Keeping up with Changing times

In reading some of my early posts I found one where I was talking about making copies of my patterns, which I still do,  and never carry the original The advantages of doing that are I can write on the pattern without messing up my original and I have a back up copy if I loose the original.

The other problem with writing on the original is that should you ever want to knit this again and maybe not in the same size you have all these notes and circles on your pattern that make it difficult to read especially if you now want new notes and want to knit  a different size. The pattern becomes a mess.

I like to take notes. I almost never knit the pattern as written. I might make it longer, do a different rib stitch, almost always adjust the sleeve length and I especially like to save notes on the yarn I used and the needle size and gauge for reference.

I am a yarn snob and have, I admit favorites. I am also not ashamed to admit that I probably do as much ripping as knitting. As I often point out to people I work with helping them through knitting projects, I don't knit becasue I need something to wear. I knit becasue it is my passion and my hobby but in the end I want to have something that I love and not something that gets finished and shoved away never to be seen again. To that end I often choose the same yarn for a new project in a different color and I find it helpful to remember what needle size I used, and my personal gauge which often is exactly what is recommended on the band since all knitters do not knit the same.

As I read this old post two other things came to mind. One is the improvement of our smart phones and while I can't address the Android phones on my iPhone i have something called iBooks. I can scan and save my pattern as a PDF and save it in iBooks, and I can then read my pattern on my phone so no need to carry a pattern at all. I can make notes regarding my WIP in the notes section. Form this I can also transfer my notes to my computer.  I know this may sound as if I am a bit compulsive but I really do not want to "swatch" again if I want to use the same yarn. Swatching is necessary but let's face it no one like doing it. Any not matter how many years you have been knitting and at what level you would put your knitting skills you still have to make that swatch.