knitCompanion Setup for Magpie MKAL Introduction

knitCompanion Setup for Magpie MKAL
Introduction
Welcome to the knitCompanion setup instructions for Laura Nelkin’s Magpie Mystery KAL.
These instructions assume that you have downloaded knitCompanion from the Apple App store
and that you have performed the in-app purchase to unlock the ability to setup your own
patterns. If you have any questions on these steps, please feel free to ask at
info@knitCompanion.com.
There is a knitCompanion group on Ravelry that contains lots of great support and information.
Please feel free to join us; we would love to have you!
These instructions will detail the specific setup steps for Magpie, but they will not provide
general “how to” information on knitCompanion. If you are new to knitCompanion or need
additional help, no worries. We offer plenty of help.
Intro Webinar
 First, you may want to join in an Intro Webinar. We offer them regularly. They are free
and you can attend as many times as you like.
 During the webinar, Sally covers an overview of knitCompanion that will really help you
understand the basics so when you are ready to set up your first clue you will
understand the big picture. The webinars are live, so you can ask questions and get your
answer immediately.
 To register for the Intro Webinar, click this link, then pick the session you want to attend
and click Register Now. You will receive an email with all the details.

There is a free mobile app here. You can also join from a computer (also free). You can
test your link ahead of the webinar to make sure your computer is ready to go. The
webinar system has a small piece of software it downloads to your computer for the live
streaming.
knitCompanion Setup for Magpie MKAL
Tutorials and More…
 We also offer tutorials and a full User Guide as well as complete in-app help.
Creating Your Magpie Project
OK, let’s get started. The first thing you must do is create a knitCompanion project (kcProject)
for Magpie. You only do this for your first clue because when you receive additional clues you
will append the new clues to the existing project. There are a couple of ways to create your
kcProject, to learn more see here. For this project we are going to use Open In.
Open In
1. Download the Clue 1 PDF on your iDevice and Open In knitCompanion. Open In is
a standard Apple feature, to learn more see here.
2. Tap New Project.
3. Tap Select All so all 5 pages are selected and then tap Next.
4. Name your project, I used Magpie. We are going to make a Quick Start project from
the Clue 1 PDF. Quick Start is the fast and easy way to start a knitCompanion
project. So leave Quick Start as is, set to On/green.
5. Tap Create Project.
6. You are then taken to your Magpie project.
Clue 1 Review
Take a look at the piece bar across the top of your screen. Each of the 5 pages of the PDF is
shown.
Let’s take a look at each page. At first glance, we see that so far Laura has provided us with 5
pages. Tap each page as noted below and it appears in the middle of the screen.
 Page 1 lists the materials and gauge.
 Page 2 provides some notes on choosing beads, needles, and yarn. The schedule when
each clue will be released and abbreviations are also shown on this page.
 Page 3 continues with more notes and a video on how to string beads.
 Page 4 includes setup instructions for beads and casting on. The written directions for
clue 1 begin on this page and there are two videos that we can watch. One is for the
provisional cast on and the other is specific to clue 1 of Magpie.
 Page 5 continues with the written directions for clue 1.
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knitCompanion Setup for Magpie MKAL
Quick Start Projects
kC Tip: Even though setup is not necessary with a Quick Start project, there are
many things you can do when knitting your Quick Start project.
Want to watch a video as you read the info below? Tap Sami our
knitCompanion mascot. She will tell you all about the following.
Sliding Row Marker
Track your progress across rows by dragging the row slider bar to mark the row you
are knitting. The row slider bar slides a colored horizontal line up and down, marking
your row. To move the row slider, drag it up and down.
There are two row sliders:


Text Row Slider: Use this slider for written instructions such as the text
shown on pages 4-5.
Chart Row Slider: Use this slider for charts. If we receive a chart from
Laura in future clues you can track your row location across the rows of
the chart.
Turn these sliders ON in Preferences:
1. Tap the gear icon at the top right to open your project preferences.
2. Tap Markers at the bottom.
3. Turn ON the Show Text Row Slider preference and tap to indicate
whether you want the row slider bar to appear at the left or right of the
screen.
4. Turn ON the Show Chart Row Slider preference and tap to indicate
whether you want the row slider bar to appear at the left or right of the
screen.
Zoom
Use standard iDevice gestures such as pinch and swipe, to zoom in and out on the
screen.
You are Here
Get interrupted while knitting? Just place the You are Here marker on the piece so
you know right where you left off. Touch and hold at the spot until your iDevice beeps
and the marker will appear. Touch and hold in the same spot until your iDevice beeps
and it will disappear.
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knitCompanion Setup for Magpie MKAL
Highlights and Annotations
Add highlights to call out specific information on the page or add an annotation note
and place it on the page. Tap Edit at the bottom and add as many highlights and
annotations as you like.
