Thursday, February 25, 2010

Settlers of CTAN


Hey folks!

Back in November I mentioned a a LaTeX package I was working on for typesetting knitting patterns. I left this out for checking for a while, and finally got around to tidying it up and submitting it to CTAN. It's all up and running now, and you can download it here:

Knitting Pattern class

It works by providing a collection of useful commands which should automate all of the layout features you're likely to need in writing a knitting pattern, so that you can just write the pattern rather than desktop publishing. I won't say too much about that here, since it's all explained in detail in the documentation (and I've spent way too long reading that today).
Copyright-wise, I put it under the LaTeX project license, which seems to mean you can use it, distribute it, and modify it to your heart's content. You're also explicitly allowed to sell patterns produced using it. So if you've been thinking about writing up some patterns, give it a try! You'll need some familiarity with LaTeX, but it's very easy to pick up, and hopefully the sample template I included will make it all pretty self-explanatory.

While I was at it, I came across this other package, which produces knitting charts in LaTeX. I haven't tried it yet myself, but it looks pretty interesting.

(pictured is the CTAN lion, drawn by Duane Bibby)
Enjoy!
Hugh.