knit with the main bed tucking both ways and the ribber knitting every row. It is possible to work some repeats on some machines with the ribber also set to tuck both ways with EON needle selection.
In Brother that is achieved by using lili buttons with an even number of needles in work on the ribber. The first and the last needle would be in work on the top bed, the KCI setting is used for end needle selection to ensure that the first and last needles on each side of the piece will knit. I did not find this method workable and soon had to stop because of a loopy mess. When using the Dak stitch design module, the color separation is automated. Choose any design repeat. This happens to be a 20X20 one, chosen from the thumbnail assortment, so not suitable for punchcard models. “Printing” the template using choosing the option of using dots rather than squares to represent knit stitches makes the resulting print screengrab easier to trace. the 20X20 repeat as a BW png The template was overlayed with a grid in numbers, filling in cells over the dotted areas.
A portion of the work in progress using the generated dbj option C template and tracing it transitioning from template to Numbers, to Gimp:  The result is screengrabbed, opened in Gimp, converted to BW mode, and scaled to the 20X40 expanded design size. Unless the double-length function in the machine is also used, it will need scaling again to double length prior to download.
Illustrations for the generated dbj option C template, tracing it in Numbers, processed in Gimp, The final image double length, showing the difference between the separation using the template, and that using layers as in Claudia’s video, which appears different but is actually the same repeat, color reversed.  Using bucket fill for the ground in the second layer, as described in the video, the captured clipboard image can be very small or stripes any width may be captured, even up to that of the full repeat widthRemember to click on the screen outside the area chosen with the rectangle tool before using the bucket fill in pattern tool.
The result is the same using either brush.
Alternately, the initial design may be scaled X4 to 20 X 80 pixels and it is superimposed on a ground flood-filled with 2 black rows alternating with 2 white rows the steps resulting in a match to the previous elongated version the 20X80 png In the related swatch patterning is used on  40 stitches by 100 rows. The relaxed fabric when off the machine measures 7 inches by 7 inches and the knit side view reflects the elongation of the design one might observe when using the same color separation in standard striper-backed DBJ. On the bottom, the swatch is stretched and the stitches are set with some casual steaming and pressing to 10.5 to 6.75 inches, gaining the familiar texture appearance seen in so many Passap blankets.
The color differences are due to lighting, with the photos being taken at different times of day.  
For a loose cast-on row, I used a racked version at the same tension as the body of the knit.
For a loose bind-off to accommodate the stretch, I used this method, one of many taught in Passap seminars.
To perform the same on Brother machines: knit the piece, ending with the carriages on the right.
Transfer all the stitches up to the top bed, bring the ribber needles up into work between them set the ribber to a looser tension number, here it was increased from 4 to 7. Knit one row from right to left, picking up loops on the empty ribber needles drop the ribber slightly by using this bracket lever position to elongate the main bed stitches.  Using a latch tool, beginning with the first stitch on the right, insert the open latch tool into the first stitch on the right, then insert it into the second stitch moving down until the first stitch is behind the hook. Do not allow the second stitch to go behind the latch, keep it in the hook. Pull the latch hook up moving the second stitch through the one behind it, forming the first chain. Repeat across the row, going through the center of each stitch, continuing the chained bind-off. A yarn end is pulled through the last stitch and the now completed chained row is secured The beds are returned to the up position, and loops and stitches are dropped off all the needles.
An attempt at a more detailed look at the bound-off edge

DAK lace module 2, template use, other software

I am taking a break from lace, the two posts so far on using the module reflect my own experiences outside the program’s environment. The latter will continue to be the focus of my future posts when exploring the use of the software, with testing specifically aimed at adapting or using any of the Stitch designer features and output on Brother knitting machines.

