Questions and answers

An app that turns your photo into a cross-stitch pattern, walks you through that pattern from the first stitch to the last, and works out how many skeins of floss to buy.

Three things live inside: a pattern generator built on real manufacturer palettes, a stitching mode with tap-to-mark stitches and progress, and a thread list with the consumption estimate.

Yes. On a device set to Russian the app is called «Вышивайка», everywhere else — Stitchy. It is one app with one account: if you have met the name «Вышивайка» in a store listing or in a letter, it is this app.

Phones and tablets — iPhone and iPad, Android phones and tablets. The layout follows the screen: on a tablet the chart and the palette sit side by side, on a phone they take turns.

The same work opens on every device of yours — as long as you have signed in with email (see «Why sign in, then?»).

• App Store — https://apps.apple.com/ru/app/id6797181105
• Google Play — https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.alex.stitch

No. A pattern is built and stitched right on the device, offline — on a train, at a cottage, on a plane.

The network is needed for two optional things only: signing in with email (so that your works sync across your devices) and anonymous statistics about how the app itself is doing.

The app is free. No ads, no in-app purchases.

No. There is nothing to learn: pick a photo — get a pattern — stitch. Every setting already holds a sensible value, and if you touch none of them the pattern still comes out fine.

An experienced stitcher has plenty to adjust: the fabric count, the strands in the needle, the number of colours, the smoothness of transitions, blends.

In three ways:

• Real manufacturer palettes — DMC (454 shades), Gamma (598), Anchor (441), Madeira (366), rather than “similar colours” taken off the screen. Every thread in the pattern is one you can actually buy.
• Colour is matched the way the eye sees it, not by the distance between numbers in pixels: the maths runs in the CIELAB colour space using the CIEDE2000 formula. Close shades therefore do not collapse into one where the eye tells them apart, and do not split where it cannot.
• The app does not leave you alone with the chart: it also guides you through it in stitching mode and counts the thread.

No. The app works completely without signing in: create patterns, stitch, look at your statistics — all of it is there from the moment you install it, and everything stays on your device.

The «Sign in with email» button sits on the welcome screen and in the profile — you can come back to it at any time.

For two things:

• Syncing across your devices. Mark a row on the tablet — open the phone, and the progress is already there. Start on the phone on the way home — carry on from the tablet.
• Safekeeping. Your works live in your account, not only in the phone's memory. Lost the phone, replaced it, reinstalled the app — sign in with the same email and your works come back.

Without signing in, works exist on this device only: delete the app and they go with it.

There is no password at all. You type your email address, the app sends a 6-digit code to it, you type the code in — and you are in. The code is submitted on its own as soon as the last digit lands: there is no separate button to press. The letter comes in the language the app is set to.

Before the code is sent, the app asks you to accept the terms of use and to consent to the processing of personal data — without both boxes ticked the «Get the code» button stays inactive.

If the account has no name yet, the app asks what to call you right after the sign-in. That step can be skipped: the name can be set later, in the profile.

They become works of your account and sync along with everything else — nothing has to be moved by hand.

One detail worth knowing: works made before signing in go to the first email you sign in with. If you later sign in on the same device with a different email, that one gets a set of works of its own — one person's works never end up in another person's account.

Name, photo and settings are taken from the account when you sign into an existing one: what the account already holds outweighs what was typed on a new device before signing in. So right after signing in the app may switch to another language or theme — the ones saved in the account. If they do not suit you, change them in the settings: the new choice reaches your other devices too.

By hand — no, there is no button for it in the app.

Syncing runs on its own: right after anything notable (a work created, renamed, a change to your profile or settings), when you come back to the app, and regularly while you stitch — about once a minute, so that progress has time to reach the account and your second device while you are still working.

If you want to hurry it along: pull the «My works» list down — that starts a full sync pass.

When your works last synced completely is written in the profile: «Projects synced just now», «Projects synced 5 min ago» and so on.

