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Version: Next (nightly)

Cobblr for Yarn

Scan a ball band. The yarn arrives with its brand, weight, fiber, and color already filled in, and a photo. Do that for the balls in the bag you just bought, and your stash exists.

The first ten minutes​

  1. Open Cobblr on your phone and tap Scan.
  2. Point it at the barcode on a ball band. No barcode, or the band is gone? Photograph the ball itself.
  3. It lands in the inbox with what Cobblr could work out. Tap to keep it.
  4. Repeat for the pile. Twenty balls take about five minutes.

What you get besides the stash​

Three extra tables come switched on, because they are the ones knitters ask for straight away:

  • Hooks and needles, so you stop buying a 4mm you already own.
  • A shopping list that fills itself when you run low.
  • Patterns, the ones you are working from. Each keeps its PDF and a photo pulled out of it, and knows what it needs: the yarn and hooks are read from the PDF and checked against your stash.

The things worth knowing​

  • Say "ball of yarn", and so does Cobblr. A ball is one thing you own, with a weight and a length.
  • A partial ball is still a ball. Change the amount left rather than deleting it.
  • The first ball is the first thing on the screen. Import and export sit behind one button, a pinned view shows once, and a record shows its first five actions with the rest behind +N more.
  • Colorway and dye lot are fields on the ball, because two balls of the same yarn are not interchangeable if the lots differ.

Patterns that know what they need​

  1. Open Patterns and drop in a pattern PDF (or a zip of them).
  2. Open the pattern. Under What this pattern needs, each yarn and hook it lists is a card: You have it, Short by 300 m, or Not in your stash.
  3. Tap Use it to hold that yarn's balls for the pattern, or Add to shopping list for what is missing.
  4. Changed your mind halfway? Change yarn, say how much of the old one you used, and the rest moves to the new yarn.
  5. Mark the pattern done and each yarn comes off the balls you used.

When a pattern gives one length for solid colours and another for prints, the card asks which yours is instead of guessing.

When you want more​

Add a second collection, or open the full workspace. Your yarn comes with you.