Customize your knitCompanion
In our first post on using knitCompanion, we offered a guide on the app’s most basic tools. Today, we’d like to dig a little deeper into the app’s functionalities to make your knitting easier than ever.
Once again, we’ll be featuring snippets of VeryPink Knits helpful videos as our guide, as well as videos from the knitCompanion website. Bear in mind that many of today’s features require a subscription to the full version of the knitCompanion app. Today’s post should punctuate the accuracy of the name—these features really provide the smoothest, easiest knitting experience possible!
Quick Jump Links
Jump down to any topic in this post with the links below:
Video Links
To access links to videos and watch them in the app, first you need to add them to your Project Information (noted in our previous post in the Project Information + Timer section).
Apple – Start by clicking on the Acrobat pdf icon in the upper right hand corner. Locate the video link in your pattern and tap it. Name the video in the pop up screen that appears and click “Add Video Link.” Close out the pdf screen to navigate back to your pattern.
Android – Tap Edit at the top, then Project Info on the right side. Locate the video link in your pattern and tap it. Name the video in the pop up screen that appears and click “Add Video Link.”
Add a Link that isn’t in your PDF (all platforms) – From YouTube, copy the video’s Share Link. In knitCompanion, open your project. Tap Edit at the top, then Project Info on the right side. Tap the blue+ at the bottom. Name the video in the pop up screen that appears, paste in the video link and click “Add Video Link.”
Now, you can access the added videos when you tap the icon to cycle through the choices (Project Information, Project Timer + Ruler, Linked Videos). This makes it easy and efficient to access and watch videos you’ve added within the app from your pattern page.
Customize your Markers
The default sliding markers offer options to change the color, width, and transparency (seen in the video above). There is also an option to invert the sliding row marker so that only your instructions are highlighted, while the remainder of the page changes to whatever color you’ve chosen (seen in the video below).
To customize your sliding markers, click the Edit button at the top, and then the Sliding Marker button on the right hand menu (third from top). Use the controls at the bottom to adjust the color and width.
To invert the row marker, simply toggle the invert bottom next to the Row Slider options.
Customize your Counters
The 6 simple counters on the right side of the app can also be customized. To begin, click the Edit button at the top of the screen. Then, click the abacus icon (fourth from the top) on the right side of the screen.
For the simple counters, you can change:
- The color
- The name
- The minimum and maximum number of stitches (a helpful reminder if you’re marking a set number of rows/decreases/increases)
- Whether you’re counting up or counting down by clicking the blue arrow to toggle between choices
- The number of counters shown by deleting or adding additional counters with the (+) or ?? buttons
For the example shown below, we’ve changed the name of our first counter to mark the number of rounds needed to complete the foot of our sock. Since we worked the first sock for 63 rounds, we’ve adjusted the counter for the second sock by setting a maximum count of 63 rounds.
Highlights
We always recommend reading a pattern all the way through before you cast on. It’s the best way to fully prepare yourself for future instructions and take note of anything you might not understand. A common mistake knitters make when working through a pattern is accidentally working a set of instructions pertaining to a size other than their own.
A great way to avoid working the wrong size is by highlighting your size’s instructions throughout the pattern. Designs in the kcDesigns pattern library automatically perform this function, but you can also do it manually using the Highlight tool.
To highlight any part of your pattern, click Edit at the top of the screen, then click the Highlighter tool from the right hand menu (circled below). At the bottom of the screen, tap the (+) button.
Change the color of your highlight by clicking the colored box in the bottom menu, and adjust the transparency using the slider tool. You might want to eliminate all other size instructions from your pattern, in which case you could set the transparency to its lowest setting and use a dark color to black out the other sizes.
As seen below, the highlighter has been changed to a pale blue. Tap to place the highlight in your pattern. You can also duplicate the highlight by pressing the duplicate button (shown below in the bottom menu, between the “+” and the ??). You can also drag the corners of the highlight box to create rectangles or squares of any size (shown below in the turquoise and pink highlighted sections).
Below, the highlights have been placed to mark instructions for the largest size across the pattern page. We created one highlight, then hit the duplicate button and dragged it to the various size markings on the page. We’ve also created highlighter bars to mark the repeated gusset decreases.
Notes
If you’re without a stylus or don’t like to handwrite notes, It’s very easy to type notes into your pattern instead.
First, tap Edit at the top, then tap the Note icon on the right side of the screen—it’s second from the top. At the bottom of the screen, tap the (+) button.
There are two options for adding a note: Popup and Text.
Tapping Popup adds a speech bubble icon to the screen that, when tapped, will offer any information you’ve input. Drag the speech bubble to where you’d like to add your note, then type in your note using the keyboard. You can also adjust the color and transparency of the Popup speech bubble.
Tapping Text adds a highlighted box with adjustable corners to your screen. You can adjust both the color of the text and the color of the highlighted box. Drag the box to the place where you’d like to add your note, then type in your note using the keyboard.
As you can see below, we’ve added a Popup note about how many rounds equals 8”, and a Text note about the cast on we used.
Scribble
When using knitCompanion on Apple, you can scribble on your pattern. With your finger, Apple Pencil (1st or 2nd gen), or a stylus, you can handwrite notes on your pattern. Tap the Scribble icon on the right side of the screen to pull up a toolbar with adjustable pens, pencils, highlighters, and erasers. Choose your tool and write notes directly on the screen. You can note things like how many rows of ribbing you worked, or how many rounds you knit to achieve a number of inches, as seen below.
We hope this guide will help you customize knitCompanion to create a relaxed and enjoyable crafting experience. Stay tuned to the blog as we continue to dive deeper into knitCompanion’s many functions!