The Best of the Rest

I still don't know what a lot of Thred functions do. That's OK. You learn functions as you need them. I know you can, for example, set where the program begins stitching. Right now, I don't think I need to do that, but it's there where I want it.

Here's the best of the rest for getting started (and here's the index of previous lessons)

Zooming is great fun, and easy to have a high degree of control over using the keyboard.

Hit M at any time. A little cross appears under the cursor. You can zoom in (Z) or out (A) on this point, enabling a really precise zoom on wherever you like. X zooms back out to full view, and Q makes the mark vanish.

Honestly, it feels really elegant and effortless ^_^ you will learn to love the zoom. I also use the M mark function like a pencil mark – when counting squares, or if there's a point I need to remember later. Because you're using the keyboard rather than the mouse, there's no risk of accidentally selecting or moving something. Wheee!

MOVIE

You can watch the order that the design will stitch in through view > movie. The slider at the top of the screen controls the speed. I often do this after test-stitching if there's a weird bit, to work out when it happened, and therefore on what layer.

A grid can help get your pattern the right size. Go to view > set > grid mask> medium. (High/medium/default just changes how strongly the grid appears – medium is my preference). Unfortunately, you need to be zoomed in to see it. Count as many as you can, use M to set a mark, then move the view. Start counting again from your mark.

You can change the scale of squares in pref > grid size. You can also set the size of hoop you'll be using, to ensure things remain at the right size.

TRACING FROM AN IMAGE

In theory, you can get a 24-bit bitmap into a form automatically.

I've never made it work.

But you can still import the bitmap in (file > import bitmap) and then use the free-hand form to trace it yourself. Even though this seems more time-consuming, I find I am happier to have that control of where the points go. File > hide bitmap is useful for temporarily hiding what you trace from, to check how your form looks.

The bitmap will be imported into the program any ole size, who knows. Just trace the form, and then shrink it to your preference using the grid afterwards.

STITCH CONTROL

Once you've added a line or fill, you can delete and add individual stitches. I'm not very good at this.

If you hit C while hovering over a stitch, the stitch is selected. An arrow appears over it, showing which way the machine goes when it encounters that stitch. Hitting delete removes that stitch, then follows the arrow and selects the next stitch in the sequence. It is very satisfying to keep delete held down and watch all the stitches vanish one at a time. Or – you can leftclick and drag a selected stitch to move where it falls.

Adding stitches is similar. To add stitches on the end of a line of stitching, find the final stitch and hit C to select it. Clicking either add at the topbar or the space-bar starts stitch-adding mode: your cursor will change to a needle, and will be attached by a thin line to the stitch. Wherever you click, is the next stitch in the sequence. Hitting esc gets you out of stitch-adding mode once you're done.

Adding stitches in the middle of a line is more of the same. Hover over the next stitch along from where you want the new stitch, and select it (C). Now, move your mouse to between the two stitches your new stitch will be between. Hit space-bar or add. You're in stitch-adding mode again, but now the needle-cursor is connected to two stitches (hopefully the two you want the new stitch between. If not, hit esc and try again). Leftclick to place a stitch, then esc to get out of stitch-adding mode.

If you want to add several new stitches in a row, you need to do this process each time – select, space, esc; select, space, esc. This is because after you've added a stitch, the cursor is no longer between the two original stitches, but the left-most stitch and your new stitch.

I'm not certain that fine-tuning stitches in this way is everyday useful. Much better to let the computer automatically do it based on your instructions for length, spacing and pattern. However – it certainly is useful once you've run your pattern on fabric the first time, if you've spotted anomalies you don't like, for tweaking the odd bit.

How do I colours?

I don't really know. I haven't needed to use them yet. Like a lot of Thred functions, it seems really counter-intuitive to begin with, but I'm sure it will be very useable once I learn. Watch this space; I'll write a future tutorial once I've figured it out. For now, you can look at the manual or tutorials on the Thredworks.com website to get started.

How do I minky?

Layer 1 with a horizontal texture fill; set to 0.3 spacing

Layer 2 with an angled texture fill; set to 0.3 spacing.

I use the fake-tatami pattern described in step 3, and if I want my finished layer to be horizontal stripes, I put the angle layer as an underlay, and the horizontal layer on top. I worked this out by trial and error, embroidering lots of little spots. The purpose of the 0.3 fill is to be extra tight, to prevent the fluff showing through; and that's why you repeat that density on both underlay and top layer. A nice texture is my preference - I welcome comments from people who've found a fave stitch length for minky.

Any questions?

Thank you for joining me! I wrote this because I almost spent £999 the other week, and am delighted that I didn't because Thred is a damn fine program, and maybe I can use that cash to go to Disneyland instead now.

I hope that you, my fellow beginner, will also enjoy using it. Overall, it's a program which digitizes; with a range of advanced features; and certainly good enough for your first few months of digitizing. Once you have mastered Thred, you will have something to compare commercial programs to: you'll know what features you never use, and also features which you really, really want, and might trade up for.

Feel free to ask questions, about Thred, or digitizing in general. I am 100% a beginner, and muddled this together over the course of a week, and after reading a lot of digitizing blogs; so I might not know the answer, but other readers might.