Nothing is lost. The app always writes to the device's memory, and changes that have not been sent simply wait their turn: once there is a network, they travel to the account on their own.

The progress is merged, not overwritten. The rules are:

• stitches made — merged: anything marked anywhere stays marked;
• unmarking is a change too: lift a stitch on one device and it is lifted on the others rather than coming back; if one device lifts a stitch while another marks it again, whichever was done later wins;
• «bought» ticks in the thread list — the same rules;
• time spent stitching — the larger figure wins;
• the finish date — the earlier of the two; but if the merged work is short of even one stitch, the finish mark is taken off;
• the title — whichever was changed later;
• zoom, where the chart sits on screen, the thread in the needle and brush mode — each device keeps its own: those are comforts, not data about the work.

Works (the chart, the progress, the ticks in the thread list), your profile (name and photo) and your settings (language, units, the default thread manufacturer, the theme).

Your profile name and photo follow the same rule as a work's title: whichever was changed later wins. Set a new photo on the phone and it turns up on the tablet with the next sync pass, even if the tablet's photo had been changed there earlier.

What is neither synced nor sent anywhere is the source photo — the app does not keep it at all (see «Is my photo saved?»).

How you have stitching mode set up stays on the device too: the corner the mini-map sits in, the zoom and position of the chart, the thread in the needle and brush mode, whether the palette is collapsed and how it is sorted. None of it travels to the account: on another device the same work opens the way you left it there.

No. Once you have signed in, a copy of your works is kept in your account on our server — that copy is exactly what lets the same piece open on a second device and come back after a reinstall. Only you can reach it: other people cannot see your patterns, your progress or your statistics, and there is no public gallery in the app.

Photos never reach the account at all — the app neither stores nor sends them (see «Is my photo saved?»). And without signing in, works do not leave the device in the first place.

In order:

1. Check the spam folder — the letter with the code sometimes lands there.
2. Make sure the address has no typo: the app only warns about an obviously broken address, and “gmial.com” looks perfectly fine to it.
3. Press «Send the code again».
4. If the app says «Too many attempts» — wait a few minutes: that is the guard against guessing, and it lifts on its own.
5. Still nothing — write to us at stitchy@alexforge.org.

No: the email is the key to the account, and it cannot be changed in the profile. On the profile editing screen it is shown inactive, with a note saying so.

No. As long as you open the app at least once a year, the sign-in holds by itself.

If the sign-in does drop, the app quietly moves you to the signed-out state and erases nothing: works, progress and anything that had not synced yet stay on the device. Sign in with the same email and syncing carries on exactly where it stopped.

Works, profile and statistics are removed from this device, but they stay in the account and come back the next time you sign in. The settings — language, units, the default thread manufacturer and the theme — stay on the device as they were. The account keeps a copy of them too: the next time you sign in, the app takes the settings from there again.

If some changes have not reached the server yet, the app says so honestly with a separate question — «Sign out without syncing?» — and then it is better to wait for a network and sign out afterwards.

It depends on whether you signed in. In the settings, at the bottom of the screen:

• Signed out — «Delete data»: erases works and statistics from this device. They never existed anywhere else.
• Signed in — «Delete account»: erases the profile, works and statistics both from the device and from the server. If the server does not answer and the account cannot be deleted, the app says so and touches nothing on the device — otherwise the data would be left on the server with no way to get at it.

Both actions are irreversible, both ask for confirmation. What is deleted cannot be restored.

The settings — language, units, the default thread manufacturer and the theme — stay on the device as they were in both cases. When the account is deleted, their copy on the server is erased along with it, so from then on the settings live only on the device and disappear together with the app, if you delete it.

If the app is no longer on the device, account deletion can be requested by writing to stitchy@alexforge.org from the address you signed in with. Details are on the «Account and Data Deletion» page.

To delete a single work without touching the rest, use the «My works» list (see «How do I rename or delete a work?»).

From two places, offered on the very first screen:

• Camera — take a picture right now;
• Gallery — pick a photo already on the device.

