PJ Trader

If you’re looking for free knitting and crocheting patterns, one of the best places to look is at Lion Brand’s pattern catalog.  Some may poo-poo the idea, but I’ve noticed they’ve taken a lot of the patterns published in the booklets and put them online.  Did I mention they’re FREE?

They’ve also done a lot to improve their website, providing user-friendly features to save patterns you like to a personal account and such.  A few weeks ago they rolled out a mobile-phone friendly site (http://www.lionbrand.com/mobile) as well as offering (wait for it, wait for it)…an iPhone app for their site.

Today they announced a couple more knitter/crocheter friendly features designed to keep you mobile with your needlework and assist you in case you loose that paper pattern.

This is a cardigan pattern I like and had bookmarked as a favorite at Lion Brand.  It’s called the Fifth Avenue Cardigan and I’ve seen it in their booklets.  Online, though it’s free.  (I show it in the gray, because the pattern detailing is easier to see.  Lion Brand, for some inexplicable reason, renamed the pattern when they show it in the alternate two colors from the original black.)

In the pattern instructions page, you can add notes.  These notes are saved online, and only you can see them.  Makes great sense to me for yarn substitution notes, or yardage calculations, or who you might make such a sweater for, as well as any pattern changes you make or errors you find. 

 
And the other really cool feature is the row counter they added RIGHT ONLINE!

I like that idea.  With the manual + and – buttons (for those few occasions when we frog back), it’s not hard to keep up with where you are.  Positioning the counter in the pattern gives a nice visual clue where you are in the project as well.

The mobile iPhone app doesn’t seem to have these two features (yet?) but I was able to use mobile Safari to go the mobile website and use both tools, which is just as easy as using the Lion Brand app. 

OK, I admit these are things that combine my favorite worlds:  knitting and technology.  Isn’t life grand when two worlds collide?

Most people know I’m a fan of most things Google.  I use a lot, even before Google bought Writely, the original to Google Docs.  I’m currently using it to write a manuscript, after having written CSS code to simulate a standard manuscript format.  I use the spreadsheet capability to track hours for updating a company’s website, and oodles of other stuff.

Google Docs has now upgraded their system to allow you to upload ANYTHING.  You automatically get 1GB of storage, and that’s over and above your regular Google Docs-formatted stuff.  The great thing is that if you want to really load stuff up there, you can buy additional storage pretty cheap.  20GB will cost you $5 per year.

You can share these files and whole folders, too.  But if they’re not in Google Docs format, you can’t collaborate on them, which only seems right to me.  What I like is that you can upload a Word .doc file, uncheck the “convert to Google Docs” box, and your original formatting is maintained, something GDocs can’t do natively now.

I uploaded a .mp3, which you can’t play from the storage location, only download, a .php file, and a proprietary file extension from a piece of software I use.  All uploaded just fine and downloaded to a different computer just as easily.

The only thing that doesn’t seem to be working (for me, anyway) is being able to see how much storage space I’m using now.  The instructions claimed there would be a setting visible, but I’m not seeing it.

Previously, I hesitated to suggest to authors to use Google Docs as a backup for their manuscript, because Docs would automatically reformat their document, making it impossible to restore to the proper format easily.

Now, however, I see no reason why we shouldn’t use the free storage, and with the cheap upgrade options, consider keeping backups online all the time.  After all, it’s not safe to run back into a burning house to rescue your thumb drive.

…my answer would be to take a look at what’s being released.

I strolled over to Barnes & Noble online this morning to take a look at the new releases coming up.  Of the list I clicked on, I did an informal summary of the first ten books displayed. 

• 4 paranormals:
• 3 vampires (one hardback, one trade paperback, one mass-market paperback)
• 1 paranormal shapeshifter (mass-market)
• 3 re-releases of popular authors old books (1 trade, 2 mass-market)
• 1 western (1 mass-market)
• 1 contemporary romance (mass-market)
• 1 multi-cultural w/ religious overtones (hardback)

Readers who buy books can have odd tastes.  Some won’t buy hardbacks because they’re too expensive, so that knocks two off the list.  Others won’t buy trade paperback, because they’re too expensive.  That knocks another two off the list. 

While backlists of favorite authors often sell well, let’s say our imaginary shopper already has read those books.  That knocks another two off of her shopping list.  She now has four books to choose from, but since she is sooooooooo over the paranormal genre, she’s left with two to pick from.

And she’s not into westerns or hidden baby stories.

What’s left?  Zero.

Not that it matters, as every book on the list is only available for pre-order with one not being available until March.  Same with page two of the list:  6 are reprints (although cleverly disguised), and I counted 2 historicals, 1 light contemporary, and a contemporary western to complete out the “new book” list.

The business side of me argues that selling reprints of favorite authors is a sure deal.  There are always those suckers who buy the pretty new package (and, in some cases, a new title for an old book) without realizing this book is 2, 5, 10 years old.  And there are always newcomers to an author that are excited to pick up the backlist.  So yeah, sure sales there.

The reader in me is dying for something new.  Of the twenty books I looked at, I’d grab one of the historicals if I got desperate, and probably the light contemp.  I might consider the multi-cultural hardback if it goes to the bargain table or comes out in paperback.

But, if  you ask me why my book buying habit has decreased, it’s not because of the economy, it’s because I can’t find anything new to read. 

What about you?  Besides the economy, what has your book budget been buying?