Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Episode 42: Updates and Tech Revisited
100 Plays1 year ago
What's happening in the world of Arctic Edits and What Tech Tools am I using Today? The season opener looks at what has been going on while away, and what this year should bring.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Gratitude
00:00:16
Speaker
Hi everybody and welcome back. Welcome to 2024 and the new episode of Craft Design Edit Sleep Repeat.
00:00:30
Speaker
I want to thank everyone who has listened throughout the last two years. I appreciate the growth. I appreciate your telling your friends and family about us and sharing with anyone who might be interested where we can be found.
00:00:50
Speaker
And I just, I appreciate all of you more than I can say.
Future Collaborations and Guest Plans
00:00:55
Speaker
It's been a lovely, quiet couple of months of planning and thinking about how things were going to move forward here. It's been a joyful time planning other things that I will be talking about as we go along through the year.
00:01:15
Speaker
I have already arranged with two designers. I'm working with a third to come in as guests. And so I'm really excited about the lineup. And I'm really happy to say that we are back in full swing.
00:01:35
Speaker
So what have I been doing during that last couple of months?
Pattern Release Schedule
00:01:40
Speaker
Well, you may know that shortly after my trip last year, I released three new patterns. So that made four in my Ravelry store, although I kind of messed up how they're linked. But that's only on my end. You can still find them.
00:01:57
Speaker
And I am going to be releasing another one here in January when this is being recorded. By the time you hear this, it will be available.
00:02:09
Speaker
And that whole process has been a lot of fun. And I'm going to be spending a bit more of my time this year doing that. I decided that I have a goal of releasing at least six patterns this year. So with one in January and another one well on its way, several more in the queue of ideas, I'm really excited about that prospect and that possibility.
Tech Editing Services and Client Outreach
00:02:40
Speaker
As far as my tech editing goes, I am continuing to work regularly with you and I appreciate all of you more than I can say. It really is nice to have people who trust me and work with me on a regular basis.
00:02:59
Speaker
If you haven't reached out to work with me, please feel free. Just go to my website and there is a link there with a way to send me your first pattern and your information and I will get back to you just as soon as I possibly can.
Tech Upgrades for Efficiency
00:03:19
Speaker
In the effort of making my tech editing more streamlined, I am working on a new computer setup.
00:03:32
Speaker
Late last year it became apparent that my desktop is Getting a little old Not so old that it doesn't work Apple machines don't die people You have to kill them That's that's one reason I stick with Apple is they just they don't die like Windows machines do
00:03:57
Speaker
that they're much more stable in my opinion. I realized that there's probably a lot of you out there immediately screaming at me. Um, I get that, but I am a diehard Apple fan and this machine is
00:04:16
Speaker
2017 and still going strong but it can't run the latest updates and that makes working on it you know if it was just a play machine I wouldn't worry about it too much right now but working on it it not being able to update to the absolute latest apps on some in some situations
00:04:40
Speaker
We're not quite there yet, but we're getting there. So my husband and I started planning for a new system. And that means that I'm changing my desk around and I am reworking some of the applications that I'm using on a regular basis and things like that.
00:05:06
Speaker
Today what I really want to talk about, I'm going to give you a bit of his situation of the desk setup so that you can kind of picture it.
Annotation Tools Discussion
00:05:15
Speaker
And then we're going to revisit the tech tools talk that we did last year because there's been some things I've learned and some things that I'm using on a regular that I want to share with you.
00:05:32
Speaker
In this new setup, I'm going to a dual monitor situation. I Have already purchased a widescreen. It's a 35 wide Which is absolutely phenomenal for spreadsheets which of course as a tech editor I Live in spreadsheets. I check your numbers in spreadsheets. I create numbers in spreadsheets
00:06:02
Speaker
So having that extra screen real estate and being able to open up the width of a spreadsheet to be able to see 16 sizes plus data columns all in one screen has made life a dream.