The hint on the screen puts it briefly: «Sharp pictures with clear areas of colour work best — the chart comes out tidier».

What that means in practice. These work well:

• a large, clearly readable subject: a portrait, a cat, a flower, a house, a silhouette at sunset;
• even light, without deep shadows or blown highlights;
• a visible difference between the subject and the background;
• a plain or single-colour background.

These work worse:

• fine detail — thin whiskers, single hairs, small text: on a 100×100 chart one stitch is a few millimetres of fabric, and a thin line simply does not fit into it;
• heavily blurred backgrounds, haze, rain, fog;
• very dark or very noisy shots (taken in the dark);
• screenshots and pictures forwarded through messengers: they are compressed hard, and instead of an even fill you get a ripple, which the chart will faithfully reproduce.

The general rule: the larger the subject in the frame and the clearer its edges, the tidier the chart.

No. The shot is processed in the device's memory, is sent nowhere and is not even stored inside the app. What stays in the work is the finished chart only.

So if you took the picture inside the app, pressing «Start stitching» will ask whether to save the shot to your gallery — say yes if the photo matters: there is no second chance. For a photo picked from the gallery there is no such question — it is already there.

Only until you press «Start stitching»: up to that moment you can go back from any step, the finished-chart screen included, with the «←» button and change the parameters.

Once the work exists, the chart is fixed — that is the point of it: stitching progress is tied to that exact grid of cells. To get another version, create a new pattern. If the photo came from the gallery it is still there; if it came from the camera and you did not save it, the shot is gone.

The title is how the work is named in your list and how you will find it a month later. Nothing else in the flow asks for one, so without it the work would arrive in the list as a blank row. While the field is empty, the «Continue» button stays inactive.

Anything clear will do: «Ginger cat», «Grandma's house», «The sea, July». The title can be changed later — both from the list of works and from stitching mode.

They set the shape of the crop box:

• Free — any shape, drag it as you like; the app shows the current ratio under the buttons;
• 1:1 — a square;
• 3:4 — an upright (“portrait”) frame;
• 4:3 — a wide (“landscape”) frame.

The ratio is the shape of the future piece. A square chart suits a mount, an upright one a portrait, a wide one a landscape.

Pressing the ratio that is already chosen puts the box back into that shape, if you have stretched it since.

A 90° turn rescues a shot taken sideways. Flipping horizontally or vertically is an artistic choice: turning a profile the other way, for example, so that it looks into the piece rather than out of it.

Rotating does not change the size of the work: the sides of the chart turn together with the photo.

Because a camera shot exists only inside this draft: the app keeps no copy. Going back means throwing it away. If the photo matters, it is better to see the pattern through: pressing «Start stitching» will offer to save the shot to the gallery.

A photo picked from the gallery is not affected — it stays in the gallery.

Whichever suits you — the «cm» / «st.» switch in the section header only changes the unit on display. It is the same number, converted through the fabric count:

centimetres = stitches × 2.54 / count

The limits are 10 to 400 stitches per side. In centimetres they follow the fabric:

The 10-stitch minimum is the line past which the subject becomes a blob of a few cells. The 400-stitch maximum is a limit on effort: 400 cells on Aida 14 is already 72.6 cm of fabric.

If you type a number outside the limits, the app does not replace it automatically: the field keeps what you typed, a note appears under it («Width: no less than 10 st.», «Height: no more than 400 st.»), and the «Create the pattern» button stays inactive until the number is fixed.

Which unit is picked here by default comes from the settings («Units»); out of the box that is stitches.

Because centimetres are a derived figure. The number of stitches stays the same while the cell size changes: the higher the count, the finer the cell and the smaller the same chart in centimetres.

100×100 stitches is 18×18 cm on Aida 14 and 12.7×12.7 cm on Aida 20.

It ties the two sides together: change one and the other follows, so that the proportions stay the ones you cropped on the previous step. That is why the label carries a concrete ratio — «Keep the ratio (1:1)», «(3:4)» and so on: it is the shape of your crop, not some general value.

