A hands-free row counter for when both hands are busy
A needle in each hand, yarn around your fingers, and a row to count. Rowpip gives you ways to add it that don't need a free hand: a double tap of thumb and finger with an Apple Watch, a turn of the bezel or crown with a Wear OS watch, or a volume key with an Android phone.
- Free
- No ads
- Phone or watch
Coming soon to the App Store and Google Play
Hands-free counting, device by device
Which way suits you depends on what you already own. None of them asks you to put your knitting down.
Double tap with an Apple Watch
Tap the thumb and index finger of your watch hand together twice, and Rowpip adds a row. The gesture triggers the main action on the screen, and in Rowpip that action is the count. It needs an Apple Watch that has the double tap gesture; without it, turn the Digital Crown instead, one way to add a row and the other to take one off.
Turn the bezel or crown of a Wear OS watch
A Wear OS watch with a rotating bezel or a crown counts with a turn: one direction adds a row, the other removes one. Rowpip waits for a deliberate turn, so a small movement you didn't mean leaves the number alone.
Press a volume key on an Android phone
No watch? Switch on the volume keys in the menu of the Android app. From then on, while the counter is on screen, volume up counts a row and volume down takes it back, and your thumb finds the key by feel.
Count on one device, read the other
Whichever way you count, a phone and the watch paired with it stay in step. A row added with an Apple Watch or a Wear OS watch shows on its phone within about 2 seconds, and one added with an Android volume key shows on the watch. So you can count on your wrist while your phone, propped up beside you with its screen kept awake, shows the big number.
What hands-free counting gives you
No stopping at the end of the row
Putting your work down to make a tally mark breaks your rhythm at the end of every row. A pinch, a turn or a key press takes a moment, and your knitting never leaves your hands.
You feel it count
Every change comes with haptic feedback, a tap against your wrist or in your phone, so you know the row went in without looking. Finishing a pattern repeat and reaching your finish target each feel different from an ordinary row.
A big target when you do tap
Sometimes a tap is simplest. On a phone the whole card is the button, so you can bump it with a knuckle or the side of your hand, without aiming and without setting anything down.
Hands-free counting questions
Is there a hands-free way to count with an iPhone?
On the iPhone itself you count with a tap: the card that holds the number is one big button, so a knuckle will do. To count without touching the phone, pair it with an Apple Watch and use a double tap or the Digital Crown. The volume keys count only in the Android app.
Do I have to look at the screen to know a row was counted?
No. Rowpip answers every count with haptic feedback, on the phone and on the watch. When you do want to check, the number is large enough to read from about a metre away on a phone, and at a glance on a watch.
Can Rowpip count rows without me doing anything?
That is what auto-count is for, and it is experimental. You start it on your watch and knit one row so that it can learn the rhythm of your wrist. From then on it counts your stitches and adds each finished row to the count, and a tap as you pass your stitch marker keeps it in step.
It may suit your way of knitting or it may not, which is why it still carries the experimental label. If it loses its place, count by hand: that never stops working.
Can I count rows with my voice?
Not yet. Counting by voice with Siri, by saying “next row”, is coming later, after the first version of Rowpip. Until then, the nearest thing is a double tap with an Apple Watch, which leaves both hands on your needles.
When can I get Rowpip?
Soon. Rowpip is coming to the App Store for iPhone and Apple Watch, and to Google Play for Android phones and Wear OS watches.
More ways to keep count
Rowpip is one counter with more than one use. Each of the others has a page of its own.
Crochet row counter
Count crochet rows and rounds with a tap, hook still in hand.
Counter for knitting in the round
Tap as you pass your marker, and let the counter remember which round you're on.
Count increases and decreases
See which row of the repeat comes next, so every increase and decrease lands on the right row.
Want the whole picture? See what Rowpip does
Count the row, keep the rhythm
Rowpip is free. It shows no ads and asks for no account.
Coming soon to the App Store and Google Play