00:06:28
Speaker
While at the moment it is sitting here next to my 27 inch desktop, what I'm going to be doing is replacing the desktop with a laptop and adding a 27 inch monitor that can be turned portrait for documents.
00:06:50
Speaker
So I'm really excited about that because I won't be wasting as much screen real estate that way. And I really think it's going to speed things up a little bit. I know that in the last few edits I've done where I'm using this dual monitor system, it's really making things faster because I'm not having to
00:07:14
Speaker
literally switch back and forth between the PDF and the spreadsheet or using my iPad for the PDF and the desktop for the spreadsheet so I've got two different keyboards going. All of that is making a difference in my process and I really feel like that's going to improve the whole situation.
00:07:44
Speaker
one step at a time I'm working in that direction and of course in working to that direction I started realizing that maybe doing the PDF annotations on my iPad wasn't necessarily the best way to do it because I still had to have the iPad and the computer
00:08:13
Speaker
So I'm working more at my desk and I'm using both screens and I thought, okay, I really love doing the PDFs on the iPad because of the app I'm using. It is so clean and easy to highlight and to make my comments right next to the spot on the PDF and
00:08:38
Speaker
I didn't want to invest in Adobe. I felt like, well, let's face it, Adobe has gone subscription and I'm not a big fan of subscription software.
00:08:56
Speaker
Maybe it's just because I'm old school, but I don't like having to pay for things year after year after year for the most part. There are some things well worth it, and I will talk about one of those later, but for the most part, and especially when it's as expensive as Adobe, getting, yes, you can get the PDF reader for free.
00:09:26
Speaker
but it's not as easy to annotate in the PDF reader in my opinion. There is a PDF reader annotator on Apple natively called preview. We talked about that before. Again, I've had glitches with that one and
00:09:46
Speaker
It's great for opening up a quick document, but it's not necessarily great for the process of working in it day in and day out. So I found a new PDF annotator called PDF Marker. Now, as far as I can tell in my research, this is Mac only.
00:10:05
Speaker
But it is simple, it is clean, it is free, totally 100% free. There is no price on it whatsoever. And it's easily available in the Apple App Store.
00:10:23
Speaker
If you are a Windows user and you know of a really good, especially free PDF annotator for the Windows machine, I would absolutely love it if you would let me know so that I can share that with those others that are my listeners that are Windows users because
00:10:48
Speaker
I have yet to really find one that I felt like I could recommend, especially since I can't use it. But if you use one and you have one that you really love, please share it with me. Come to my Facebook group, come to my Ravelry group, email me, and let me know because, as I've said many, many times, I'm not a Windows user, so I'm not as familiar with the software that's available for it.
Publishing and Photo Editing Tools
00:11:19
Speaker
I spent a fair amount of time last time around talking about the affinity suite of software, which includes publisher, designer and photo. And at the time I hadn't actually used them. They'd been recommended to me by more than one person. And I was seriously considering it. And lo and behold, in late summer, it went on sale and I invested. I love them people.
00:11:50
Speaker
Yes, they are a learning curve, but there are really super good Facebook groups where you can go and post questions and you can read other people's experiences and there's classes on Teachable and on Udemy and
00:12:19
Speaker
other places, I'm sure there's tons and tons and tons of YouTube videos and tutorials.
00:12:28
Speaker
So you can pretty much find anything you are looking for and need to learn almost always for free and often for relatively inexpensively. So I am loving them. Publisher has streamlined my pattern writing process.
00:12:51
Speaker
and helped me develop the idea that I could actually maybe publish a few more per year than I have been. My goal is six this year. I recently released one in January and am deep in the throes of number two. I have a list of ideas
00:13:19
Speaker
And we'll talk more about that later as well, because I'm going to share where and how I'm storing that list. And between publisher being able to create a template and import my text for each pattern into that template and have them all be
00:13:42
Speaker
basically very similar in layout or nearly identical in layout. The differences being how many photos are in each pattern and what kind of tutorials might exist in the pattern needing extra photos, that sort of thing. Publisher makes it quick and easy. I have had a glitch.