The box is ticked by default — that is what people usually want.

The sides become independent: you could ask for 100×60 from a square crop. The square picture is then stretched into those proportions when the pattern is built — like a photo pulled out sideways. A circle becomes an oval, a face becomes elongated.

Sometimes that is exactly what is wanted (fitting a work to a frame you already own, or to the fabric you have left), but unless you are after it deliberately — leave the box ticked.

The count is how many cells fit into an inch of fabric: the higher the count, the finer the cell and the smaller the finished piece. The app offers the standard Aida range with hints:

Aida 14 is picked by default — start there if you are unsure. It is also the one most shops keep in stock.

A practical rule: a large count (8–11) is faster and kinder to the eyes but takes more fabric; a fine one (18–20) is more compact and more detailed, but every stitch is smaller.

Yes. A skein of floss is made of six threads, and you take not the whole skein but a few of them — enough for the stitches to cover the fabric without bulging.

The app offers all six options and points out the one recommended for the fabric you chose:

Fewer strands — a thinner, lighter cover, the fabric shows through a little, less thread is used. More — denser and more raised, no fabric visible at all, more thread used. The app forbids neither option and only advises.

If you change the fabric, the strand count follows the new one — but only if you had not set it yourself. A deliberate choice is never overridden.

Whichever you can actually buy: the pattern is built on that brand's real palette, and the numbers in it are that manufacturer's article codes.

• DMC — the most widespread in the world, 454 shades;
• Gamma — a Russian brand, 598 articles, the easiest to buy in Russia;
• Anchor — 441 shades;
• Madeira — 366 shades.

The choice on this screen applies to this pattern only. The manufacturer offered by default is set in the settings («Floss brand» → «Default for new patterns»); out of the box that is DMC.

The brand of a finished chart cannot be changed — colour matching happens while the pattern is being built.

A slider from 2 to 120, 20 by default. The exact figure can be typed in: tap the badge with the value.

Rough guidance (these are suggestions, not rules — it all depends on the picture):

Worth remembering: every colour is one more skein on the shopping list and one more thread change while stitching. Doubling the number of colours hardly doubles the likeness to the photo, but it certainly doubles the work you put in. For a first piece, 15–20 is an honest starting point.

This number is a ceiling, not a promise: the finished palette may hold fewer colours (see «Why are there fewer colours in the palette than I asked for?»).

The app finds the background — an even area running in from the edges of the frame — and leaves it unstitched: those cells stay bare fabric. The background is the colour that covers most of the frame's edges, so a subject that runs into the frame — a stem or a branch cut off by the crop — stays in place.

Why: the subject is “cut out” and stitched on its own, the piece looks like an appliqué on clean fabric, and noticeably less thread and time go into it.

Off by default: removing the background changes the picture a great deal, and that should be your deliberate decision. It works best on photos with an even, single-colour backdrop; on a busy or gradient one it works worse.

If you keep the background, the app still recognises it: an even backdrop — a wall, a sheet of paper, a cloudless sky — is stitched in one colour, without speckles from photo noise.

It drops lone stitches — the ones with no neighbour of their own or a very close colour. Such a cell takes the colour of its neighbours.

A lone stitch is almost never a detail of the picture but noise: it does not affect the result, while it costs the stitcher a separate threading of the needle for a single cell. That is why the option is on by default — the chart comes out stitchable straight away.

A lone cell inside a smooth transition — a slightly darker dot in a gradient sky, say — is left alone: it is part of the transition, not litter.

A slider from 0 to 100, 0 by default. It decides how the edges between shades look.

• 0 — hard edges: each area is stitched in one thread, and the change from shade to shade is a step. The chart comes out flat and graphic, and is the easiest to stitch.
• The higher the value, the wider the app mixes close shades at their seams: cells of two neighbouring threads alternate, and from a distance the eye sees a smooth transition — like a photograph printed with a handful of inks.

