Stitches CD – review

Ruth Schmuff

Stitch dictionaries are tons of fun, they give us lots of ideas for stitches, but often they
have one drawback, they’re just too big to carry with your project. I’ve long been jealous
of my knitting friends who can just take along a card with their scarf project on it. Ruth
Schmuff has developed a wonderful solution to this problem — Stitches CD, Volume 1, has
300 stitches, charted, classified and available in two formats.

Find the stitch you like, print the page and pop it in your project bag — what could be
easier?

The CD has the stitches in two formats, PDF for printing and JPG for adding into
documents. This is a brilliant choice because Acrobat documents (PDF) can be read on all
computer platforms. The CD even includes a copy of the Adobe Acrobat reader if you don’t
have one. The JPG copies are high resolution and the license in the package allows you to
use them for stitch guides and other material.

Copies of the stitches are in two directories. One is organized by name, and is perfect for
finding a diagram when you know what you want. The other is organized by stitch
families. These directories make the most wonderful browsing. If you know the type of
stitch you want, you can go to the directory and browse for stitches which will work. Find
the stitch, print the page and go.

While the CD does not have text, it has fantastic diagrams, as good as any I have seen.
The stitch sequence is numbered clearly. In stitches where there are more than one step
there are several numbered diagrams. There is also a diagram of the block of the stitch.
Each page has the stitch name clearly at the top.

There is a Read Me file (also in PDF format) which contains helpful information on how to
use the CD.

The final directory contains clip art of all the stitches. The diagrams are large (one I saw
was almost 9″) and stored at 300dpi. They are exactly the same as those in the PDF files.
but here you can manipulate them and use them in other pieces. I played around with
these files, reducing the sizes and resolution and had excellent results. Because the
permitted used of the images include stitch guides and newsletters, this can be an
excellent way to teach new stitches.

I’m absolutely delighted with this disk and I’m looking forward to Volume Two. Coming in
a CD jewel box, it makes a perfect stocking stuffer.

You can find a shop near you at http://www.tistheseason.org.

Related posts:

1. SuZy’s Portable Stitches – book review
2. SuZy’s Portable Stitches – vol 2 – Book Review
3. Stitches to Go – book review
4. SuZy’s Mini Stitches — Book Review
5. Stitches Vol 1 & 2 in printed form – book review