Friday, February 24, 2012

Yarn U

Now that I'm finally getting enlightened in terms of iPhone/iPad knitting apps, I have yet another one to add to my "How did I not know this existed?" list.

Do you guys use Yarndex at all? I do, all the time, and surprisingly often from my mobile phone. So for quite awhile, I've been wishing there were some sort of yarn database to access in app form. Lo and behold - there is! Introducing: Yarn U.

Yarn U is not quite as comprehensive as Yarndex, but it is a really nice guide that is searchable and filterable by almost any factor you can think of including yarn weight, hand dyed-ness, washability, crochet-recommended, etc.

And you can display results in an alphabetized list or grouped by manufacturer.

There are really pretty photos (including yarn skeined up as well as knitted or crocheted, which is nice), user comments, and yarn descriptions with a great deal of personality and humor.

Many of the yarns also include links to free patterns (adherence to copyright doesn't allow for the patterns to be accessible directly through the app) custom selected for the yarn in question, too.

(Oh look!)

You may also notice the map in the screen shots above -- another nifty feature is the ability to see where you can purchase the yarn you're reviewing. I unfortunately couldn't get the app to find me anything closer than Reno, NV (about 3.5 hours away), but I'm sure this will improve as more shops are added to the database.

And though there are a whole lot of yarns included already, there were still some I looked for and couldn't find (e.g. anything Madelinetosh). But again, I'm sure there will be more as time goes on. It's got to take time to build something like this.

So. Yarn U. A pretty darn nifty app that will only get better!

1 comment:

Teresa said...

Very cool! I need to d/l this one too. Thanks for these posts. It's awesome.