One more thing: with smoothness on, the app may add an in-between thread from the manufacturer's palette — a real shade lying exactly between two neighbours. Such a “bridge” softens the transition and is stitched in a single colour. It is only added while the colour count allows.

When to raise it: skies, sunsets, water, skin, fur, any gentle transitions. When not to: graphics, lettering, ornaments, crisp outlines — there a hard edge is exactly what you want.

Worth understanding: smoothness is not “blurring the photo”. The app does not soften the picture, it softens the transition between threads.

A blend is two shades of thread sharing one needle. With two strands that is one thread of each; with three — 2 + 1, and so on. The eye averages them at the size of a stitch, and the result is a tone the manufacturer does not make.

How it works in a chart:

• a blend is an auxiliary shade, a step between two main colours. It is always laid as a band along the transition and always takes fewer cells than either of its two threads;
• blends are built only from threads already in the pattern — a blend adds not a single skein to the shopping list;
• in the palette a blend is a row of its own, with its own symbol and an entry like «3855 + 3854», and a swatch made of two colours;
• it does take a row of the palette, so it counts towards the «Number of colours» you set;
• a blend that ends up with only a handful of cells is dissolved back into the neighbouring threads: a row in the palette for a pinch of stitches is not worth a second thread in the needle.

Blends are off by default: it is a second thread to fuss with on every such cell. Turn them on when soft transitions are exactly what you want and the extra fuss is worth it.

Because one strand is selected — a single thread cannot be split between two shades. The app says so plainly: «Needs at least two strands in the needle».

If you switch to a fabric where one strand is recommended (Aida 20), blends are turned off automatically.

Usually a few seconds. Longer on large charts (closer to 400 cells a side), with many colours, with blends on and with high smoothness.

While it works, the app shows a progress screen with an honest line: laying the picture out on a grid, matching colours, counting thread.

It means the photo could not be read. Try another shot (or the same one, re-saved in the gallery), or change the parameters with the «Change the parameters» button. If it happens with every photo — write to us at stitchy@alexforge.org.

At the top — the title of the work and a line like «100 × 100, 10 000 stitches in all»: the size in stitches and the total number of stitches in the piece.

Below it — the chart itself: cells with symbols. Zoom in and a grid appears, with every tenth line drawn heavier, the way printed charts are ruled: those are what you count by.

Under the chart — «Thread palette» and the number of colours in it.

Three ways:

• the + and − buttons in the bottom right corner of the chart;
• a pinch — two fingers on the chart (move them apart and together);
• dragging with one finger moves the chart around the screen.

You can magnify up to eight times; fully zoomed out, the whole chart is on screen. Symbols appear in the cells once a cell is large enough for them to be read.

Five columns, one row per colour:

• Sym. — the symbol that stands for this colour on the chart;
• Colour — a swatch of the thread (for a blend it is made of two colours);
• No. — the article code at the chosen manufacturer, the number you look for in a shop;
• Name — the manufacturer's name for the shade;
• Cells — how many cells of the chart are stitched in this colour.

Rows run from the most used colour down to the rarest. Symbols are picked by lightness: the darker the thread, the “blacker” its glyph — so the chart reads even on a black-and-white printout.

Yes. Every cell of the chart is a full cross; the app neither builds nor counts half stitches, quarter stitches, back stitch or French knots. The calculation parameters say as much: «Stitches: Full cross». A back-stitched outline, if a piece wants one, is added by hand over the finished work.

That is normal and expected. The «Number of colours» is a ceiling, not an exact figure: the app offers as many shades as the picture actually needs.

There may be fewer if:

• two shades of the photo landed on the same manufacturer's thread — there is simply no thread between them, and the app will not split one article into two rows just to make up the count;
• some shade lost all of its cells: removing single stitches or removing the background took them, and a row with no cells has no business being in the palette;
• an in-between thread or a blend added for smoothness gathered only a pinch of cells and dissolved back into the neighbouring colours.

There will never be more rows than the number you set: everything counts towards the limit, blends included.