Counters
Use the four color-coded counters in way you choose so you never lose count.
Replace those clicker or barrel counters you have been using! Increment the counter
by tapping the number.
PDF Access
Remember, you always have access to the PDF to refer to the pattern at any time.
Just tap PDF at the bottom of the screen.
Types of Set Up
We are pleased to offer you a variety of ways to set up the Magpie MKAL. Look for the following
icons and follow the instructions based on how you want to setup Magpie.
Quick Start: Don’t want to perform any setup but want to knit from knitCompanion?
Choose this option.
Quick Start Plus: Want to perform some basic setup for things like keys and basic
text overlay? Choose this option.
Expert: Want to challenge yourself and learn about all the knitCompanion capabilities
you can use with this project? Choose this option.
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knitCompanion Setup for Magpie MKAL
Clue 1 Set Up
kC Tips
Breadcrumb
Tap the breadcrumb that appears at the top left to go back.
Deleting Pieces
Remember you can always delete a piece and start over. From Setup swipe across
the piece to be deleted, tap Edit and then Delete Piece. Tap Yes to confirm you want
to delete the piece. This deletes the piece from the Piece Bar only, NOT the PDF.
Quick Start
Because we Quick Started our project, we could immediately begin knitting without
any knitCompanion setup. Like this idea? Then you are good to go. Tap each piece,
use your sliding row marker to keep your place and happy knitting!
Set Up Complete?
When you have completed the set up for clue 1 using
Export to Dropbox.
Quick Start Plus and
Quick Start, jump to
Expert
Convert to Full Project
To perform setup we must convert this project to a Full project. This gives us access
to all the capabilities of knitCompanion. The Quick Start project will serve as a
jumpstart for our Full project.
1. Tap Setup.
2. Tap Yes Convert to confirm you really want to convert the Quick Start project to a
Full project. The project is converted to a Full project and the Setup Project page
appears. You may now setup this project as you wish.
kC Tip: To convert a Quick Start project to a Full project you must
purchase the knitCompanion app.
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knitCompanion Setup for Magpie MKAL
Quick Start Plus
Page 1
Because I want to include this entire page in my knitCompanion project, I do not have
to perform any setup. The Page 1 piece created with our Quick Start project is fine.
Pages 2 and 3
Moving on to page 2 and 3, these pages provide some notes, the schedule when
each clue will be released, and abbreviations.
We can easily use pages 2 and 3 created from our Quick Start project to read the
notes and schedule. But it would be nice to have the Abbreviations show as a key in
our project. Keys display in the multi-function window at the bottom. The buttons to
the left let you view Row Text, Key, and Project Information. So if you have a key and
row text, you can toggle easily between the two sets of information by tapping those
buttons. And if you have more than one key just keep tapping the key to cycle though
the sets of keys you have.
Create the Abbreviations Key
So let’s create the Abbreviations key using our Quick Start page 2 as a jumpstart.
1. From Setup, swipe across the Page 2 piece and the Edit button appears.
2. Tap Edit and then tap Copy to Key.
3. Name your key, I named mine Abbreviations but you can use whatever
name you prefer.
4. Tap Copy.
5. Crop to include all four columns
of the Abbreviations list.
Remember you can zoom in
and out on the page for easier
cropping.
Want more info?
Tap Sami our knitCompanion
mascot. She will tell you all
about the page you are on.
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knitCompanion Setup for Magpie MKAL
6. Tap Save and if the key looks good to you then proceed. Otherwise, tap Recrop and crop again.
7. Tap Setup Project at the top left and your Abbreviations key should be
listed under the Keys section.
Pages 4 and 5
Let’s look at page 4. We can quickly look at page 4 by tapping the PDF swoosh icon
at the top. Swipe through the pages and notice that page 4 provides some
setup instructions for beads and casting on, row-by-row instructions for rows 1-33,
and two video tutorial links. Page 5 provides row-by-row instructions for rows 34-47
and instructions on removing the provisional cast on.
As before, we can easily use pages 4 and 5 created from our Quick Start project to
read the setup instructions for beads, casting on, the video links, and instructions on
removing the provisional cast on. But wouldn’t it be nice to have the row-by-row
instructions for rows 1-47 all together in one piece. And wouldn’t it be even better to
have the one-tap row marker help us move through each row to keep our place while
knitting?
Create the Begin Knitting Piece
So let’s create a text piece for the row-by-row instructions shown on page 4 and
continued on page 5.
1. From Setup, tap
to add a new piece.
2. Select Text and tap Continue.
3. Name your piece, I named mine Begin Knitting.
4. Tap the thumbnail for Page 4 and tap Select.
5. Crop to include everything in
the Begin Knitting section.
kC Tip: Do not crop
away the left margin.
6. Tap Save and if the key looks
good to you then proceed.
Otherwise, tap Re-crop and
crop again.
