One of the most commonly asked questions I get asked is, “What program do you use to make your patterns?” so I figure it’s well past time for me to actually, you know, write a blog post about it.
The simple answer is, I use STOIK Stitch Creator 4.
The question that should come after that is, is it worth getting? My answer is…meh. I’ve had the same program for the better part of three years, so I have learned how to deal with its shortcomings and have no desire to drop another $50 on a different stitching program (though I have heard delightful things about PC Stitch, which, if I HAD to get another stitching program, I’d try.)
So, why the meh? Well, one of the biggest issues is that you can’t save the file in pdf format. This, well, sucks. I have gotten into the habit of dropping pdf files on my tablet and taking that with me wherever I stitch — that’s a no-go when I’m making patterns on my program.
Secondly, I still have yet to figure out how to copy and paste part of a pattern and put it in a different file. From what I can tell, you can’t do it. Now, I haven’t contacted the people who made it and asked them, so maybe it’s possible, but I can’t figure it out and I’ve tried.
Now, the good — it works. LOL, I know that sounds silly, but I have never had it crash on me ever. And I have a pattern that is over 5 feet (not the picture above), which is a LOOOOOT of squares and the program was able to keep up, no problem.
I like the fact it has just about every stitch imaginable that you can use and they make it relatively easy to add them to your project. And though I don’t use Anchor threads, it does switch back and forth between DMC and Anchor colors easily.
The other thing that is good is that on the color key it tells you how much thread you need in length rather than how many squares which makes it super easy to make sure I have enough of a color before I start a project.
So, yeah, that’s my take on it after using it for a while. They do a have a free download to try to the program on their site (it’s version 4.5, so it’ll be different than mine, but I don’t know by how much). I believe you can try any feature, but you can’t save the file until you buy the program so, test it out before you drop $50 on it.
I get a LOT of questions about where I get my patterns. The answer is…a lot of places. So I decided to make this post (which is, as of right now, a WIP) so that there is an easy place for you to find out where the charts came from (if you so choose). When the page becomes too long, I’ll break it down into another page. The plan is to go in reverse chronological order, we’ll see how that goes, LOL (The stitch count is really more for myself, but feel free to use it to gauge how large a project is.)