00:14:06
Speaker
Uh, it does not like pulling in my formatting from word. So I am no longer including numbered lists and that sort of thing in my word document, but I can write everything up in word. Unfortunately, it doesn't work with pages.
00:14:29
Speaker
That's that's a problem for me, but I get it where it is where the word world lives And I do have it on my system. I use word and excel on a regular basis but you know, I just I just write it all up in word and then I can import it into the template and it
00:14:52
Speaker
I go through and add my formatting, I add my photos, and I make sure that it's got the accurate copyright year, which
00:15:10
Speaker
I just need to update the copyright year now because the year has recently changed. I'm still in January, folks, even though you're listening to this in February. But change that once on the master page and it will stay that way all year. I will not have to worry about that after the first pattern of the year.
00:15:32
Speaker
And it's just as simple. It's fast. It's easy. And it helps my patterns look consistent from one to the next.
00:15:42
Speaker
Designer, the vector graphics, that's a very steep learning curve. Again, excellent Facebook groups, excellent YouTube videos. This is where I invested in a class. Designer, the vector graphics, and being able to draw the schematics that I draw and that sort of thing, I really wanted to have a better handle on how the software worked, and so I paid
00:16:12
Speaker
16 bucks for one class and less than 20 for three or four others that we're all bundled together. So not a big expense, but well worth it in my mind to learn to use the vector graphics program. And then of course, affinity photo where I can truly edit the photos for my patterns and make sure that they're the best quality possible
00:16:41
Speaker
Before I put them into my patterns That's it's it's I really have to say I'm stumbling over the words here But I am so excited about this software that I really highly recommend it it's one price one flat price and They have really good sales, especially around the Black Friday
00:17:12
Speaker
Christmas timeframe, they discounted it very deeply. So if you're interested in that, get on their mailing list and keep an eye on it and watch for their sales because they do a really great sale and you can get all three pieces of software good on Mac, Windows, and iOS. So they've got the iOS apps that
00:17:39
Speaker
Are a little different than the that the computer apps But do all the same things and you can get all of that for one flat price. It's called their universal license So I was able to put it on two Apple machines and my iPad. I Think it even downloaded onto my phone. I can't remember but for one price and one good price and
00:18:10
Speaker
I talked about a free vector graphics software last time called Vectornator. And the only thing I really want to say about it right now is the fact that they have changed names. I can't see much difference in the way the app works in terms of stability and that sort of thing. But it is now, and I'm probably not going to say this the way they would, but
00:18:41
Speaker
linearity, linearity, curve, L-I-N-E-A-R-I-T-Y, curve. So
00:18:51
Speaker
They've changed names, but it's still free and it's still a good vector graphics if you're looking for something that's free, especially on the iPad. I found it much more glitchy on the computer than I have on the iPad, but it still works.
00:19:16
Speaker
In researching charting software, they're still the same. Stitch Mastery, Stitch Fiddle, et cetera. I found one new or different online software called ChartMinder. Based on my research, it is limited in scope. It is only online.
00:19:40
Speaker
It is available for free, and it will link to your Ravelry account. So if you use Ravelry a lot, you can sign in with your Ravelry account instead of creating a new account, whether that's of interest to you, but it is one less password you have to worry about.
00:20:06
Speaker
I didn't get deep enough to discover whether or not you can download the chart. But if you can't, you could always take a screenshot of your chart and save that ping or jpeg and pull it into your pattern file that way if need be.
00:20:35
Speaker
So that's the one piece of charting software that I came across that might be helpful. And I thought of something and now I can't remember what it was. I'll come back to it.