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knitCompanion Setup for Magpie MKAL
7. Now we want to add the row-by-row instructions that are shown on page 5.
So, tap Add Image and then tap New Image Vertically because we want
the instructions to display as one long vertical list.
8. Tap the thumbnail for Page 5
and tap Select.
9. Now crop to include rows 3447.
kC Tip: Do not crop
away the left margin.
10. Tap Save. We are now on a
new screen that lets us see the
original piece we created (the
text from page 4) along with the
new piece we created (the text
from page 5).
At the top of the screen we see
lots of options for how to align
the original and new pieces to
each other. You may need to
adjust how the two images
appear.
My Alignment setting is set to the Right Edge. I want to align my images
along the left edge. Because we did not crop away the left margin all I have
to do is tap Left and the two images now look like one seamless piece.
kC Tip: Once you add another image to your piece, you may no
longer re-crop the piece. If you need to make changes you must
delete this piece and start over.
11. Tap Save.
12. Tap Setup Project at the top left and your Begin Knitting piece should be
listed.
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knitCompanion Setup for Magpie MKAL
Apply Text Overlay
Now that we have created a piece that shows our row-by-row instructions, let’s apply
Text Overlay to these instructions. Then when we knit from this piece, our one-tap
row marker will appear to help keep our place while knitting.
1. From Setup, tap to open your Begin Knitting piece.
2. Tap Text Overlay at the bottom of the screen.
3. Enter 27 for the number of rows and tap Continue. It is knitter’s choice as to how
you want to set up your rows and you can add or remove rows later so don’t worry
about entering the exact number of rows here.
4. On the Text Overlay page you will see your piece with a number of lines through
it, these lines signify rows. You will make each row taller or shorter as desired by
using the buttons at the bottom. If you tap on the 1 specifying the pixels, it will
toggle to move by 10 pixels (bigger moves) Just tap it again to toggle back to 1
(smaller moves).
5. Always start at the top and work your way down the page, so tap the top row and
it will be highlighted. We want our first row to include the Note, Set Up Row, and
Row 1. So tap Taller until row 1 includes these lines of text.
6. Now tap the next row and make it taller/shorter until it is just right. Repeat this for
every row.
7. If you don’t have enough rows, tap New Row At Bottom to make a new row. If
you have too many rows, tap and work your way down the page. Each tap of New
or Remove will add or remove a single row from the bottom of the piece.
8. Once the rows are distributed in a manner that makes sense for you, tap Save.
9. Tap Setup Project at the top left.
Review Our Pieces/Keys
Let’s take a look at the pieces and key we have created. At this point we have
created the following pieces and keys. Tap each piece and see how it looks.
 Page 1: This piece is from our Quick Start and provides an intro to the project.
 Page 2 and 3: These pieces are also from our Quick Start and provide us with
notes, the schedule when each clue will be released, and abbreviations.
 Abbreviations Key: We created the Abbreviations key during set up.
 Page 4 and 5: These pieces are from our Quick Start and provide us with
setup instructions for beads and casting on, row-by-row instructions, two video
tutorial links, instructions on removing the provisional cast on.
 Begin Knitting Piece: We created this piece by adding the row-by-row text
from pages 4 and 5 into one seamless piece. We also added text overlay so
the one-tap row marker will appear when knitting this piece.
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knitCompanion Setup for Magpie MKAL
Preferences
Want to make the row you are knitting really pop on your chart or text piece?
Go into Preferences (the gear icon at the top right) and tap Markers at the bottom.
Now turn the Invert Chart Row and Invert Overlay Row to ON.
Also, tap Colors at the bottom. We suggest setting your Odd Row Color to black
and Even Row Color to white or vice versa, knitter’s choice. With black and Invert
Row turned ON, everything except the current row is shaded with the row marker
color of black. You can set these preferences to any color you wish but for this project
black and white may work best. Darker colors tend to help the non-working rows fade
to the background.
Set Up Complete?
When you have completed the set up for clue 1 using
to Export to Dropbox.
Quick Start Plus, jump
Expert
Want to go even further in your set up journey? Perform all the steps listed above in
the
Quick Start Plus section for pages 1-3. Then come back here to set up
pages 4 and 5.
Pages 4 and 5
Let’s look at page 4. We can quickly look at page 4 by tapping the PDF swoosh icon
at the top. Swipe through the pages and notice that page 4 provides row-by-row
instructions for rows 1-19, then the instruction tell us to repeat rows 4-17 once more.
Page 5 tells us to work rows 4-13 once more and then presents the final two rows,
row 46-57. How about having every row spelled out and listed for you so when
knitting you don’t have to jump around?
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knitCompanion Setup for Magpie MKAL
Create the Begin Knitting Piece
So let’s create a text piece that shows every single row of the row-by-row instructions
shown on page 4-5.
