Image to Stoll file in Photoshop (jacquard and stitch colour key)

Machine types that can knit it

None of the seven machine types can do all of it as drawn; read the machine notes below.

Steps

1. Choose an image.
2. Paste it into a canvas at the sample size, 1 pixel per stitch.
3. File → Export → Save for Web (Legacy).
4. Choose GIF, set Colors to 2, 3 or
5. In the colour table, select each colour and click the padlock to lock it.
6. Save with the format set to "Images Only".
7. Reopen the file. Image → Mode → RGB Color, so you can edit the colours.
8. Select → Color Range, pick one colour with the eyedrop.
9. Fill the selection with a bright, flat colour using the pencil (no anti-aliasing).
10. Repeat for each colour, so no colours are tonal.
11. Save as BMP.

The full card

What it looks like

Not a fabric: a small indexed bitmap in which every pixel is one stitch and one row, with only a few flat, bright colours. For a jacquard each colour is a yarn; for a structure each colour is a needle action from a colour key.

How it behaves

Depends on the technique drawn.

How it works

Industrial software (Stoll M1 Plus, Create Plus) imports a picture and reads each colour as one yarn or one stitch. So the picture has to be reduced to a few exact colours that never blend. Photoshop's "Save for Web" GIF export reduces the colours; locking them keeps them fixed; then each colour is replaced by a bright, flat colour and the file is saved as BMP.

Machines

Stoll CMS (the studio's machines were multi-gauge CMS 530 HP: 14 gauge cut with 10 gauge needles, 699 needles, up to 32 feeders, 3 systems; and a 7 gauge cut with 4 gauge needles, 349 needles, up to 12 feeders). A technician runs the Stoll software; the picture is only the design input.

Parameters

Jacquard: maximum 4 colours. Structures: use the studio's colour key, one colour per stitch. 1 pixel = 1 stitch and 1 row. Canvas size suits the machine gauge. Example sample sizes: 400 × 800 (about 45 min and 400 g of yarn), 300 × 600 (35 min, 300 g), 200 × 400 (25 min, 200 g); this varies by technique. Yarn: 1/15 on every other needle, 2/30 and finer plied up for the finer gauges. Repeats: draw one repeat; the technician copies it to size.

Steps

1) Choose an image. 2) Paste it into a canvas at the sample size, 1 pixel per stitch. 3) File → Export → Save for Web (Legacy). 4) Choose GIF, set Colors to 2, 3 or 4. 5) In the colour table, select each colour and click the padlock to lock it. 6) Save with the format set to "Images Only". 7) Reopen the file. Image → Mode → RGB Color, so you can edit the colours. 8) Select → Color Range, pick one colour with the eyedrop. 9) Fill the selection with a bright, flat colour using the pencil (no anti-aliasing). 10) Repeat for each colour, so no colours are tonal. 11) Save as BMP.

Charting

The BMP is the chart. Keep a legend next to it: each colour with its yarn or stitch name.

Limits and common problems

Tonal or anti-aliased colours become extra yarns or stitches on import; draw with the pencil, not the brush[inference]. More than 4 jacquard colours → too many yarns per row. Wrong canvas size for the gauge → the motif knits too big or too small. Long floats in a float jacquard: keep each float no longer than the gauge number (for example 7 needles at 7 gauge).

Combines with

fair-isle-float-control, dbj-multicolour, dbj-double-face, dbj-relief-blister; the colour reduction steps in the image-to-chart chapter.

Pieces and assembly

Industrial jacquard and structure samples. Purlbed charts can be exported for the same software as a hand-off for the technician [inference].