Some patterns are larger than this. If you were buying a book would you prefer to have such patterns cut in half, probably with an overlap so that you can put them together again, or would you prefer them to be reduced with the % enlargement noted so that you can print them out actual size yourself?
6 of one, and half the dozen of t'other, as far as I'm concerned...
In general, I prefer patterns in full size; as someone else has mentioned, enlarging "dilutes" them. It also enlarges the pin-dots, making it more difficult to prick accurately (yeah, I know y'all think I'm nuts to insist on half mm accuracy, when some of you don't pre-prick at all, but there's no reasoning with an obsessive personality <g>). That's one of the reasons I tend to design in oversize (sometimes on diagram scale) and then reduce to where I really want it - it "concentrates" the pattern.
I am -- severely -- "mathematically challenged". As far as I'm concerned, the percentage sign -- % -- is an accurate representation of what happens; one eye rolls in one direction, t'other in t'other, and the twain never act in accord because of the dividing line :) You tell me how much the pricking has been reduced, and I have no idea what I should copy it *at*. You tell me what I should copy it at, and, if it has to be done in two stages (some copiers have a limit both in reduction and enlarging), and I'm lost...
OTOH (this is a Libra speaking <g>)... We've all had experience of trying to piece a pattern which had been presented in bits, and the beginning/ending dots not matching. Especially true of bound (hardback) books, which can't be spread totally flat in a copier, thus adding *extra* distortion to whatever the copier itself "serves".
Clay's idea of printing oversized patterns on separate sheets (like the Green Sheets in "Lace") is, probably, best. It, too, has some drawbacks: unless the patterns are printed one per sheet (and not fitted in with other oversized ones) and unless you're prepared to use the sheet as your pricking, it's still back to the copier and piecing. But, at least, a sheet is flat, so it's easier to copy. And, if you do all your copying on the same copier, in a single session, all your pieces ought to match.
To go back to your original question ("If you were buying a book, would you prefer..."). In the long run, I'll probably be motivated by *patterns*, not by their presentation... If I like the patterns, I'll buy the book and cope with problems later (asking on Arachne for help, if necessary); if I don't like the patterns, the problems won't arise.
Unless it's a workshop, I almost never make the pattern in the size it's given; it's easier for me to get the pattern re-sized than to get the recommended threads, so I start with the threads I have, and make the *pattern* fit. So it doesn't matter much what size the pattern *starts* at; it's not likely to *end up* the same anyway...
Yours, ever "helpful" <g>,
----- Tamara P Duvall Lexington, Virginia, USA Formerly of Warsaw, Poland http://lorien.emufarm.org/~tpd/
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