Designing tip

I mostly chart my stuff in Excel. I like it, it's easy and you can do some neat things with it. I'm making a shrug based on a stitch pattern in an old book. The pattern was written so I had to chart it. It's a busy pattern so charting it wasn't the easiest to transfer from flat  written to charted in the round.

This is a section of the chart i printed for decreasing.  Te center is the pattern repeat and the sides are the repeat sections I will be decreasing. I have shaded lines across the chart on the decrease rows and I changed the font for the sections I will decrease to a really light font. I printed this out and it allows me to see what the pattern repeats are supposed to do and I can adjust and over wright with a pen the changes I made as I decrease. I use a pencil and shade in "no stitch" areas as I get rid of sections and can easily decided when it's to narrow to continue in pattern. When I am done I will go back in and make the changes to the chart to reflect what it really needs to be.

The dark row at the bottom is an unaltered pattern repeat for reference to build off of.

Here is what it looks like in progress with notes over written. I take this back to the computer and update the chart.

And this is what I'm working on