
ZX81 USER HAT
by Celia Sims
from SINCLAIR USER Feb.1984

Stand out in the crowd with a ZX81 woolly hat.
Celia Sims computerised knitting pattern for a woolly hat has advantages
over traditional charts.

MOST SINCLAIR users are probably spending the cold, dark evenings huddled
around their glowing TV screens while the sleet and rain rattle against the
windows.

Celia Sims has used those hours to develop a practical use for her ZX81,
a computerised knitting pattern which produces an attractive woolly hat
emblazoned with the message ZX81 User.

She was the User of the Month in the July 1983 issue of Sinclair User.
A seamstress by profession, she saw enormous potential in the ZX81 for 
providing time-saving and entertaining knitting instructions.

She selected the design, colour and row length of the knitting pattern with
the ZX81 in mind and she believes that anyone, except possibly an absolute
beginner at knitting, should be able to follow the pattern easily. Those who
are unable to knit might have friends who could knit the hat for them.

There are many advantages of using computerised knitting patterns. As the
instructions appear on the screen together with the pattern graphics, they
are easier to follow than the normal printed charts from which the knitter
has to count the stitches.

The pattern also acts as a row counter, and size adjustments are made auto-
matically. Finally, as the graphics on purl rows are reversed, the current
row of the pattern is always displayed the same way round as the knitting in
one's hand. That is simpler than the normal printed charts, when the knitter
has to read from right to left on knit rows and from left to right on purl
rows.

The only disadvantages are in the setting up and loading of the program -
considerably less convenient than merely opening a pattern chart - and in 
the fact that the ZX81 is less portable and requires an electricity supply,
thus making knitting on the bus highly impracticable.


--
Another Fine Product transcribed by:
Jim Grimwood (jimg@globalnet.co.uk), Weardale, England
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