Almost a decade ago I had a temporary leaf lace obsession, and it appears to have resurfaced. This pattern was offered in a Japanese machine knitting magazine, with no accompanying MK repeat. When transferring stitches by hand it is possible to move multiple stitches within a single row as well as to move stitches in opposite directions within the same row, making the published repeat executable When automating the repeat edits are possible and very easy using the lace module, these first drafts were created in Numbers,  I have to admit the first time I tried to knit both the associated png, mirrored and not, I experienced patterning errors. Whether due to operator fatigue, static, or any other possible cause, on a different day both designs knit successfully, and my appreciation of the module is growing steadily. The results for this, a complex shape, are quick and awesome when compared to the amount of time it would take to draft the pattern outside the program.
The design process, beginning with Dak: in this instance, the lace tool was used with what I will call the drag and stop method, initially on the fabric texture using the smart symbols.  At any time during the drawing process, several image view options are available and may be changed back and forth by deselecting features in this menuAn stp was created, the template is marked 74 rows in height, filled in as the stp was generated, right side facing Numbers and Gimp reduced the template to a png 14 stitches wide by 52 rows long, needed to be mirrored using the number one button on the 930 for successful knitting, matches the original illustration. Dak makes slight modifications very easy. The untested brick repeat, 28X104, developed using Arah followed by its png changing that central shape
The amended design drawn in repeat in dak visualizing the knit, The print preview template: and converted for use on Brother electronics using Numbers and Gimp the resulting png, 14 stitches by 68 rows, also knit using the number one button on the 930 the proof of concept swatch The brick repeat developed in Arah, now 28 stitches by 136 rows,  its png comparing the initial three knit results for differences, the samples were knit using the same yarn at the same tension A test for the second brick repeat, here visualizing results with a screengrab of the stp. The test swatch is for a single repeat width, the initial yarn used ran out, hence the color change, the second yarn was thinner and broke, but there is enough to get a sense as to how the overall alignment of the knit shapes will appear, including that horizontal chevron between the shifting leaves. The png required mirroring when used on the 930. I became curious about reverse engineering from punchcard to an stp file: my first choice was of a “straightforward” but slow to knit pattern, 34 LC passes are made before any knitting rows follow.  Ayab users have access to a huge library of knit-ready pngs, this was one, it also happens to be 24 stitches wide, so suitable for punchcard users. The published repeat as given is shown on the left, mirrored for use on my 930, left and right transfers are then marked in red and green respectively to check transfer placements. The right half of the image is then copied and dropped down a single row reaching the necessary configuration for Dak, allowing for the stp to be created. deselecting yarn colors in Dak provides a clearer view of transfers the 24X36 original png:  A proof of concept swatch: the yarn was too thin for the many transfers and broke, so on the right, there are fewer stitches than initially planned. At the bottom there is a single instance of 2 rows knit after all the transfers, there are 6 rows knit after each transfer series in the remainder of the swatch. Color changes could be added in multiple places to interact with the wavy shapes The template for the stp as first attempted is something quite different but would work if the pairs of blank rows between pairs of transfers are eliminated over its length except at the very top
it would need to be drawn eliminating the pairs of blank rows between transfers to match the original repeat because all those carriage passes are consecutive. Drafts with no blank rows between alternating transfers are not accepted by the program and ruled out in any template preview as well. The complexity of working with a “simple” repeat: over the years I accumulated a notebook full of copies from Japanese magazine pages with what I believed to offer interesting potential, this repeat happened to be one. The markings for the knit rows on the right, and the two blank rows at the bottom identify it as suitable for Studio punchcard machines, and it would appear to be easy to translate for knitting on Brother thanks to those 2 blank rows between transfer cell markings. Developing the Brother repeat in Numbers for beginning with transfers to the left. The repeat is recognizable as a mesh variant, more information for mesh design repeats may be found in the post, the lace carriage is used for 2 passes, and then for 4 passes alternately the repeat on the right was created in Gimp.  The 12X18 png was mirrored for use on my 930, some cables were added. A 1X1 crossing in the thin yarn used in the sample would have been nearly invisible. The placement, in this case, is at the top of the full repeat, after the first knit row before returning to transfers for design row 1, an easy way to track the hand technique. The 2X2 crossing used might need help with definition and placement in a wider vertical knit strip Creating the stp: the size of the png was used to create the image file, which required cropping, in Dak this would be the menu language after activating the proper tools. the stp size is 12X16, The template generated for a Brother punchcard machine illustrates the problems and some of the confusion if the template repeat is used for actual knitting, especially on the punchcard machines. Drawing the eyelet and dragging the mouse one cell to the left is the intuitive way to draw for transfers to the left. The symbols appear to be right-side facing by default and if they are in turn mirrored by the program prior to saving, when the templates are generated, the intent for use of the design would match. The numbers on the left are in the punchcard template, adjusted by cropping the two extra rows in the Brother electronic template by the software, do not reflect the actual design row numbers. The starting row is wrong for the Brother lace carriage operation from the left to produce the first row transfers to the left in actual knitting. As far as determining sequences for knit row placement, that is left up to the punchcard knitter’s experimentation. The minimum repeat for a punchcard to roll continuously is 36 rows, that fact needs to be considered if punching cards. The repeat shift for the first transfers to happen toward the left is illustrated on the right.  As initially given, with the lace carriage starting on the left, the first transfer row would be to the right. In many cases, this may not matter, but in this instance, where the knit rows happen after 2 or 4 LC passes respectively, the template offers another instance of the fact that the knitter using it needs to have previous understanding and experience in creating the particular stitch type. This version does not have an accompanying swatch. Analyzing the electronic template for interactive knitting: it is correct in marking rows for LC operation from the left with the first transfer row made to the right, matching the above chart.  The LC operation is continuous Eliminating the rows marked with red would yield a workable punchcard repeat, with loss of the cues for the proper sequence for LC passes.
In this case, it would be best to redraw the adjusted electronic repeat prior to punching any holes.
Getting that first row to transfer to the left can be achieved by mirroring the first stp draft, using the second selection,  the resulting electronic template yields the repeat with transfers in the direction intended, as seen in the proof of concept swatch and its repeat For good measure, the repeat is also drawn as stitches and produced the punchcard template with a first blank row identical to that generated when using symbols Using the pencil tool to draw the transfers differently resulted in a series of error alerts, so not an option.

For Brother knitters mirroring the self-drawn stp and altering the electronic template may be the way to go. Also, be alert that Brother and Toyota punchcard knitters cannot knit interactively because the interactive knit rows present in the mylars cannot be present in the punchcards, a fact that is acknowledged by the software company nearing the end of the content on the lace module. No mention is made of the fact that for successful knitting the knit carriage on Brother needs to be set to KCI or II for the pattern to advance properly during interactive knitting and that those rows need to be omitted if entering the pattern on a mylar sheet or are using the repeat for download to a machine outside the DAK environment and you prefer not to have the knit carriage selecting needles as well as the lace carriage.
In summary, the information on the tool presented in the manual for the module: