Moving and arranging stitches

Once stitches are on the canvas, the editor has plenty of ways to tidy them up: move them precisely, line them up with a guide, space them evenly, flip them, and group stitches that cross over one another. Most of these commands are in the right-click menu of a selection, and many have a keyboard shortcut.

Moving stitches

Drag a fully selected stitch (or a selected handle) to move it. As you drag a handle near a guide, it snaps to the guide; faint markers show where bases (dots) and tops (rings) can land.
Arrow keys nudge the selection by one screen pixel; hold Shift to move ten. Handles that are snapped to a guide or attached to another stitch stay where they are — select only a stitch’s free handles to nudge just those.

Grabbing with G

Press G to pick up the selection without holding the mouse button: move the mouse, then click (or press G again) to drop it. Press Esc or right-click to put it back where it was.

While grabbing, press X to move only horizontally or Y to move only vertically — a colored line shows the locked axis. Press the same key again to unlock.

Sliding along a guide

When the selected handles are all snapped to the same guide, press C (or choose Guide → Slide along guide from the right-click menu) to slide them along it. Click, or press C again, to drop them. Shift + C slides them while keeping each stitch’s orientation.

Select a stitch and press G to pick it up; X locks the move to the horizontal, and a click drops it. Stitches snapped to a guide slide along it with C.

Lengthening and shortening

Press ] to lengthen the selected stitches and [ to shorten them, or use the Lengthen and Shorten buttons in the action toolbar. Each press changes the length by a small step; hold Shift for bigger steps. Handles snapped to a guide stay put.

Aligning

Right-click a selection and open Align for these commands:

Align radially (Shift + R) — on a circle or arc guide, point the stitches straight out from the center.
Align to normal (R) — on a line, circle, or Bézier guide, stand the stitches at right angles to the guide, keeping their length.
When a stitch’s base and top are both attached, these split into …to base and …to top versions, which keep the base or the top in place.
Align direction — turn the selection to match the direction of the stitch you right-clicked.
Horizontal, Vertical, Top, Bottom, Left, Right — line up free (unsnapped) handles.
Distribute → Horizontally / Vertically — space three or more free handles evenly.

Right-click a selection and choose Align → Align radially to point stitches straight out from the ring’s center; Shift + R does the same. On a line guide, R (Align to normal) stands stitches at right angles to it.

The Align direction button in the action toolbar lets you draw a line to set the direction for the selection instead.

Handles that are snapped to a guide or attached to another stitch are skipped by the free alignment commands; StitchPress tells you how many were skipped.

Flipping

Choose Flip horizontal (N) or Flip vertical (M) from the right-click menu to mirror the selection around its own center. Handles that are snapped or attached stay where they are.

Spacing stitches along a guide

The Guide submenu of a selection’s right-click menu has commands for spacing stitches along a guide:

Spread bases across a guide… / Spread tops across a guide… — click a guide, and the selected bases or tops are spread evenly along its whole length. On a full circle, a second click sets where the first one goes.
Spread bases between two points… / Spread tops between two points… — click a starting point on a guide, then an ending point (or drag from one to the other), and the selected handles are spaced evenly between them. Click on an existing stitch to stop the spread just beside it. On a closed guide, the direction you move in decides which way around it goes.
Project bases onto a guide…, Project tops onto a guide…, Project both onto a guide… — click a guide, and each handle moves to the nearest point on it.
Distribute snapped bases between endpoints, Distribute snapped tops between endpoints, Distribute snapped bases and tops between endpoints — keep the first and last stitch on the guide where they are and space the ones in between evenly. This works on the guide nearest to where you right-clicked.
Rewidth to fill guide (F) — widen each selected stitch until it meets its neighbors along the guide, without moving it. It also resizes the tops and caps of taller stitches, increases, decreases, and clusters, leaving a little breathing room between them.

Select the stitches, right-click, and choose Guide → Spread bases between two points…; then click where the spread starts and where it ends. F (Rewidth to fill guide) then widens each stitch to meet its neighbors.

Press Esc or right-click to cancel a command that is waiting for you to click.

Repeating the last action

Press Cmd/Ctrl + D (or select Duplicate (repeat last action) in the action toolbar) to repeat your last action — such as adding a stitch on top, aligning, or flipping — on the current selection. Select the next stitch and press it again to work quickly across a round.

Linking stitches

Stitches worked into one another are joined by links. Most links are made for you when you add a stitch on top of another, but you can also make them yourself:

Press L (or select Link stitches in the action toolbar).
Click the parent — the stitch or guide being worked into — then click the child stitch.
Repeat for more pairs, and press L or Esc when you are done.

Press L, click the parent (the single crochet), then the child (the double crochet), and press Esc. To see the link, Alt-click the child, open Vertical links in the Inspector, and select Show.

You can also right-click a single stitch and choose Link → Link as parent of… or Link as child of…. The Inspector’s Vertical links section lists a stitch’s parents and children, with Unlink next to each.

To separate stitches, right-click and open Detach: Detach from parent stitch, Break connection here, or Detach handle from guide.

Groups and crossed stitches

When stitches cross over one another — as in cable-like crossed stitches — group them to control which one sits in front:

Select the stitches, right-click, and choose Group.
Select Groups in the action toolbar to open the Groups panel in the properties column.

In the Groups panel, each group has buttons to Highlight on canvas, Flip front/back, Break crossed sticks (draw a small gap where one stitch passes under another; on for a new group), and Ungroup. For a single stitch in a group, the right-click menu and the Inspector’s Group order section offer Bring to front, Bring forward, Send backward, and Send to back.

Select the crossed stitches, right-click, and choose Group: the stitch behind now breaks where it passes under. In the Groups panel, Flip front/back swaps which one is in front, and Break crossed sticks turns the gap off and on.