Hi, I’m behind the times, this should not be news if you’ve been following along. About three weeks ago, Casey of Ravelry (that’s his medieval name, you know) posted about some of the mobile apps that had been developed for Ravelry users on various mobile platforms. I finally joined the smart phone users about a year and a half ago… with a Windows Phone. There are various reasons why I ended up with the type of phone that seems least supported by apps and functionalities that I want (I’m looking at you, Instagram, and the ability to screencap), but it’s been a good phone to me while we’ve been together (I am considering getting an iPhone at the end of the year, but that’s mostly because my iPod is geriatric and I’m looking to consolidate bits of technology I’m carrying around).
I was delighted to see a Ravelry app, called Stitch, for Windows Phone included in Casey’s blog post, so I scurried off to download it and while I haven’t really played with it too much yet, here’s my initial review of this program.
Did I mention that I’m disappointed with the inability to screencap from one’s phone? (That’s a Windows Phone function and has nothing to do with Stitch, in case that’s confusing.)
The design of Stitch is really well integrated with the general Windows Phone design, making it intuitive and simple to use. The main menu is simple—choose from your projects or your queue.
The projects and queue screens also blend into the main design of the Windows Phone, and pull the main project photo from your projects page (and shows a box for projects when you’ve failed to actually take a photo and upload one), or the main photo from the pattern page if you’re looking at the queue view.
You can pull up your full queue, or all of your projects, and see an itemized list like the image above. Super handy when you get stuck in a yarn store and are trying to only buy yarn for planned projects (which we all do, right?).
From the projects page, you can select a project and get the full information that’s listed on your Ravelry projects page. In addition, the main photo of your project is displayed behind the text (similar to what the Windows Phone music app does, though that displays photos of the band that’s playing).
I am never changing the main photo of that scarf.
Anyway.
Stitch’s projects page displays the yarn and needle information for the project, allows you to update your notes field, and can upload photos directly from your phone to Ravelry. You see that I took a crappy in-progress photo of the scarf to test it out.
Overall this app is a fantastic start. A couple of drawbacks in it’s current edition—you can’t create new projects or cast on directly from your queue (like you can when visiting Ravelry from a computer), and right now it doesn’t access your stash information. I don’t know how much of this may be in the works or how much can’t be integrated because of Ravelry’s coding, but I would really like to be able to see my stash, for those moments when I stumble into a yarn store and think “I may have some of this yarn at home, do I? Do I need more for a project? Am I just trying to rationalize buying yarn?”
Don’t lie. You do that too.
For kicks, here’s a better progress photo of Loki’s scarf, with cat for reference (and cuteness). It’s come a long way… and has a long way to go yet.
Are you using any of the mobile apps for Ravelry? What do you think of yours?
Thanks for the review! Really appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts!
To answer your comments in the end about what is coming, I am currently working on v1.3 which will include some stuff around the stash so you can view that on the go as well (there is a bunch of other stuff going in this next release as well, a big UI overhaul for the home screen and a lot of performance improvements too).
As for casting on from the project screen, I’ll add that to my backlog and we’ll see if I can get that included in a future release as well!
Thanks again for the review, I hope you enjoy using Stitch!
Oooh, I’m intrigued by the 1.3 release now. Thanks for a great app, Brian!
I haven’t tried any of the apps yet; just the m.ravelry site. The main thing I would use it for is finding out exactly what yarn/dye lot I’m using or planning to use on a project so I can grab another ball or a coordinating color, if need be. This is a useful review!
I would have gotten a lot more use out of this app (like on a daily basis) before I got internet service again at my house. But even now that I can just jump on my computer, it’s a great resource for those times I’m out and about and am making plans about what to cast on next.
Ooooh the scarf is getting long! Looks good!
It’s coming along! I have at least another 12″ before I can start working back… whew.