Workflow Management with Trello
00:20:54
Speaker
Now I want to talk to you a little about about organization. As this podcast was growing, Tiffany put me into Trello and organized the podcast through Trello, which was a really lovely way to share data between us because being basically online with applications for
00:21:21
Speaker
iOS and the computer and I pretty positive they have an application for Windows because they are basically an online. You can access them strictly through the browser and never use the app whatsoever or you can use the app. Trello is becoming something that I'm using more and more like
00:21:50
Speaker
daily instead of just for the podcast. I also placed my client workflow. So I'm tracking as patterns come in, I add that to my Trello list and
00:22:08
Speaker
track what I need to do for each client and whether or not I've sent an estimate, whether or not they've responded to the estimate and all of that is all in Trello. And I thought, there's so much more I could probably do here. And as you heard, I'm kind of ramping up the number of patterns I want to write. And so I thought, what about a project list?
00:22:35
Speaker
what about and i kind of semi sort of tracked projects in my calendar for a long time um but i didn't really track
00:22:57
Speaker
how, what I really did on each one, or whatever. I just kind of wrote down, I started this project here, I ended it here. I could go back at the end of the year and count how many finished objects I did, that sort of thing. But I thought there was more I could do with it, especially since I want to do patterns. So I set up
00:23:22
Speaker
two Trello boards, one that is just projects and one that is patterns, and they interact. So when I mark one as a pattern design, it is automatically copied into the design board.
00:23:42
Speaker
And when I mark things off on that design, it's marked off on both boards. So I can separate out just what I'm doing versus what I'm doing for patterns. And I can have checklists that help me track all of the steps that I need to go through to create the pattern and, you know,
00:24:08
Speaker
Am I working on grading on this one or is it a one size? Those types of things I can actually brain dump into Trello and track then my progress on each one. And with that I'm hoping to improve my production, if that makes any sense.
00:24:33
Speaker
So while I was using another piece of software and had purchased this piece of software, Trello is actually working better for me because of the way it's designed. I don't, Trello does link things that I wish they didn't, but it links things better
00:24:59
Speaker
than this other piece of software. So I'm not going to mention the other piece of software because I don't know that you would get much out of it anyway. I am in that process of tracking projects and tracking pattern design ideas and that sort of thing.
Inventory and Insurance Planning
00:25:21
Speaker
I also have been requested by my husband to create
00:25:30
Speaker
a stash list. Now, this includes not just my yarn, but because I'm a spinner, it's yarn for both, both knitting and weaving and, you know, crochet, that sort of thing. Um, yarn for, or fiber for spinning. Um, but he also wanted my tools. I recently added a very high end spinning wheel to my herd.
00:26:01
Speaker
And he looked at me and he said, what do I do with these? If something happens to you, how am I gonna know what they're worth? Also, if anything should happen to the house, let's say we had a fire. I've had a friend that unfortunately lost her house in a fire a few years back, lost pretty much everything in the house, that sort of thing. How would we,
00:26:30
Speaker
share that information with the insurance company so that they knew what it was worth.
00:26:37
Speaker
Not that I could ever replace this particular spinning wheel, it is a one-of-a-kind. While it's not one-of-a-kind because of manufacturer, it's one-of-a-kind because that manufacturer only made handmade wheels, so every wheel was slightly unique, and he swore up and down he would never do another one in this wood.
00:27:03
Speaker
Uh, so, you know, it is basically irreplaceable if something should happen to it, but at least the insurance company would have a value. So I have been creating a project and stash list and I searched and searched and searched for a good way to do the stash. I tried Excel.
00:27:33
Speaker
I tried Trello. I tried a third piece of the other piece of software that's similar to Trello in a way. Didn't like any of them. Was not happy with the way every piece had to look exactly the same. Every card had to be the same format.
