Help / User Guide
User Guide
Everything the app does. Jump to any section using the contents below, or read straight through.
What is Mantis Craft Notebook?
Mantis Craft Notebook is a chart editor and pattern workspace for fiber crafts. The crochet chart editor is the flagship; knit and colorwork are newer craft workspaces. In the crochet editor you place your stitches on the canvas — Mantis generates the written pattern text alongside the symbol chart, from one source of truth. The same pattern powers your library and your cooking-mode follower. Save your edits before switching devices and keep a downloaded backup.
It is built around three verbs:
| Verb | What it means | Where you do it |
|---|---|---|
| Convert | Turn your idea into an editable chart + written pattern | The chart editor (/editor/) |
| Check | Validate stitch counts, repeats, and row structure | The editor’s ✓ Check + the pattern detail page |
| Follow | Track your row and stitch hands-free while crocheting | Cooking Mode (/cook/…) |
The Pattern Library — /library
Your full pattern collection. Works like a hybrid between Ravelry’s notebook and a real pattern management tool.
Pattern types
| Kind | How it got in | What it shows |
|---|---|---|
| Chart Editor | Built in the chart editor and saved to your library | Badge: "Chart Editor". Edit button → chart editor |
| Authored in Mantis | An older structured pattern (no drawn chart) | Badge: "Authored in Mantis". Edit button → the authoring view |
| Tracked | An older metadata-only record | Metadata-only record for a paper pattern. No chart or text stored |
Add a pattern by charting it in the editor and saving it. Existing tracked records remain available, but adding new metadata-only records is not currently available.
Organization
- Folders — create from the left sidebar; assign a pattern to multiple folders
- Tags — free-text labels for stitch type, season, project size, etc.
- Yarn weight filter — filters to patterns matching a CYC weight category
- Sort — newest updated, created date, or A–Z
Pattern detail page
Key actions on a pattern’s detail page:
- Edit — opens the chart editor (or the authoring view for older structured-only patterns)
- Cook — opens cooking mode to follow while crocheting
- Delete — removes the pattern
Editable metadata fields (all auto-save): name, designer, source URL, yarn weight, hook size, notes.
Cooking Mode — /cook/[id]
Cooking mode is how you follow a pattern while your hands are busy crocheting. It keeps your place down to the exact stitch, survives closing the browser, and syncs across devices.
What the screen shows
| View | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Chart | The symbol chart, with the current row highlighted |
| Written | Pattern text, with the current row bolded |
| Split | Chart on the left, written on the right |
Advancing through the pattern
| Action | What it does |
|---|---|
| Next row | Moves to the next row (or round) |
| Previous row | Steps back one row |
| Next stitch | Advances one stitch within the row (stitch-granularity mode) |
| Previous stitch | Steps back one stitch |
| Jump to row | Tap the row number and type to jump |
The counter shows: Row 14 of 42 · Stitch 7 of 20
Hands-free options
Bluetooth foot pedal: Pair any standard Bluetooth pedal (AirTurn, PageFlip, iRig BlueTurn, Yueyinpu, etc.) as a Bluetooth keyboard. Map the pedal key to "next row" or "next stitch" in cooking mode settings. Press with your foot; Mantis advances. Your hands never leave the hook.
Voice control: Tap the mic button to start listening. Level 1 commands: "next row", "next round", "previous row", "where am I", "pause". Chrome and Edge work best. The mic indicator turns red while listening.
Tools — /tools
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
| Unit conversions | Hook sizes (US ↔ metric mm ↔ UK), yarn weight categories, and yardage ↔ weight — all in one place. |
| Pattern grading | Re-proportion a saved pattern to a new measured gauge — same shape, your yarn. Plain stitch math, no guessing: rows it can’t safely rewrite are flagged and left as you wrote them. |
| Resize by repeats | Grow or shrink a stitch pattern by whole repeats so the motif never breaks. |
| Garment schematics | Shaped-piece diagrams (body / sleeve / yoke) with measurements and stitch/row counts. |
Chart Editor Reference — /editor/
The chart editor lives at /editor/ — the drag-and-drop, snap-to-grid charting tool. It is the creation surface (see Creating a Pattern above); this section is a quick reference to what it can do.
Drawing and arranging
- Freehand placement — drag any symbol anywhere on the canvas; snap-to-grid keeps rows tidy
- Arrange toolkit — copy/paste, flip, align, array (rows × columns), radial (work in the round), arc-bend, spread, and directional duplicate
- + New Stitch — compose your own custom stitches; they join the palette under My Stitches
- 🏠 Mantis Starters — hand-built starter charts you can drop onto the canvas as a starting point
From chart to pattern
- ≡ Rows → 📝 Generate — tag rows, then produce the written pattern text with per-row stitch counts
- ✓ Check — Pattern Check proves each row’s stitch math and flags only what it can’t verify
- 🍳 Cook — follow the chart stitch-by-stitch on the canvas
- Colorwork, sections, multi-size, and cross-row repeats are all set from the editor
Saving and exporting
- Save to your library (charts sync across your devices) or keep local My Charts
- Export to SVG, PNG, or JPG
- 📄 PDF Studio — lay out and export a publish-ready PDF (cover, chart, written pattern, stitch key)
Profile & Preferences — /profile
| Preference | Effect |
|---|---|
| Default yarn weight | Pre-fills yarn weight on new patterns |
| Default hook size | Pre-fills hook size on new patterns |
| Default gauge | Pre-fills gauge on new patterns |
| Handedness | Right-handed or left-handed. Mirrors the chart so it reads in your working direction. |
| Alternate row directions | In cooking mode, reverses glyph order on WS rows so the chart matches the direction you're actually working them |
| Cook mode display | Your preferred default view — chart only, text only, or split |
Designer Permissions
If you publish or sell patterns, Mantis protects your work by default. When someone keeps your pattern in their library, Mantis restricts sharing and modification automatically, without you having to ask.
