How to Upload Pattern to Knit Companion
This mail is sponsored past knitCompanion. Opinions are my ain.
As you may know, I'g a fan of charts in knitting. Then much of my skillset as a knitter developed thanks to working from Barbara Walker's lace knitting charts and working with charted off-white isle motifs. Every bit a knit & crochet pattern Designer, charts are a very useful tool in my armory for efficiently conveying how to work a pattern. On both sides of the designer/maker coin, we find ourselves in an age where digital patterns reign. In terms of convenience, this is great, simply charts, not to mention other pattern layout elements like terms and abbreviations, tin can present makers with a claiming.
Working from big charts
Arguably my most popular pattern to date is Intarsia Mountain, which followers of this blog and my social media will undoubtedly recognize. Intarsia Mount includes 8 pages of charts (in add-on to the written-out pattern, mind you) for working in large calibration, all-over colorwork. On the page introducing the charts, I say this:
Intarsia Mountain can be knit from a single large nautical chart, merely thanks to the limitations of nearly household printers and the scale of this chart, it has been broken down into eighths.
If you choose to print the nautical chart for this blueprint, you lot can impress pages 11-xviii of this blueprint PDF. Then information technology'southward fourth dimension to get crafty: Cut out each nautical chart and align and orient them according to the diagram provided. You will exist able to piece together a nautical chart that encompasses the entirety of this design.
The point I'm getting to here is this. Of the 20-page layout for Intarsia Mountain, one entire page is defended to preparing knitters to work with the provided charts if they then choose. This page includes the above info, a cardinal for the stitches and colors featured in the charts, a chart helper for keeping runway of color substitutions, and a guide for how to join nautical chart pieces when printing.
Now, I'm not but saying all this to plug my pattern. 😉 At the stop of the twenty-four hour period, pattern PDFs have to be formatted to work with household printers and then at-habitation, existent-life makers tin work from them. Yet many makers, myself included, would rather work from a tablet or smartphone to save on paper, ink, and in some cases, tape. What's the solution to avert wasting environmentally unfriendly (and expensive) office supplies? Just also preserving your knitting sanity by NOT pinching and scrolling all over your screen as you toggle among pattern pages?
Let me to introduce knitCompanion
knitCompanion is an app that'south downloadable in the Apple tree App Shop. "Out of the box," it includes kCbasics and inside the app, you can upgrade to activate additional features like cropping and joining sections of charts or written design instructions. knitCompanion works with any pattern, links to Ravelry and Dropbox to sync design PDFs, and includes a variety of marker options then you can pick upwardly whatever project and know where y'all are. Whether or not y'all're working from big quondam charts, you can go on keys and other info such as abbreviations or legends handy. This app also helps you track your progress with row/sew together counters, project notes, and projection timers. A favorite feature of mine is the the power to customize highlights and markers to allow your eyes to easily jump from your knitting to your tablet, saving you from constantly scanning to detect your place and reducing eyestrain while keeping all pattern parts visible.
Sally Holt, the developer and knitter behind the app, developed knitCompanion as a way to work seamlessly from a digital blueprint on a tablet. Having worked with this app as both a designer of complicated patterns (who me?) and lover of knitting colorwork and lace, I don't think an app this effective could take come from a non-knitter programmer. Sally'south agreement of knitting comes through in every app characteristic. This app addresses really specific needs that but makers would understand, streamlining and simplifying a pattern to suit a maker'due south individual needs and preferences.
Boosted knitCompanion features
- Connects with Ravelry & Dropbox, making importing PDFs easy.
- Use the cloud to sync progress between devices.
- Add together highlights and notes directly to your blueprint for tracking sizes, remembering what you customized, etc.
- Every bit many counters as you need for every project. They tin can count upwards or downwardly and loop around.
- Combine PDFs, for things like mystery knit alongs, and then you're non working from separate design PDFs for each "clue."
- Rotate pages (mirroring is available for iOS).
- Track your knitting fourth dimension with the app's built-in timer.
- Easily maneuver around your design without losing your spot.
Pros & Cons
So far, I've discussed a lot of pros. With all reviews, I try to include pros & cons to hopefully pigment an objective moving-picture show of the detail in question. In knitCompanion'south case, there are a couple of cons to keep in heed as y'all consider whether information technology'southward right for your knitting style:
- If y'all're not the most tech-savvy person in the world, setting up the app and getting by the initial learning curve could prove frustrating. However, there is a fantastic, in-depth library of instructional videos available for the app that got me upwardly and running in less than 45 minutes.
- Understanding that in that location are pricing tiers that unlock different features is important to learning how to use knitCompanion. A detailed breakdown is below, just knitMode provides the basics (free), Essentials adds Edit Fashion, and Setup+Essentials adds both edit and setup modes (setup is all about cropping, arranging, joining, and it's my personal favorite mode then far).
- I simply used the iOS version of the app, but my agreement based on reading other reviews is that it's somewhat more challenging to piece of work with on Android. Once again, I can't personally speak to that, merely it appears to be a legit critique. I do know that on iOS at that place are extended features, which you can read about here.
Overall
A web log post is probably not even doing this app justice, so lucky for you lot, there's a 1-week costless trial available to see if knitCompanion jives with your knitting fashion. Earlier working with knitCompanion myself, I'd heard really neat things from knitters who loved the app. After giving it a try, I tin tell you lot that one time y'all get the app set up, and specially if you're willing to invest in the Setup+Essentials pricing tier (which factors out to ~$1.25/month), this app makes working from digital patterns and so easy. Easier, I'd argue, than press out and manually collating pages of PDFs, trying to impress 2-sided at home, and flipping dorsum and forth between your pattern key and the row you're just trying to knit. And when y'all're done working from a pattern in knitCompanion, your notes are saved alongside the blueprint. Yous don't have to futz with keeping a binder or drawer or messy shelf of paper patterns just in example you want to make that pattern once again. This may be a sponsored postal service, only I objectively love knitCompanion. Later my trial menses ends, I genuinely intend to continue subscribing to the affordable, total-featured app. If you lot're a serious knitter, crocheter, stitcher, or other artistic pattern user, I encourage you lot to give knitCompanion a try!
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This post is sponsored by knitCompanion. Opinions are my own.
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Source: https://www.handsoccupied.com/knitcompanion-intro/
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