How it works

Drawing tools

The pencil, the fill, the shapes and the eraser — what each one is for, and when to reach for it.

Pencil

One cell at a time, or drag to draw a line of them. Everything else on this page is a shortcut for doing this faster.

Hold and drag across the grid — the stroke follows your finger, and it counts as one undo.

Or draw on it yourself

Fill

Floods every connected cell of the same colour. Draw an outline first and fill inside it, rather than colouring a shape square by square.

Fill stops at any different colour, so a gap in your outline lets it escape into the background.

Or draw on it yourself

Line

Press where it starts, let go where it ends. Straight lines on a grid are hard by hand and exact this way.

Or draw on it yourself

Rectangle

Drag from one corner to the other. Borders, frames and blocks of background in one stroke.

There is a filled/outline switch in the toolbar for rectangles and ellipses both.

Or draw on it yourself

Ellipse

The same two corners, drawn as a circle inside them. Drag a square area for a true circle.

Or draw on it yourself

Eraser

Takes a cell back to empty, which is not the same as painting it white — an empty cell has no bead and no stitch, and the materials list does not count it.

Or draw on it yourself

Replace colour

Changes every cell of one colour at once, across the whole design. For when a shade is wrong after you have used it three hundred times.

This is the tool to reach for when a colour turns out to be out of stock.

Or draw on it yourself