Sanderling

Common questions

How do I print the pricking at the right size?

Export the pricking PDF (Mac: Export… or ⌘E; Android: Export) on A4 or US Letter, and open it in a PDF viewer. Print at 100 % (Actual Size), never “Fit to page”. The sheet has a 10 cm check bar in ten 10 mm steps: measure it with a ruler. If it is not exactly 10 cm, your print dialog scaled the page. A large design is tiled across several sheets, each labelled with its page, row and column, and the sheets overlap so you can line them up on the pins. The true-size pricking PDF comes with Sanderling Unlock.

What is the thread check?

It tells you how many wraps of your thread should fit between two footside pins on the grid spacing you chose: about 12 wraps. If your thread is thicker or thinner, change the grid square so the ground looks right before you print.

What do the pair and thread diagrams show?

The pair diagram draws every pair as a line and every stitch as a coloured dot, with its stitch letters: ground, cloth stitch, half stitch and footside each have their own colour, and a small tick on a pair line is an extra twist. In the letters, C is a cross (2 over 3) and T is a twist (2 over 1 and 4 over 3), counted from the left bobbin; a vertical bar is the pin. The thread diagram follows every thread through those moves, one colour per pair, so you can see which thread goes over which. It is worked out from the stitches, so it always matches the pair diagram.

How do I follow the working order at the pillow?

Open the pillow view. It shows the stitch number, its code, every move in words, and the pairs you hold, with their bobbin numbers. On the Mac, Space or Return goes to the next stitch, the right or down arrow also goes on, and the left or up arrow or Delete goes back. On Android, the large Back and Next buttons sit under your thumb and the volume keys step too. The screen stays on while the pillow view is open, and a small map shows where you are in the design.

How do I work out how much thread to wind?

Open Winding. Each row gives the pair or gimp, where it hangs, and the thread to wind on each bobbin. Set the take-up (a percentage for the thread lost to the weaving) and the allowance (extra thread per bobbin to hang the pair and to tie off) in the winding sheet or in the settings. With both at 0 you get the thread path only, so add your own allowance. Sanderling has no figure for your thread, so these two are yours to set.

How do I put a gimp round a Bucks Point motif, and carry it on?

On a Bucks Point design, choose Outline every motif with gimp, or select one motif (on the Mac, with Point at a stitch, click inside it) and tick Outline motif with gimp. To carry the gimp on to another motif, choose Carry gimp to… and pick the motif; only motifs the gimp can reach in a straight line are offered. Cut the gimp below this motif ends it there. If a new motif would block a carried gimp, Sanderling refuses it with “A carried gimp runs through here. Stop carrying it first.”

How do I make plaits, trails and footsides in Bedfordshire lace?

There is no grid, so you work with verbs: Place pin puts a pin where you click, Draw plait joins one pin to another (or hangs pairs into it, or finishes them in a free spot), and Tally, Leaf, Picot, Triple picot, Lazy join, Kiss and Cucumber make the other shapes. For a trail or a footside, click its pins from the top, side to side, and choose Finish trail or Finish footside (on the Mac, Return finishes it, and Esc cancels). A line under the tools tells you how many pins still need their pairs.

Why does Sanderling refuse a shape?

A refusal says why, in the lace-maker’s terms, and changes nothing. Common ones: the shape runs past the edge of the band, or it touches another shape (keep a row of ground between this shape and the next one or the edge); a trail needs at least two passives, or at least two pins; a plait goes from one pin to another; a picot is made on a plait, not on a single pair; on a trail, pairs either join or leave at a pin, not both. Fix the cause and place it again.

What is included in the free version, and what does Sanderling Unlock add?

Free: Torchon ground and cloth diamonds on bands up to 12 squares wide, all three views, the working order at the pillow, the winding list, the pair diagram and three saved designs. Sanderling Unlock is a single purchase and adds half-stitch diamonds, rose ground, spiders, headsides, Bucks Point and Bedfordshire, wider designs, the true-size pricking PDF, the thread diagram export and unlimited designs. There is no subscription.

How do I restore my purchase?

Open the Unlock page (Mac: Settings, ⌘,, then Unlock; or choose any locked item) and choose Restore Purchase while signed in with the Apple Account (Mac) or the Google account (Android) that made the purchase.

What are .sanderling files, and can I move designs between devices?

A design is saved as a small .sanderling file holding what you placed, in the app’s own library. Nothing is uploaded and there is no sync. In Designs, choose Export File… to save a design as a file, and Import File… to open one, on the same device or another; send the file yourself by mail, a chat or a cloud folder.