Every pattern carries four permission flags. Mantis uses the protective default when the designer hasn’t set a value:
| Toggle | Default | What it gates |
|---|---|---|
| Allow sharing text | Off | Whether followers can share the written text |
| Allow sharing chart | Off | Whether followers can share the chart |
| Allow modification | Off | Whether followers can adapt the pattern |
| Require attribution | On | Whether shares must credit you |
Personal use — reading and following in cooking mode — is always allowed regardless of permissions. Self-serve designer controls (registering and setting your own preferences) are on the roadmap; until they land, the protective defaults do the work. See the designer permissions guide for the full picture.
Sign In and Accounts
Your subscription and trial
New subscribers get a 14-day free trial after verifying their email and completing checkout with a credit card. The subscription then renews automatically at $14.99/month until canceled. Cancel in Settings before the trial ends to avoid the first charge.
Existing beta members and approved affiliates
Existing beta members and approved affiliates keep free toolkit access until the actual end of beta. Public launch does not automatically charge them. Keep backups of your work and use the moving guide before changing browser or domain.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does it work on iPad?
Yes. Mantis runs in the browser on iPad — use Safari or Chrome. The editor and cooking mode are touch-tested on iPad, and the Bluetooth pedal is tested on iPad + Opera.
My pattern is really complicated. Can the editor handle it?
The editor handles most common patterns well: flat and in-the-round sections, fixed and cross-row repeats, increases, decreases, post stitches, colorwork, and multi-size — all from the chart you draw. Compose your own custom stitches (+ New Stitch) for anything the standard palette doesn't cover.
How do I chart a long run of the same stitch, like "sc in each ch across"?
Place the stitches on the canvas (the straight-run tiles drop several at once) and tag the row with ≡ Rows. When you Generate, Mantis collapses the run into "sc N" in the written text and shows the per-row count.
Why does the chart show the turning chain as a stitch? It's not.
Set the turning chain field on the row. The chart renderer trims that many trailing ch glyphs so they don't appear as worked stitches. The count is designer-specified — 1 ch for sc, 2 for hdc, 3 for dc.
How do repeat groups work in the written output?
Use Advanced mode: click to select a range of tokens, then Make Repeat. Mantis wraps them and emits CYC asterisk notation automatically — *sc, ch 1; rep from * 5 times. You never type the asterisks; the structure generates them.
Can I export my pattern as a PDF?
Yes. In the chart editor, open 📄 PDF Studio to lay out and export a publish-ready PDF (cover, chart, written pattern, stitch key). The editor also exports the chart directly to SVG, PNG, or JPG.
What is /create versus the chart editor?
The chart editor (/editor/) is the one place you create patterns — draw the chart and it generates the written text, counts, and cooking data from that single source. /create/[id] is an older click-based authoring view that only opens when you Edit a pattern that was authored as structured data (no drawn chart). You don't start new patterns there; new patterns always begin in the editor.
Can two people work on the same pattern at once?
Not yet. Shared editing is Phase 2. Patterns are private to your account for now.
Does it work offline?
Not yet — Mantis needs an internet connection. Offline support is on the roadmap but isn't built. Your cooking-mode position syncs to the server on every advance, so a dropped connection won't lose your place once you reconnect.
I closed cooking mode and it lost my place.
It shouldn't — the session counter syncs to the server on every advance. If the position was lost, try reopening from the library detail page via the Cook button rather than from your browser history. If it keeps happening, please report it using the bug-report link in the footer.
I'm a left-handed crocheter. Does the chart work for me?
Yes. Set your handedness in Profile → Preferences. Mantis mirrors the chart horizontally so you read it in the direction you work. You can also enable alternate-row direction reversal in the same place.
What's CYC?
The Craft Yarn Council — the US industry standards body for yarn and crochet notation. Their symbol set and abbreviation standards (ch, sl st, sc, hdc, dc, tr, etc.) are the vocabulary Mantis uses for everything. When Mantis generates a pattern, it's CYC-compliant by construction.
Is Mantis US notation only?
US notation is the current default. A UK/US terminology toggle is on the roadmap — when built, you'll flip a preference and the generated text will switch dc → tr, tr → dtr, etc. The underlying stitch tokens don't change; only the labels do.
What does "suppress" do in the Count style dropdown?
It removes the trailing (N sts) annotation entirely from that row's written output. Useful for foundation chains (Ch 20.) or rows where the count is already obvious from context and the annotation reads as noise.
What's the difference between Notes and Override in Row details?
Notes are designer-private — they're never included in the generated CYC pattern text. Use them for your own reminders, math, or explanations to yourself. Override replaces the entire auto-generated row text with your own verbatim copy — it does appear in the output, in place of what Mantis would have written.
How do I report a bug?
Use the bug-report link in the app footer. Include: what you were doing, what you expected, and what happened instead. Screenshots help.
Is the editor only for designing new patterns, or can I use it for patterns I'm following?
Both. You can build a pattern from scratch, or use it to transcribe a pattern you already have (from a book or PDF) by charting it, so you can follow it in cooking mode and keep your place across devices. Transcribing a bought pattern for personal use is allowed; sharing the transcription outside your account is subject to the designer's permissions.