15Mar
My friend kindly pointed out yesterday that it’s been five weeks since my last post. Now that I’m settled in my new home and caught up on my backlog of crochet projects I think it’s time to get back to posting. When I first started designing amigurumi I had a hard time figuring out how to do increases and decreases so I did some research and came up with a set of formulas to determine how to do them. I took those formulas and built a spreadsheet around them that will make written instructions based on just a row stitch count. It’s very basic right now but I think it could be useful for newbie designers or those who are good at designing but have trouble writing out the patterns. Now when I design I just have a sheet of paper with a column of stitch counts and then I plug the numbers in to the spreadsheet to generate the instructions. I’ve save the sheet in both Microsoft Excel and OpenOffice.org Calc versions.
Open Office | Microsoft Office
Feel free to use these for generating instructions, even for patterns you intend to sell. I don’t have any plans right now to do major updates to the spreadsheet but feel free to leave a comment if you find a bug. Enjoy!
31Jan
I was a computer nerd long before I decided to take up crocheting so it was only natural to me to apply my geekery to my new found hobby. I first started by saving all my patterns to Evernote. It’s a freeware program that allows you to create virtual notebooks. It has a really easy to use method of clipping web pages so when I find a pattern I like I just clip it in to Evernote and never have to worry about forgetting where I saw it or having the website disappear.
Evernote is superior to saving patterns as individual files because it allows you to search everything in your notebook (even text in images) as well as allowing you to add tags so you can find patterns easily. For example, I tag all my hat patterns with “hat” but I also tag them with the type of hat like “cloche” so if I want to see all my hat patterns I click the “hat” tag or if I only want to see cloches I click “cloche”. It makes organizing all my patterns and finding the perfect one for my next project so quick and easy.
Next I downloaded the Evernote app for my iPhone (they also have one for Windows Mobile). Evernote has a unique feature that allows you to create folders on your PC that will sync to the internet so you can either view them through their web interface or through an internet capable cellphone. If you’re using the free version there is a limit to how much data can be synced per month but so far I haven’t hit it. Whenever I’m working on a pattern I move it to my folder of synced patterns and then it’s available on my iPhone wherever I am. Now I don’t have to print out a pattern to make it portable. Whether I’m just on the sofa at home or I’m in a coffee shop 30 miles from home I can access all my projects.
I can also use my iPhone to look up YouTube crochet videos, free patterns online, or read crocheting forums and articles. I also use it to check out yarn reviews on Ravelry or do price comparisons while I’m out shopping. In fact, I would have to say that my iPhone is my primary tool for feeding my crochet obessesion. I’m a modern girl so I believe that making it hand made doesn’t have to mean making it the hard way.
21Jan
While reading Beth Doherty’s amigurumi book, I saw that she recommended the Clover locking stitch markers so I checked them out at my next craft store visit. They looked really nice but were way too expensive. Since I have multiple projects going on and also wanted to have plenty to use while designing patterns I decided to shop around on the internet. I figured it would be really easy to find plastic safety pins that would work as well as the Clover stitch markers. Boy was I wrong! It took me about three days of randomly searching on Google to finally come up with a site that sold plastic safety pins on this side of the Atlantic and in reasonably small quantities. The biggest surprise was that this placed turned out to be California Bird Nerds, a website for bird toys. I still can’t believe this is the only place outside of Asia that you can buy plastic safety pins but that didn’t stop me from immediately placing an order.
It cost me $8 including shipping to purchase 144 of them. To put it in perspective this would buy approximately 20 of the 3/4″ clover stitch markers. The plastic safety pins I purchased are 1″ long and come in 5 colors. Unlike a metal safety pin they don’t have a coil at the hinged end so they hang safely out of the way. Like the Clover stitch markers, they lock shut so there’s no chance of them falling out. They even have a hole in the end that could be used to attach beads (if that’s your thing). I’m guessing the Clover stitch markers are made of more resilient plastic but even after giving a few sets away to friends I still have over 100 of them so it won’t be a big loss if I break or lose a few.
