Guides / Making your chart
Reducing the number of colours in a chart
A chart with 35 colours is not more beautiful than one with 15; mostly it takes longer to stitch. Here is how to find the right number and tidy up.
Every colour in a chart is a skein to buy, and a thread to start and end every time it comes back. Fewer threads make a piece calmer to stitch and, very often, better to look at.
What you need
- Your photo or chart open in the converter
- The key, with the stitch count of each thread
Confetti: why less is more
Stitchers call single stitches of one colour among another “confetti”. Each one is a thread to start and end.
- Bad sign: over 30 colours, most of them used for fewer than 20 stitches.
- Eight different colours in a ten-by-ten block.
- Near-identical threads side by side in the key.
- ✓ A patch of one colour, stitched in one go
- ✗ A single stitch: start a thread, two crosses, end the thread
How many threads to keep
No single right number, but ranges that work. For a first piece, few will do.
| Subject | Number of threads |
|---|
| Graphic motif, lettering, silhouette | 3 to 8 |
| Flower, bird, simple animal | 8 to 12 |
| Animal with fur and eyes | 12 to 20 |
| Portrait, subtle landscape | 15 to 25 |
Tip. Size matters as much as subject: under 50 stitches wide, stay under ten threads (choosing the size of a chart).
Lower the slider, then look
In the converter, “Thread colors” runs from 2 to 35. Go down until a detail goes, then back up a notch.
Fewer colours, step by step: each thread taken out hands its stitches to the nearest one kept. The chart holds up a long way, until a key colour disappears.- Start high, say 20, with the chart beside the photo.
- Lower it two or three threads at a time: the chart redraws.
- Stop as soon as a detail that matters goes: the glint in an eye, the shadow on a cheek, the stem of a flower.
- Go back up one or two threads. That is your number.
Merge threads that look alike
A thread used for only a few stitches, beside a near-identical neighbour, is the first to go.
2 whites at most: they only differ laid side by side
- Find it in the key, which gives each thread's stitch count.
- Tap it: its stitches light up on the chart.
- Use the wheel to swap it for its neighbour: its stitches take that colour.
Tip. The whites: White, the bluer B5200, the warmer Ecru and 3865. The colour chart shows each thread's eight nearest shades.
Remove the background, use your threads
A busy background takes threads for itself. With “Remove the background”, the subject gets every colour back.
3 or 4 threads fewer, often, once the background is gone
Keep the good confetti, clear the rest
Not every single stitch has to go. Ask of each one: if I take it out, will I notice? If not, it goes.
- “Edit by hand” opens the pattern maker: repaint the stray in its neighbours' colour.
- Ten minutes of tidying save dozens of thread starts.
- ✓ The glint in an eye, a star, a cat's whisker
- ✗ One beige stitch lost in beige fur
Tip. Still some left when you stitch? On the back, a thread can jump two or three squares, no more: it would show through. Beyond that, end it (starting and ending a thread).