Knit Companion is an app that helps knitters interact with their patterns. I have some very conflicting thoughts about this app.

Love-Hate Relationship with Knit Companion (KC)

To be fair, I’m not very adept at using this app. I find that it has one of the most non-intuitive interfaces of any app I’ve ever used. For years, I used the free version which allowed me to do basic tracking of where I was in a pattern. The highlighter bar, the blue-vertical line and the counters allowed me to put a project down and pick it up and know where I was. I could access my Ravelry library of patterns. I also use DropBox, so any of the PDF patterns I’d download to my DropBox folder could be imported into KC as well.

But I was only scratching the surface with its usefulness…I think.

When I decided to do a Knit-A-Long (KAL) with Andy in Palm Springs, I find out Andy is a power-user of KC. The pattern for Under the Harvest Moon Shawl was originally published as a Mystery Knit-A-Long (MKAL). And so when the final design was published, it came in five separate charts, each on a separate page and basic information and “the plan” with the key to the chart on different pages. The charts also only showed the odd-numbered rows since the even-numbered rows were just purl rows.

Fortunately, Andy had done a full set-up of the pattern in KnitCompanion. And he had also figured out a way to share his set-up project with others. So I subscribed to the KC app with advanced features. Andy’s set-up had the key to the charts directly on the window below each chart and counters that moved the highlighter bar up the chart as I progressed. It even highlighted the line between rows for when I was on an even-numbered row. It made working on the project and tracking where I was MUCH easier.

What I Hate About KC

I just started a new project. The pattern has the Abbreviations section on one of the first pages. There are also no charts, so I am using the highlighter bar on each row. I’m pretty certain I could set up this project in KC to allow me to auto-move the highlighter bar to each subsequent row. I’m also pretty certain I could clip the Abbreviations section and have it in a window below the instructions so it was always visible.

And while I never figured out how to do this when I was working on the KAL, I think I can synch projects between my iPad and iPhone so that it tracks it on either/both.

I have always thought even the basic user-interface of KC sucked. The set-up and advanced features is indecipherable. I need a good tutorial on this app.

Current Knitting

Happy to write that I’ve finished the latest pair of helical-striped socks.

As B.J. noted, they turned out beautifully and I’m quite pleased.

I also started the Stephen West design I got as a KickStarter gift from Yarn Dragon.

This is the Aurora Cabin Shawl by Stephen West from his Hiberknits 3 booklet. I’ve made it through Stephen’s icord tab instructions (took me a few attempts to get it) and I just started the second section, which is that beautiful fuchsia yarn in the second image.

So far I’m enjoying the design and LOVING the yarn. More about that on Friday.