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I'm just wondering how many people mark their charts off as they stitch. Up to now I've never done it but I am thinking it might be easier to know where I am in my pattern.

I never mark my original; I make copies. Depending on my mood and the cart, I use either colored pencils, highlighters, or gel pens. I usually use at least two colors: one to mark the stitches I've completed and the other to mark something I have to go back and correct or add.

I always make a copy and mark up that copy like there's no tomorrow. It saves a lot of frogging. 'Course, that could just be because I'm THAT stupid. I still sometimes manage to get lost on the page.
I use erasable colored pencils so I can erase my mistakes when I color the wrong line. I also make sure to either fold the pattern so that the color is folded to the inside or make sure that my magnet board is between the pattern and the fabric so I don't get pencil color on my stitching. Happy Stitching!

I asked the same question a while back & got a lot of advice. I make a photocopy of the chart & use 2 marker pen colours & find it helps a lot. Started doing this when I began cottages project last November & it is a big help. Like others, I mark the path I am going to stitch next in one colour & use a different colour to go over it when stitches are done. Before that I just used to just mark off the stitches I had worked. This way I can see where to go next which makes things easier.

I also keep a fine pen or pencil handy so that if I get a change of colour for one stitch in the middle of a block of colour I can draw round that square to do later. Also it helps if you do miss out a stitch somewhere when you have lots of symbols which are similar. I have on the cottages one & it is easy to miss one tiny alteration of colour. I think several do that as well.

Hope you find something to suit you but I do know using 2 colours has helped me a lot since I've been marking off this way

I did try marking off the chart.
Stopped when first I kept forgetting to mark off! the secondly when my printer scanner gave up the ghost and I had to ask D/H to make copies for me!
Now I just use magnetic strips on my chart.

I used not to mark the charts, but do now. The confetti in my current projects is such that I need to show what I have done & what I haven't.

I always mark them up in fountain pen ink, as I (without fail) have at least one on me. A ball point seems to give up when marking individual squares as the ball doesn't go round far enough to pick up fresh ink, and I hate using them anyway. I don't buy paper charts, only use pdf charts, so the paper is a 'copy' of the electronic master & I have, so there are no worries about marking the paper copy. I tend to use a colour version of the chart too, as I find it all too easy for my finger to slip in the symbol key and using the colour version of the chart acts as a secondary check to ensure I'm not using the wrong colour. I have not found any commercial sites that offer colour charts as an option - so it's just as well I use my own program to create the charts.

Regards,

Richard.

I used to make paper copies of my charts and more recently am trying to stick with pdf charts when I can. Easier to store and I can print pages as I need them. I am, however, using my iPad more and more and the Good Notes app. Makes it easier for me to mark where I've been and to plan a path of where I'm going. Especially useful for confetti laden areas. Also lets me change the size of the chart section I'm working on whenever I want. Using a stylus instead of my fingers makes it easier to mark also.

Carole

I mark off my charts with colouring pencils. I don't usually make a copy like most because I never stitch something twice. I just throw the chart away when I've finished.

If the design is simple or uncomplicated, I don't mark it since it's easy enough to see where I am on the chart. Most of what I do, however, is fully stitched and quite complicated so marking my progress on the chart is necessary. When using 100+ colors and blends and charts of 25+ pages, it's impossible to look at the chart and look at the fabric and see where I am if I don't mark it. My charts are in PDF form, so I print the pages out on 24-pound paper and use three colored markers. One marker marks off the completed stitches, the second marker marks the parked threads and the third marker, if I need it, is used to 'cancel' a park on the chart because I stitch a whole page (not 10x10 blocks) and sometimes I'll change my mind on which way to go on the design. The reason I use 24-pound paper is so there isn't any bleed-through of the marker.

Ditto what everyone else said.

I scan and upload to my computer so I can zoom in as needed. Just JPG means I can't mark it unless I open it into an editing program, like CS6 or Paint, so I usually have a case of frogging every so often, but the easy of zooming in and out without fiddling with pen tools is my preferred method. My eyesight is really bad, and even with glasses or contacts in, my eyes get tired really quickly staring at the original. Right now I have the letter N zoomed up to approximately 300%; so at a quick glance I can look and know where I am without eye strain.

I always make copies of the original and use markers to help me find my way in the chart.
I don't have an iPad, but love to have a pdf-editor for my Android tablet that works exactly like Good Notes.