In this video we explore migrating user stitch libraries from Stitchmastery Version 2 into Version 3, and also look at what happens when you open a Version 2 chart in Version 3.

Firstly, we will look at where our Version 2 user stitch libraries will appear when we open Version 3 for the first time. Go to Preferences – on Windows this appears under the Tools menu while on Mac it appears under the Stitchmastery menu in the top-left corner. You may need to open the blue arrow next to Stitchmastery to access the drop-down menu, and click Stitch Libraries.

In the Stitch Libraries dialog you can see 3 tabs – Stitchmastery libraries, User Libraries (V3), and User Libraries (before V3). When I open the Before V3 tab, we can see an example V2 library here. It might also be useful to note the Import button – if you have a V2 library stored elsewhere or you’ve just been emailed one, you can use the Import button to locate the library on your computer and bring it into Stitchmastery. You can also see a button named Migrate – we will come back to that.

Now we’re going to look at what happens when you open an existing knt2 file you created in Version 2, in Version 3. Firstly, I’ll show you this lace shawl design in Version 2.5 of Stitchmastery, or rather Knitting Chart Editor. A few things to point out in this example – we have 3-3 gathered stitches which have a symbol that is 1 column wide. We have “kfb” stitches denoted by the V symbol. And in the output text, you’ll note “3-3”, “kfb”, and also “k, yo, k2” in Row 1, denoting “knit 1, yarn over, knit 2”.

Let’s take a quick look at the stitch library and text template used for this design – open Diagram and Edit Diagram Properties. We can see under the Stitch Libraries and Text Templates tab that this design uses the Stitchmastery default Text Template, and the FunkyOrange Garter Stitch library. We’ll close this chart now.

Now let’s return to Stitchmastery Version 3, and we’ll open that chart file. Click the open folder or the “open” option under File, and select the chart. And it looks exactly the same. Still 3-3 gathered stitches which are 1 column wide, “kfb”’s with the V. And in the output text we still have “3-3” and “kfb”. However – do you notice that the text has changed slightly? Where we had “k, yo, k2” we now have “k1, yo, k2”. This is because the default Text Template in Version 3 has been changed to include the number 1 for a single knit or purl stitch, following feedback in our user survey in 2017. If you’d rather have just the letter, you can create your own Text Template to reflect this – there’s information available on this in our User Manual (Chapter 4 – Working with Stylesheets) or in the help files within Stitchmastery under Tasks then Text Templates.

And if we open Edit and Edit Diagram Properties, we can see that the file is using our V2 user stitch library and the default text template.

It’s worth pointing out that no changes have been saved yet so if you are not happy with this change, you can close the chart file without saving, or if you want to play a bit more but keep the original version too, you can choose File and Save As to create a new V3 version and then close the original file without saving.

Now, if you decide you want to take advantage of the new customisation tools for stitches in Version 3 for this chart, we’ll need to change to a V3 user stitch library. As you will be aware, having created your own user stitch library before, default Stitchmastery libraries can’t be customised, and Stitchmastery Version 3 will not allow you to customise V2 libraries – we’ve moved away from fonts and instead use SVG images for our symbols so it’s a different system.

If we go back to Edit Diagram Properties, we can see the drop-down menu giving some choices of library to use – and if you remember, we haven’t yet migrated the V2 garter stitch library this chart file is designed with, so it’s not available here.

Let’s go and migrate that library – open Preferences again and Stitch Libraries. Click to the “Before V3” tab, select the library and click migrate. An information box appears to explain that we recommend migrating libraries to Version 3 so that you can fully customise them, and that your original V2 library will remain unchanged.

When you click Migrate, a dialog opens giving you a variety of things to change, including the name, location and description. Once you are happy with your settings, click Finish and Stitchmastery will open the library for you. If you want to customise stitches at this point you can do so, or click OK to return to the Preferences box where you will see the migrated library appearing under the User Libraries (V3) tab.

Click Apply & Close to return to your chart. As you will be aware, Stitchmastery needs to be told when you want to use a different library so open Diagram, Edit Diagram Properties, and the Stitch Libraries and Text Templates tab. When you click the drop-down menu you will find the newly migrated V3 garter stitch library.

When you click this, a warning box appears informing you that changing from a Version 2 library to a Version 3 library can’t be reversed in this chart. This is why we recommend saving a separate copy before you start making changes. If you haven’t done this yet, you can click the cross to close the alert box, click cancel and go save a new copy. If you’re happy to continue, click Ok.

As some of the stitches have new descriptions, I’ll select Refresh Text in Key to ensure this is up to date.
Now we can see, using the Version 3 library, that some of the stitches used have changed – the chart looks the same but the key and written output are different. The stitches that have been changed in this chart include the 3-3 gathered stitch and “kfb”, which are both now denoted with “old” in the abbreviation and description. These changes have been made in response to feedback regarding the convention of stitch symbol width in columns matching the number of stitches which will remain on the needle after the stitch has been worked. If you still want to use the previous versions of these stitches you can – you’ll find them in a drawer at the end of the Palette called V2 old stitches. If you will regularly use these stitches you can customise them to remove the word “old”, or if you only want to use this stitch in your current chart you can change the key entry (two slow clicks to edit text) and remove the word “old” from your output text when you export it.

Now we’ll look at the new versions of these stitches – in the Estonian Gathered Stitches drawer we can find the new 3-3 gathered stitch which is now 3 columns wide, and in the knit increases we find the “kfb” which now features a 2-column v with a loop above it. On placing these stitches in the chart, your output text will change to show the current abbreviations ie “3-3” rather than “3-3 old”. In this example, my “kfb” is placed on a wrong side row so we actually see the abbreviation for the mirror of the stitch (ie “pfb”) but we can place one in a RS row to check that the abbreviation is “kfb”.

Comparing the two charts, you can see that the new versions of the stitches mean fewer grey “no stitches” need to be used, which hopefully will make your charts easier for the knitter to follow.