00:27:56
Speaker
and found a piece of software. And again, I do not know if this is available for Windows. I apologize for Windows users out there. I suspect it might be, but it might not because I found it through iOS, but it's called Yarn Buddy. And I almost wonder if
00:28:22
Speaker
It's not connected to something I'm going to talk about here in a few minutes because there's a selection on every entry, whether or not you want to share it with the database. But Yarn Buddy is allowing me to track
Project Tracking with Yarn Buddy
00:28:45
Speaker
on an in progress project. Now I'm not going to be leaving it there. Once it's finished, it's going to come out because I don't want to, um, bulk it up too much with that stuff. I will put that in Trello and I will keep that long-term in Trello. But, um, so current projects, you know, the ones I'm actually working on, uh, my stash,
00:29:14
Speaker
And it does allow for both my knitting yarns and my weaving yarns. Tools, which includes everything from my knitting needles to my spindles to my wheels. It is easily synced between computer
00:29:36
Speaker
iPad and phone. So let's say I'm using the row counter for a project. I don't have to worry about sharing that data to get it to the another device, which has been really nice. It's I'm not
00:30:00
Speaker
I don't know how it's going to track charts and that sort of thing. I haven't really played with that part because I have another piece of software I use for that. But for the stash stuff especially, I'm really liking it. It's simple, it's easy to use. That's what I mean by simple. It's easy to use, it's detailed in what it will store, and it's really easy to get the stuff into it, including photographs.
00:30:30
Speaker
So The one complaint I have so far is in the tool section the photograph you add stays little Whereas the Stash photos you you can see them in a larger format I haven't found a way to see the tools in a larger format and I wish I could but it will let me track cost and
00:30:56
Speaker
and value and all of that. So I've been spending quite a bit of time in that one over the holidays actually when I started the process. Another piece of software that I use for my project management is Knit Companion because of the way that it tracks the lines you're working on or the line of the chart versus the written instructions.
00:31:26
Speaker
It is the best I have found for everyday tracking of projects. It's the easiest to use the row counters. It's the easiest to track charts. It's the easiest for
00:31:44
Speaker
creating that overall information that you need from the pattern. And because you can download your pattern directly from Rivalry,
00:31:58
Speaker
You don't have to download a PDF and import it into the app and all of that. And it does also work on both computer, iPad and iPhone. I do have trouble with it syncing, so I upload to Dropbox and then download to the other device when I want to move things around.
00:32:21
Speaker
For some reason, and I've never figured out why, I personally have trouble syncing through iCloud. It's supposed to sync.
00:32:34
Speaker
And I'm sure it's something that I've done or not done. It could be in the way I use iCloud because I limit what goes to my iCloud so that I don't have an overly full iCloud. But nonetheless, it doesn't sink like Yarn Buddy does. Yarn Buddy has been very, very simple. There was no setup involved.
00:32:58
Speaker
And it's not taking a lot of space on my iCloud either, which that in itself was a big deal with what I was putting in there, especially all the photographs.
Yarn Substitution Recommendations
00:33:10
Speaker
Last but not least, I wanna talk about a website that while it's not directly connected to creating your pattern, it might be something you want to consider adding to your pattern.
00:33:27
Speaker
I have a client who every single pattern has a line in the yarn section of her pattern with yarn substitutions and that she gets from yarnsub.com.
00:33:43
Speaker
yarn sub she goes in she does her search for the yarn that she's used and it brings up the possible yarns that can be substituted for it and she links that search into her pattern so
00:34:03
Speaker
You might want to consider that I've still not instituted that in my patterns yet, mostly because I'm using very common yarns. Well, I've used some hand dyes and that kind of thing, but I've always done a second one in a more common yarn that I've shared as well. So that hasn't been an issue, but it is something I've considered and it's, I think, a worthwhile option.
00:34:34
Speaker
So yarnsub.com. I hope that this has been valuable. I hope that I haven't bored you half to tears, that I've included enough new information to make this worthwhile.
Preview of Next Episode
00:34:49
Speaker
And I really look forward to coming back to you next time with my guest, Paul Hazemar. Now you might remember Paul was with us last year
00:35:03
Speaker
Not not quite a year ago, but about seven eight months ago But he's been living the life and he has a lot of things to update with us And so I thought it would be a lot of fun to check back in so join us next time and Between now and then happy knitting
00:35:30
Speaker
Don't forget to like and subscribe wherever you listen and join the conversation in our Ravelry or Facebook groups. For show notes or knit tech editing and related services, please visit my website at arcticedits.com.