Go back to the parameters with the «←» button and change the settings — the photo and the crop stay as they were, and the chart is rebuilt.

What usually helps:

• the picture has crumbled into speckles — lower the number of colours or increase the size of the work: detail needs cells;
• detail is lost, a face has gone soft — increase the size before adding colours;
• transitions look like steps — raise the smoothness, and with two strands or more turn blends on;
• the thread list is too motley — lower the number of colours;
• too much background — turn on removing the background.

It creates the work: the chart is saved to «My works» and stitching mode opens. From that moment the work lives in the list and its progress is saved automatically.

If the photo was taken with the camera inside the app, this is also where the «Save your shot?» question appears — the one moment when you can keep it.

Each work is a card with a preview of the chart, its title, a line like «Aida 14 · DMC · 18×18 cm», the progress «1 240 / 10 000 stitches» and the date it was last changed. The list is sorted by freshness: whatever you touched last sits on top.

The piece you are stitching right now is lifted above the list into a larger card with a «Continue stitching» button — so it is one tap away.

While there are no works, the screen says «Nothing here yet» and offers to upload the first photo.

Press and hold the card (on a tablet — tap «⋯» on it): a menu opens with «Rename» and «Delete». Renaming also works from stitching mode — through the «…» button in the top right corner.

Deleting asks for confirmation and warns you: the chart and all progress on it will be erased, and there is no way back — the app does not keep the original photo. If you are signed in, a deleted work disappears from your other devices too, after the next sync.

If the same work is open in stitching mode on another device, it closes there by itself at the next sync: the app opens the «My works» list and shows the message «The work was deleted on another device». But if even one stitch was marked there between the deletion and that sync, the work is not lost: progress outweighs the deletion, and the app brings it back into the list — including on the device you deleted it from.

Yes — it stays in the list. A finished work opens straight on the congratulation screen: the finished picture, the numbers and the «Share the result» button. Going back to the chart and unmarking stitches is no longer possible — the work is done.

By tapping a cell. Tapping it again removes the mark if you slipped.

Tapping a cell of another colour switches you to that colour — you do not have to hunt for it in the palette. So if no thread is in the needle yet, the first tap on any cell picks up its colour, and the second one places the stitch.

Tapping an empty cell — one where the background is left unstitched — takes the thread out of the needle: the chart is then shown whole, without one colour highlighted, and the cells already stitched are dimmed — so what is left to stitch is plain at a glance.

There is also a brush mode: turn it on with the button next to the zoom controls, and stitches are marked by dragging a finger across the chart. The brush only places stitches and never removes them (otherwise one clumsy move would wipe a whole row), and it paints only cells of the chosen colour — it passes over the others without touching them.

Three usual reasons:

• The chart is zoomed too far out. A cell a couple of pixels across cannot be aimed at on purpose, so marking works only from the zoom level where symbols are visible in the cells. Zoom in. Picking up a colour by tapping works at any zoom level.
• No thread is chosen. The sheet at the bottom says as much: «No thread chosen». The first tap on a cell picks up its colour and the second places the stitch — or choose a colour in the palette.
• The cell is another colour. Such a tap does not place a stitch but switches the thread — look at the sheet: it already shows a different colour.

It marks the centre of the work — the same place printed charts put a «+». It appears only here, in stitching mode: on the finished-chart screen the app does not draw it — there it is not needed.

The centre is where stitching usually starts: the fabric is folded in half both ways, and the point of the fold is the centre of the chart. The mark sits on the corner between four cells (the fold lands on a hole, not on the middle of a stitch) and always stays the same size however far you zoom in. If a side has an odd number of cells and there is no corner exactly in the middle, the mark goes to the one nearer the top-left — printed charts do the same.

A small copy of the whole work: it shows where you are and how the piece is coming along as a whole. It can be dragged into any of the four corners — the app remembers the chosen corner for every work on this device.

By searching the expanded palette: the search field sits above the list of threads and takes either a colour's name or its code; for a blend both threads are searched.

