Projects on the Web

Mon Nov 9, 2009 at 9:22 pm in Favorite Finds, Tech | No Comments

Tech Stuff Monday – The other day I was thinking about what projects to post in my blog for my “projects in my queue” day. That got me to  thinking about how I find and catalog projects when I see them.  For example, I got a newsletter from Lion Brand with some crochet vegetables I was thinking about making – I might be able to do that soon. Then I saw something in my RSS feed for some furniture that I wanted to make (that’s probably not going to happen anytime soon). So what do I do to save those links?

iconsI don’t know if other creative people collect patterns, projects, materials and ideas like this, or how they manage it.  I seem to always have an information overload – and the presence of that phrase in the news media leads me to believe I’m not the only one.  So I thought I’d share some of the ways that I manage my ever-increasing library of crafty-arty links. There are a million possibilities, this is what I chose.  (Note: the epic logo graphic to the right is from Flickr user Ludwig Gatzke.)

Tutorials and Materials

  • Delicious: I save lots and lots of things to Delicious, and in fact use it more than any of the other sites in keeping track of web links. I have three primary uses for it:  (1) saving links to places to get materials, (2) a place to stash online tutorials (i.e. not entire projects) and (3) to save ideasI want to share on Crafter by Night.  If you look at the bottom of this website you’ll see a list of links that automatically is generated by certain of my Delicious tags.
  • Wish Lists: I use the Wish List feature of the Blick Art catalog to remember art supplies I wanted to get. Sometimes I don’t get them there, but the convenience of the feature is nice.  I also use Amazon to make wish lists of craft books I’m interested in.
  • I think the invention of the RSS feed has made my life (a) livable and (b) completely overloaded with information. The links I find there feed into a lot of these things I’m mentioning today, but when I’m first going through them if I think I want to save it for later review, then I either just Star them through Google Reader (Seems like Google owns my life), or click the Instapaper bookmarklet to save it to read later.

Crochet Projects

  • Ravelry: No project management list for the yarn arts would be complete without a mention of Casey and Jess’ brilliant knit/crochet/spinning/weaving project masterpiece. I was an early adopter. I don’t use it as fully as I might, but I do use the possible projects queue, and I keep track of the progress of my projects there, and use it to combine my Flickr photos, blog posts and then project summaries.

Sewing Projects

  • Evernote:  I use this to catalog sewing patterns. This web program allows me to “clip” pictures – of entire websites, screenshots, pieces of text, my own notes. Plus I can classify things.  I keep an offline notebook of clippings on which I make notes and sketches. I’m sort of trying to make Evernote into a way to do the same thing digitally for sewing patterns. I can’t do sketches the same way, but I can put together a nice visual catalog of sewing projects I’m interested in.  It has an iPhone app for convenience.

Recipes

  • I almost always do one of two things with recipes I see.  I get a lot of my recipes online from All Recipes and Epicurious. I mentioned that I use the Epicurious iPhone application.  Both of these websites have online recipe boxes and shopping lists to which you can add the recipes you like.  The other option for blog recipes, etc. is that I print and save them in my offline recipe box, but I may begin to use Delicious for these types of recipes.

Projects & Miscellany

  • I track things I want to buy on Etsy through the favorite items, sellers, etc. ability in my account.  That also feeds in here to my blog for the side bar.
  • Flickr’s Favorite Photo feature lets me remember projects that I like there, or people that I’m interested in, and their Groups gives me access to a wide range of things I wouldn’t otherwise come across.  And of course I use Flickr on this here blog quite a lot.

The iPhone and Crafting

Mon Nov 2, 2009 at 11:54 am in Favorite Finds, Tech | No Comments

So I AM doing the NaBloPoMo(Fo) thing, or I’m going to try. I’ve come up with themes for the days of the week since it lessens the “what in the world can I possibly say today?!?” problem. I can normally come up with a million ideas, but on the day of I panic and all my ideas go hide next to the pens I lost in eighth grade.  So on Mondays it’s going to be something tech-y.

stitchminderMy choice today was my beloved, wonderful, dear iPhone. Not everyone loves this thing. Some people don’t care for Apple or prefer Blackberries or think cell phones are generally horrible. Some people (me) wonder why phones have to be so complicated. Other people (also me) wonder why people simply MUST answer the stupid thing when they’re eating or driving a car (pet peeves of mine), or why people can’t spell words out, or just put the thing down sometimes.

Yet I LOVE my phone, because it’s really a tiny computer. Ironically, it allows me to rapidly communicate with everyone I know without ever actually having to use the phone part, which is good, because I hate talking on the phone.

And it’s good for crafting. My favorites for the crafty things I do:

  • StitchMinder by Quilt2Go lets you keep track of your rows, repeats, increases etc.  (screen shot shown here).  There’s another app I haven’t tried that goes along with it: KnitMinder. It’s more project manager – it says “Track projects, yarns, needles, and patterns. Add notes with pictures.” Because no crafter would ever have multiple projects at the same time, amiright? Ha ha.
  • Also for the yarn enthusiast: KnitGauge helps you measure without measuring tools, and Ewe Stash for your completely-out-of-control yarn collection.
  • Transactions. This app allows you to accept credit cards anywhere, anytime. HELLO CRAFT FAIR. Think you can’t accept credit cards on the fly? Too much equipment? Ha!
  • For cooking, I have Little Chef for unit conversion and Smart Chef for intelligent recipe substitutions. Smart Chef is also coming out with a Healthy Substitutions app soon, which I’m looking forward to.
  • Recipes, you say? Check out the Epicurious app for 1,000,000 recipes close at hand.
  • For sewing, try out FabricStash to keep a portable photo record of the many, many prints you have. Just in case you need to match one on the fly, you know. And while you’re doing that, if you need to calculate how much yardage to buy, you can use the Yardage Calc.
  • In case you wanted to design quilts in your spare time riding on the bus or waiting for your offspring, you can try out the Quick & Easy Quilt Block Tool. I haven’t tried it, but I think I will.

And now for Crafty Accessories

  • Need a cheap DIY dock for your iPod/iPhone? Try folding paper over at Dessine Moi Un Objet.
  • Perhaps you’d like to go expensive, and try the $98 wood dock at Anthropologie. Or go with the spirit of DIY and make one yourself.
  • Etsy, when I just checked, had 1,045 results for “iPhone cosy” in the accessories area, so I think you’re covered there. I like this one. It’s retro. You can even check it out at Etsy Touch, a companion for easy Etsy iPhone shopping.

If you have an iPhone and have favorites of your own, I’d be interested in hearing about them. The App Store can be a bewildering place. And now to post, before I lost this NaBloPoMo on day 2. See you tomorrow.