PATTCAST | Animated International Symbol Charts | Guest Post
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PATTCAST | Animated International Symbol Charts
Elegant Charm Scarf – Free PATTCAST Pattern
Hello and thanks for stopping by!
This is Kim from PATTCAST inviting you to try a completely new format for crochet patterns – animated international symbol charts!
I’m a big fan of charts, for many reasons – you can visually compare the pattern to the work in your hands, you get a mental picture of how the repeats work, and – they’re, well, international. It’s amazing that crochet has its own set of symbols that are recognized everywhere in the world, transcending whatever the local spoken word happens to be. How cool is that?
However, printed charts can be confusing too. Mainly this stems from “too much information” on the page – where do I start? How do I get from here to there? If I have to take a phone call and put my crochet down, it’s often difficult to find where I left off on the chart.
One day, it hit me – animate the charts! Step-by-step, and add little tips along the way for where the symbols alone fall short – but make those tips visual, so as not to lose the international appeal. My team animated a chart, and then we saw that we could flip the animation, and it worked perfectly in the opposite direction for a native left-handed pattern as well.
Try out our new method with this free pattern for your Apple device:
The “Elegant Charm” scarf
The pattern is accessible from the large center button, and it’s easy to pick up where you left off with a filmstrip scrolling feature in addition to the usual fast scrub.
The app is Apple TV compatible, so you can watch it on the big screen, great for groups or teaching situations.
Other handy buttons lead to a help wiki for additional tips and answers to questions asked,
a store where you can order online a full kit just like the one pictured (or in different colorways), a social media menu to get news, ideas and inspiration, and a button to link up with designer games and contests.
The Elegant Charm pattern app is currently in development for Android too, but frankly we’re running into trouble with the video in the app, due to the many different types of Android devices and how they handle video files. We’re close to a solution, but not today 🙁 However, we have a different type of animated pattern for Android – try it out with a free pattern for a classic granny square.
This animated pattern takes you stitch by stitch through the pattern, one block at a time. When you finish a block, hit +1 to advance. You can also review with the -1 button. The pattern turns at the corners automatically, and the scissors indicator will pop up when it’s time to cut and tie off. When you’re finished with the pattern, hit “End” to exit – or, if you just close the app, it will pick up where you left off.
The “end” button will also show you a quick splash screen picturing more of the granny squares in this series, only 99 cents (U.S.) each.
Thank you for checking us out, we would love to hear from you as to what you like about this new method, and what you’d like to see improved. Have fun!
-the team at PATTCAST.com
Credits:
iTunes app store:
Right-handed version
Left-handed version
Google Play store:
Right-handed version
Left-handed version
Kim and her team of experts and university students at PATTCAST have fun in their cool studio! (see us in action at pattcast.com/signup, working to promote never-before-seen technology for yarn craft patterns!)
Visit us at PATTCAST.COM and try out the “Secrets of the Pyramids” design game! A $100 prize will be awarded to the best design submitted by August 31, 2015. See PATTCAST.COM/GAME for instructions and game details. Thanks to you all and Oombawka Design for inviting us!
Check out PATTCAST at one of the following links:
Website | YouTube | Facebook
On behalf of the Oombawka Design readers, and myself, I would like to Thank Kim and her team from PATTCAST for sharing this innovative technology and these free crochet patterns!
This looks very interesting. I am going to have to give this a try!