On a phone and on a tablet held upright, the palette sheet at the bottom opens into three positions: collapsed (the current thread only), standard (a horizontal strip of colours) and expanded (the full list with search). Tapping the handle — the short bar at the top of the sheet — opens the full list, and from there returns the sheet to its standard position.

On a wide screen — a tablet turned on its side — the palette is not a sheet but a panel to the right of the chart: the current thread at the top, the search and the full list right under it. There is no middle position with the strip, and nothing has to be closed to see the chart — the panel stands beside it, not over it. The panel can still be collapsed, with the down arrow in its top right corner: the chart takes the room back and the current thread stays as a pill at the bottom — tapping the pill brings the panel back.

Besides the search, in the expanded sheet and in the panel:

• sort order — by stitch count (the shades with the most work first) or by colour code (in the order of the manufacturer's chart);
• colours that are fully stitched drop to the bottom of the list.

When you pick a thread in the sheet or in the panel, the chart flies to the nearest unstitched cell of that colour. Tapping the thread that is already chosen takes it out of the needle.

The sort order, brush mode and whether the palette is collapsed are remembered per work: a chart with large fills is easier to work through sorted by count, while stitching from a printed key is easier sorted by code. Collapse the panel on a tablet, turn it upright, and the sheet at the bottom is collapsed as well. All of it is kept on the device itself and never travels to another one.

No — while stitching mode is open, the screen stays awake.

Press «…» in the top right corner of stitching mode — a sheet opens with the figures for the work: the overall progress in per cent, the number of stitches made out of the total, the start date, the net time spent stitching and how many days the piece has been in work. «Rename», «Thread list» and «Calculation parameters» open from there too. On a wide screen this is not a sheet from the bottom but a small window right under the button.

Progress for each colour is in the palette: a thread shows how many cells are stitched out of how many and the share in per cent, and a finished one shows a tick instead of the percentage. For the thread currently in the needle it is spelled out: «120 of 340 stitched».

Yes, everything is saved on its own: both the stitches marked and the time spent stitching. There is nothing to save by hand and no special way you have to leave stitching mode.

Open the work and press «…» in the top right corner — the «Thread list» item. It is there for every unfinished work, even one where not a single stitch has been made yet. A finished work opens straight on the congratulation screen, and there is no «…» button there (see «Can I open a finished work?»).

At the top — the manufacturer and a counter, «Bought: 3 of 12 items». Then one row per colour: the symbol, the colour swatch, the article code, the name, the number of cells and how many skeins to buy. Rows follow the article codes — the order of the colour card and of the shelf in the shop.

Every item can be ticked as bought; the «Hide bought» button takes them out of sight, and when everything is ticked the list says so: «Every thread is bought». The ticks are saved and synced along with the work.

At the bottom — the total thread length and the total number of skeins, and under them «Calculation parameters»: what the estimate was made of.

From the size of the work: the number of cells in each colour × the cell size (which depends on the fabric count) × the number of strands, plus a working margin of +15 % for knots, tie-offs and uneven consumption. The result is rounded up to a whole skein: a skein does not come in halves. All of it is shown in «Calculation parameters».

The estimate is fixed when the pattern is created — it does not drift as you stitch.

It is an estimate, not a guarantee. Real consumption depends on how you tie off, how often you carry the thread across the back and how tightly the stitches sit. That is exactly why the 15 % margin is there: buying one skein too many is no disaster, running out of a shade halfway through is.

On a large piece it is worth buying the thread of one dye lot at once: a skein bought later may differ slightly in tone.

Because a blend is not bought separately: it is stitched with threads already in the pattern. The app adds its consumption to the rows of the two threads it is made of — so that every article is bought once and in full. That is also why the number of cells for a thread in the list can be larger than in the chart's palette: here both its own cells and the cells of the blends it takes part in are counted.

The app congratulates you: it shows the finished piece, the number of stitches made, the net time, how many days the work was in progress and the date it was finished.

