In August 2012 I told you about a great App for crocheters, called Crochet Decoder. Since then, sugar coded apps have released an update, which now includes easy to follow instructions for making the most commonly used crochet stitches.

It’s very easy to use. You just choose the stitch and drag your finger down over the step 1 image to see two more steps. The drawings are clear and easy to follow. In my example I chose to see how to crochet a Half Double crochet stitch:

As before, you can still look up a crochet chart symbols; find the recommended hook size for six types of yarn and description of the yarn weight; scroll through a dictionary of crochet pattern abbreviations; and find the metric size of crochet hook sizes. Screenshots for these functions can be seen in my 5 August 2012 post here.

The app now really has everything you need to read any crochet pattern – especially those intimidating Japanese charted patterns where all you have to go by are crochet symbols – and a handy reference tool to consult when buying hooks and yarn.

It’s a great App isn’t it? And you know what, this app is written by a man who hasn’t even crocheted anything (yet)! When Eric, of sugar coded apps, contacted me to tell me about the upgrade, I took the opportunity to ask him for the back-story of the app. I’m so glad I asked! Here it is:

I basically have many friends who are crafty… some of which learned crochet, but found the process of following patterns daunting because of the lingo, symbols, abbreviations, etc. It seemed like a good fit to help them out by using my skill of app-making to help them pursue their craft.

I did some research and saw there wasn’t really a quick reference app to decoding crochet patterns. Everything was more like a tutorial on ‘how to crochet’. This app is designed to be more of a ‘cheat sheet’ to the basics once you start reading patterns, writing you own patterns, etc. It’s not designed to ‘teach you how to crochet’ per se’. I did add ‘Basic Stitch Diagrams’ in the new update, because it was so requested. It should help those new to crochet who haven’t memorized how to do all the basic stitches yet.

I’ve actually done a little crochet in the past & find the craft fascinating. Making the app, researching it, & finding places to spread the word has me even more interested in the craft than ever & makes we want to learn how to make an actual project!

Well done Eric! Thanks for coming to the rescue to us technophobes-with-hooks.

Now for the best bit. Eric has give me ten codes that I can give away to ten lucky readers to download the app for free! All you have to do is leave a comment on this blog post. The first ten people to leave a comment will receive a code to download the Crochet Decoder app for free!

To redeem, go to App Store on your iDevice or in iTunes on you computer. Then simply type the code into the REDEEM option in the App Store (like you would when redeeming a gift card.)

I’m so grateful to developers and app writers like Eric who can give crafting, and sharing of that craft, a techy twist. The makers of Ravelry, WordPress, Blogger, Pinterest, Instagram, PicMonkey, Gathered magazine, sugar coded apps – you guys are the best!