firecat: little girl knitting (girl knitting)
firecat (attention machine in need of calibration) ([personal profile] firecat) wrote2008-04-09 12:33 am

"You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone" - knitting version

Early in my knitting career I learned that if I liked a pattern on the web I should save a copy to my hard disk or else the pattern might go bye-bye and I might not be able to find it again. This happened with a pattern I really wanted to knit called the DNA scarf. (I later did find a copy - I don't remember if someone sent it to me, or if someone told me where it had moved to.)

Since then I have used my Mac's lovely "print to PDF" feature to save copies of a lot of knitting patterns.

And then along came Ravelry, which lets you save a link to a pattern in your account. I've been somewhat seduced by the ease of doing that (you can put a button on your browser toolbar to do it) although I still make PDFs of most patterns too.

Apparently today the magknits.com web site (a free online monthly webzine with knitting patterns) went bye-bye. A lot of people on Ravelry are upset that patterns they had put into their Ravelry queues are no longer available.

Which reminds me, I need to make sure I have PDFs of the patterns in my Ravelry queue.

[identity profile] liveavatar.livejournal.com 2008-04-09 07:42 am (UTC)(link)
Thanks for the tip about PDFs.

[identity profile] basketcaselady.livejournal.com 2008-04-09 04:13 pm (UTC)(link)
After having my computer crash last summer, I print patterns and put them in a plastic sheet protector in one of my knitting binders.
snippy: Lego me holding book (Default)

[personal profile] snippy 2008-04-09 04:16 pm (UTC)(link)
What a useful suggestion, I'm going to follow your lead.
ext_481: origami crane (Default)

Re: "You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone" - knitting version

[identity profile] pir-anha.livejournal.com 2008-04-09 05:00 pm (UTC)(link)
since i've become a mac user, the "print to pdf" feature has rapidly grown to be one of my favourite features. i don't actually print the files since i don't want more paper floating around my house, but i'm now saving all sorts of things in one standard format.

and you're right about saving patterns when one finds them. i don't do it often enough; good reminder.

re. magknits -- have you tried the wayback machine for the patterns you liked? i just tried with a couple of links i had bookmarked, and they came up.
ext_481: origami crane (Default)

Re: "You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone" - knitting version

[identity profile] pir-anha.livejournal.com 2008-04-09 10:06 pm (UTC)(link)
btw, i've spidered the entire wayback archive for the site, and have all the patterns now, if you're missing anything.