Cooking mode

The counter and what it persists

Each pattern has one cooking session per user. The session stores your current row, current stitch, paused/unpaused state, and the last time the page was open (heartbeat). The counter survives a page reload, a device switch, or closing the browser entirely. Open the pattern again on any device and the Cook button changes to Resume cooking · row N.

What it does not persist: the display mode (Chart / Written / Split) is per-device, stored in localStorage. The voice toggle, mic state, and which row is auto-scrolled into view are all also per-device.

Row mode vs stitch mode

Row mode is the default: each tap of Next advances one whole row. You see one current row highlighted in the chart and the written instruction for that row in the written view.

Stitch mode (per-stitch granularity) advances one stitch at a time. The bottom counter shows row N · st M/total. Stitch mode is enabled by default for grid charts; polar / in-the-round charts fall back to row mode.

Switch between modes from /settings under Cooking → Default granularity.

Bluetooth pedal

Most crochet foot pedals connect over Bluetooth, the same way a keyboard does, and there’s nothing extra to install. Pair your pedal (an AirTurn, PageFlip, iRig, or a generic page-turner pedal) to your iPad or laptop the way you’d pair any Bluetooth device. Once it’s connected, a tap of the pedal advances your place.

A pedal works by sending a keypress, and Mantis already listens for these keys. Set your pedal to send one of them:

• Down arrow, Page Down, or Space: move forward one stitch (or one row in row mode)
• Up arrow, Page Up, or Backspace: go back one stitch or row
• P: pause or resume
• 0: toggle play and pause

Many pedals have a small switch that changes which keys they send. Set it so the pedal sends one of the keys above. If your pedal sends something different, you can change what each key does from /settings.

Pedal support is live. If your pedal doesn’t behave the way you expect, contact support with the brand and model and we’ll get it working.

Voice control

The mic button (top right of the cook page, next to Pause) toggles continuous voice listening. The first time you tap it, your browser will ask for microphone permission — allow it. The button glows red when listening.

Commands Mantis recognizes:

• “next” — advance one (one stitch in stitch mode, one row otherwise). The simplest command, use this most.
• “back” — backward one. Same granularity rule.
• “next row” — skip ahead a whole row, even in stitch mode
• “back row” — back one full row
• “next stitch” / “next step” — one stitch forward, even in row mode. Apple’s dictation often hears “stitch” as “step” so we accept both.
• “back stitch” / “back step” — same, backward
• “pause” / “resume” — pause and unpause the counter
• “where am I” — Mantis reads your current row and stitch back to you
• “what’s next” — reads the next row’s text aloud

Browser support:

• Chrome, Edge, Safari (Mac/iPad/iPhone) — voice works out of the box once you grant mic permission.
• Opera on iPad and other iOS browsers — work, but you need to grant mic permission once in iOS Settings → Opera → Microphone before the first use.
• Brave (desktop) — doesn’t support voice. Brave blocks the speech service even with Shields lowered. Use Chrome or Edge for voice, or skip voice and use the pedal.
• Firefox — the mic button doesn’t appear because Firefox hasn’t implemented the Speech API.

Heads up: on iOS, the speech API stops when the screen locks. If voice goes silent, tap the mic off and on again. A privacy-first server-side alternative that works in any browser (including Brave / Firefox) is on the roadmap.

Pause, resume, complete

Pause stops the heartbeat from refreshing the session timestamp and prevents accidental advances; the counter stays at its current position. Resume picks up from there.

When you reach the last row, the Next button changes to ✓ Complete. Tapping that marks the session completed; the pattern stays in your library, the session shows as done, and starting cooking again next time creates a fresh session at row 1.

Per-stitch popover

Tap a single stitch on the chart canvas to get an inline popover with that stitch’s name, abbreviation, and a short description from the closed stitch vocabulary. Useful for the “wait, what does this symbol mean again” moment.

Troubleshooting

Counter feels stuck or stale. Reload the page; the cooking session is server-persisted, so the local state will re-sync to the server’s version. If reload doesn’t fix it, check that you’re still signed in (an expired session can quietly drop progress writes).

Pedal pairs but doesn’t advance.Confirm the pedal is in keyboard mode (most pedals have a physical mode switch — make sure it’s on a key Mantis listens for, see above). Test by typing in the URL bar with the pedal — if no character appears, the OS isn’t seeing the keystrokes either.

Voice button doesn’t appear at all.Your browser doesn’t support the Web Speech API. Firefox is the main culprit. Switch to Chrome, Edge, Safari, or use the pedal instead.

Voice toggles on but nothing happens / red banner about microphone permission. The browser blocked mic access. On iPhone / iPad: Settings → your browser → Microphone → enable. On desktop: click the padlock or microphone icon in the address bar → set Microphone to Allow → reload → toggle mic on again.

Red banner saying voice isn’t available in this browser. You’re on Brave (or another Chromium browser that blocks Google services). Brave doesn’t ship the speech service even with Shields down. Use Chrome / Edge for voice, or use the pedal.

Next click feels slow. Latest fix landed 2026-05-11 (commit e3edc91): clicks no longer block on the network roundtrip; the counter updates instantly and the server sync happens in the background. If you still see lag, please screenshot and email.