1. From Setup, tap
to add a new piece.
2. Select Text and tap Continue.
3. Name your piece, I named mine Begin Knitting.
4. Tap the thumbnail for Page 4 and tap Select.
5. Crop to include everything in
the Begin Knitting section
through row 19.
kC Tip: Do not crop
away the left margin.
Knitter’s Choice: To avoid cropping part of the blue box showing the
video links, you may want to crop the Begin Knitting Note and then tap
Add Image to add the remainder of the text on page 4.
6. Tap Save and if the key looks good to you then proceed. Otherwise, tap Recrop and crop again.
7. Now we want to add the row-by-row instructions for rows 4-17 once more as
noted at the bottom of page 4. So, tap Add Image and then tap New Image
Vertically because we want the instructions to display as one long vertical
list.
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knitCompanion Setup for Magpie MKAL
8. Tap the thumbnail for Page 4
again and tap Select.
9. Now crop to include only rows
4-17.
kC Tip: Do not crop
away the left margin.
10. Tap Save. Make adjustments
as needed for your images to
appear as one seamless piece.
kC Tip: Once you add another image to your piece, you may no
longer re-crop the piece. If you need to make changes you must
delete this piece and start over.
11. Tap Save.
12. Now we need to add the row-by-row instructions for rows 34-35 at the top of
page 5. So, tap Add Image and then tap New Image Vertically.
13. Tap the thumbnail for Page 5 again and tap Select.
14. Now crop to include only rows 34-35.
kC Tip: Do not crop away the left margin.
15. Tap Save and make adjustments as needed.
16. Tap Save.
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knitCompanion Setup for Magpie MKAL
17. Now we want to add the row-by-row instructions for rows 4-13 from page 4.
So, tap Add Image and then tap New Image Vertically.
18. Tap the thumbnail for Page 4 and tap Select.
19. Now crop to include only rows 4-13.
kC Tip: Do not crop away the left margin.
20. Tap Save and make adjustments as needed.
21. Tap Save.
22. Finally we need to add some text and row-by-row instructions for rows 46-47
from page 5. So, tap Add Image and then tap New Image Vertically.
23. Tap the thumbnail for Page 5 and tap Select.
24. Now crop to include only the Cut CC text, rows 46-47, and the Cut yarn text.
kC Tip: Do not crop away the left margin.
25. Tap Save and make adjustments as needed.
26. Tap Save.
Add Annotations
If you look closely at pages 4-5 you will notice that there are two important pieces of
information that we did not crop in our Begin Knitting piece above:
 The bottom of page 4 tells us that after we work rows 4-17 once more we
should have 37 stitches remaining.
 The top of page 5 tells us that after we work rows 4-13 once more we should
have 7 stitches remaining.
Let’s add this information to our Begin Knitting piece as Annotations.
1. From Setup, tap to open your Begin Knitting piece.
2. Tap Annotations at the bottom of the screen.
3. Tap
and then Popup Text to add a new annotation.
4. Type the following: 37 sts rem
5. Tap to place this note at the end of Row 17 (the one above Row 34).
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knitCompanion Setup for Magpie MKAL
6. Optionally, tap the annotation at the top of the screen and choose another color
for your note.
7. Tap
and then Popup Text again to add our second annotation.
8. Type the following: 7 sts rem
9. Tap to place this note at the end of Row 13 (the one above Row 46).
10. Optionally, tap the annotation at the top of the screen and choose another color
for your note.
11. Tap the top left until you return to the Setup Project page.
Apply Text Overlay
Jump to Apply Text Overlay listed above in the
Quick Start Plus section.
Follow the instructions to apply Text Overlay to these instructions but enter 45 rows
for this piece.
Set Up Complete?
When you have completed the set up for clue 1 using the
to Export to Dropbox.
Expert section, jump
Export to Dropbox
Now that we have completed our setup of Clue 1, we must backup our project. We suggest
using Dropbox.
 New to Dropbox? Read about it here and see this thread in Ravelry in order to get both
yourself and a fellow kC user an extra 500M of free storage.
 If you haven’t yet, go ahead and enable Dropbox from within knitCompanion. See this
video.
Let’s backup our project.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Tap the breadcrumb to return to the Home page.
Tap Projects.
Swipe across your Magpie project and the Edit button appears.
Tap Edit and select Export. A status bar shows the progress of the export, please wait
while the project is exported.
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knitCompanion Setup for Magpie MKAL
5. Once the message stating that the project was exported to your Dropbox appears, you
can then tap OK. The project has been successfully exported to your Dropbox. You can
find this project in knitCompanion by tapping Dropbox kcP at the bottom right of the
Project List.
Your Magpie project has been copied at its current state which means all setup information,
counters, audio files, highlights, annotations, and the PDF that exist at the moment are copied.
Clue 1 setup and backup is now complete. Happy Knitting!
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