The Knitting Curmudgeon...Yeah, Designs

Best Quote I Heard All Day

“To me, the raveled sleeve of care is never more painlessly knitted up than in an evening alone in a chair snug yet copious, with a good light and an easily held little volume sloppily printed and bound in inexpensive paper."--Dorothy Parker

Yes, my beloved writer was a knitter too! When Dorothy Parker lived in New Hope, PA, she knit constantly.  This quote was part of one of her book reviews back in 1959...

Book review Of Ellery Queen: The New York Murders. 

Knitting Curmudgeon Designs

Yes, Fiberality Designs is going away. My Facebook friends told me to use Knitting Curmudgeon because that's my other name. Using Marilyn Roberts's Designs ain't useful either. When I meet knitters and tell them I'm The Knitting Curmudgeon, they know who the fuck I am. 

Now that I haven't yet gotten a job as a technical trainer, instructional designer, or technical writer, I gotta make knitting designing my career. Sitting at home in my apartment and not going to work makes me saddened. I designed a pile of socks and now am about to swatch Koigu Kristi for a sweater design. Designing socks is fast because I can knit the sock design in a few days. Now it's time to design bigger shit!

Sitting out on my deck, working on my knitting designs, is wonderful! This is a lace stole that my daughter Jennifer wants, so it's going up on Ravelry. The lace yarn is beautiful. It''s Juniper Moon Farm Findley, 50% Merino wool/50% silk. And the color is 30 Lilac. Yeah, I'm a purple addict! But my current sock design is done in a canary yellow. As soon as I get the designs' directions completed, am going to upload many of them on Ravelry. Gotta make some money. Miss my knitting Mom. Jeez, I miss her terribly. And pray, hoping her spirit hears me. Watching the Yankees play and knitting is the activity we shared. I cry while watching the Yanks.

Steekin' Geek News

Smartphone Knitting Apps

Last week I promised to write about knitting apps for your smartphones. I've owned a Samsung Galaxy that broke last December, so I bought an Apple iPhone. Galaxy system is Android, and iPhone is iPhone.

So the Android knitting app I placed on my Galaxy was only County Plus, a digital stitch counter. And because it's not available for iPhones, I got iStitchCounter for free. The major fuckup you get using the digital counters is accidentally touching the counter and screwing up the count. However, when you're knitting socks on double-pointed needles, you can't stick a needle counter on them, so getting a digital counter on your smartphone is helpful.

On my iPhone, I also placed Knitting Chart Maker so if my brain hit me with a stitch pattern away from home, can chart it using this app. Have only used it once. The current version is very limited. Not a lot of symbols and you can't create yours. There are other chart apps, which I haven't used and won't.

Ravulous, an Android app that I had, is helpful if you wanna do some stuff on Ravelry via your smart phone. Wish I had it for my iPhone but am going to buy Wooly for $.99.

Also have Knit Handy, knitCompanion, and Knit Counter Lite on my iPhone. These are my favorite smartphone apps. Knit Handy, created from Ann Budd's The Knitter's Handy Guide to Yarn Requirements, is outstanding. And knitCompanion I use primarily on my iPad.

So do the "knitting" search for your Android or iPhone operating systems. Frankly, I tend to use knitting apps to my iPad rather than my phone. And yes, my "You Can Knit!" book is interactive, but you can get it for your iPhone. Why anyone would want to read it on an iPhone is beyond my opinion. Reading on a smartphone means ya better have damned good eyesight.

KnitVisualizer Lack of Upgrade

I decided to write to Nancy, the owner and developer of KnitVisualizer, due to the problem I now have with the app on my Apple MacBook. Here's what I wrote to her:
KnitVisualizer has never been updated since 2008. Mac OS X 10.6.8 won't let me create a new chart or work on an old one. When are you going to update the app? Although I own two other knitting chart apps, KnitVisualizer had always been my favorite. It works fine on my PC, Windows 7.

 She hasn't been able to upgrade her app due to her full-time job and her kids who don't give her sufficient time to work on KnitVisualizer. Having worked with developers for years, I know that it's tough time to spend; however, when you're selling an app, it's important to upgrade it. KnitVisualizer not only needs to function on Mac OS X but she should add a few more features. I'm going suggest those to her. 

OK, that's it for this week. Am happy that I'm back to blogging regularly. And will start writing an article for one of the knitting mags. Ain't retired. Take care, my sweet skanks!