Thursday, December 11, 2008

All I want for Xmas...

So I've thought about it and I realized what I would like in the knitting world. Being a computer programmer, to learn new things I buy computer books. All of these books contain something that my knitting books lack, a DVD. Yep, they contain that DVD with examples, code, and a pdf of the book. And what do we knitters do when we are working on something from a book? We photocopy the pattern from the book. Wouldn't it be easier if we could just pull out that DVD and print out a working copy? You could mark it up however you want. You could take charts and blow them up and print them out. Heck you could even take the pattern and print it out on index cards to tuck into your project bag for on the go.

If it can be done with one set of books, why not knitting books? I mean with the widespread use of technological tools like Ravelry, we should take the next step.

So here I am, lone knitter, demanding digital copy.

Did I mention that the push for movies and shows is to digital copy so you can go from computer, to tv, to iPod? Let's get digital. Let's join centuries of handcraft with modern literacy. Come on people!

4 comments:

Sarah said...

Supposedly Interweave Knits is soon going to be making available CDs with a year's worth of magazines on each one. I have to think that if IK is doing it, we'll be seeing lots of other magazines and books doing it soon, too!

DPUTiger said...

Very good point and very good idea. I'd say more, but my brain is sleep deprived and therefore functioning at the quality of a 10 year old PC with a full hard drive.

LaurieG said...

I liked the idea from the start. (I'm keeping the e-mail so we can prove you were first w/ the idea.)

Anonymous said...

I would absolutely love it if there were electronic knitting books. The Cat Bordhi "New Pathways" sock book is like a Choose Your Own Adventure... If there were variables I could choose, then all the instructions could be displayed/printed in one document, that would be ideal.

Elizabeth Zimmermann things really cry out for this because things like the BSJ have umpteen possible modifications and it really is not feasible to find them on your own.

And the Barbara Walker stitch collections... I would pay a lot of money if they were searchable, charted, with sample photos, available for easy integration into patterns. But the chartless, B&W, non-indexed variants are not worth full retail and should not take 4 volumes.

(found you via the Fibonacci Mobius pattern on Ravelry. And thanks for that... I was needing a sample mobius pattern without applied I-cord edging.)