In Pattern Manager, repeats look a little different to how you may be used to seeing them.
All repeats are displayed between separator lines to help determine what information is and is not included in the repeat. You can expect to see repeats represented in two different ways. Either as a ‘simple’ repeat or a ‘nested’ repeat.
Simple Repeats
A simple repeat contains a header in bold followed by a list of indented instructions between a pair of separator lines with integrated navigation buttons. Each instruction can be ticked off as you work and the boxes will reset every time you increment the repeat counter.
The navigation buttons are mostly useful when a repeat is made up a large number of rows and instructions as they can save a lot of manual scrolling.
The navigation button at the start of a repeat will take you to the next instruction to be worked. In the example above, clicking this button would navigate to Round 4 of the repeat as that is the next instruction to be worked. If all instructions have been worked this button will take you to the end of the repeat so you can continue with the rest of the pattern.
The navigation button at the end of a repeat will take you back to the start so you can increment the counter and begin working the next iteration.
Nested Repeats
A nested repeat is a repeat within a repeat. They look similar to the simple repeat, but display more information. The information continues to be worked in order, but any information in a nested repeat needs to be worked the required amount of times before moving on to the next instruction in the outer repeat. Nested repeats are also contained within separator lines with navigation buttons but the heading is indented and uses a smaller font size than an outer repeat.
In this example, the inner nested repeat is worked 6 times before the decrease round instruction in the outer repeat is worked. In summary, you are being asked to work 6 rounds of stockinette followed by a decrease round a total of 7 times to finish this section.
The progress tracking counters are a great help in reading and tracking progress through nested repeats. Once all of the stockinette rounds have been counted, the repeat will remain checked off, signalling that it is time to work the decrease round. Clicking the outer repeat counter after the working the decrease round will reset all counters and check boxes ready to start another repeat. When all 7 outer repeats have been worked, all instructions will remain ticked and you are ready to move on in the pattern.
Repeats in an exported PDF
If you export a project to PDF you will notice that repeats are separated by a pair of thick separator lines. For a single repeat, the lines display before and after the repeated instructions.
A nested repeat also contains associated instructions between separator lines but they are much thinner than an outer repeat as shown in the example below.
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