Yes, with the «Share the result» button. The app offers four pictures to choose from:

• Mounted — the work in a frame;
• Achievement — a card with the numbers: size, colours, stitches, time;
• Like the real thing — an imitation of stitched fabric;
• Close-up — the work itself, up close.

The picture you choose can be sent anywhere: a messenger, a story, the gallery. The app remembers which card you picked last time and offers it first on the next occasion.

You can also share later: a finished work opens from «My works» straight onto this same screen.

It stays in «My works» and counts towards the statistics in your profile: projects finished, stitches placed, time spent stitching.

Three figures — projects finished, stitches placed, time spent stitching. They are counted whether you are signed in or not.

If you are signed in, the top of the screen shows your photo, name and email, and under them a line saying when your works last synced. Signed out, an invitation to sign in takes their place.

In the profile, tap the pencil at the top, to the left of the gear (on a tablet — the «Edit profile» button): a screen opens where you can change the name and the photo as often as you like. The email is shown there too, but inactive: it is tied to the account (see «Can I change the email on my account?»).

The name and the photo are part of the account: without signing in there are none, and the profile shows neither the pencil nor the button.

The settings open from the profile: the person icon (or your photo) in the top right corner of «My works», then the gear in the same corner of the profile. On a tablet, «Settings» is right in the side menu. The screen has three sections.

Preferences:

• Language — Russian or English. On the first launch the device's language is used; after signing into an existing account, the language saved in the account: the one chosen in the settings, or the language of the device where you first signed in with that email.
• Units — stitches or centimetres: what a new pattern's size is set in by default.
• Floss brand — the manufacturer offered for new patterns by default.
• Dark theme — switches the look of the app (see «Is there a dark theme?»).

Support:

• FAQ — the help inside the app: the same answers as on the site, with search and sections. Inside a section the answer unfolds right under its question — tap again to fold it back.
• Write to us — a letter to support; the address is printed right in the row, under its label.
• Terms of use and Privacy policy — they open on the site, in the language chosen in the app.

Community:

• Telegram — our group: news, tips and pattern walk-throughs. You can also ask there when something does not work out.

At the bottom of the screen — «Sign out» and «Delete account»; signed out, «Delete data» takes their place (see «How do I delete my data?»).

Yes. Turn it on in the settings, in the «Preferences» section, with the «Dark theme» switch — the whole app changes at once. The app starts light and does not follow the phone's theme: only this switch changes it. Thread and chart colours stay the same as in the light theme, so the shade on the screen still matches the skein in your hand. Signed in, your choice travels to your other devices together with the rest of the settings. The pictures you share of a finished work stay light in either theme.

This version of the app is out of date and the server no longer serves it. Press «Update» — the app's page opens in the store it was installed from. Your works and progress on the device are safe: after the update everything is where it was, and syncing carries on.

In short: photos and charts — never.

• Signed out, everything stays on the device.
• Signed in, works, profile and settings are synced across your devices.
• On top of that, anonymous statistics about the app's own behaviour and crashes are collected (Yandex AppMetrica) — so that we see errors and understand which features are needed. Neither photos nor charts go into it; advertising identifiers and location are not collected.

There are no ads, and data is neither sold nor passed to advertising networks. The full text is in the privacy policy.

To stitchy@alexforge.org. The app shows the address in the settings, in the «Support» section: it is written right under the «Write to us» row. The same «Write to us» sits at the bottom of the «FAQ» screen and under each answer inside it, in case the one you needed was not there.

Wherever you write from, the mail app opens with the letter ready: the address and the subject are filled in, and the app version and the device model come attached by themselves. If that does not happen, you see «The mail app did not open» and a «Copy the address» button — copy it and write to us from wherever suits you.

If it is about a problem, please include what was happening right before it went wrong: that way we find the cause faster.

There is also a Telegram group — stitchy.alexforge.org/telegram: app news, stitching tips and pattern walk-throughs. It is a place to ask when something will not come out right and to show your work. The group is Russian-speaking; if you need an answer of your own, write to us by e-mail — that is what we read.