My latest project is a Knitting Row Counter, which helps you keep track of which row you are on when knitting complex patterns.

Morgan, my girlfriend, recently aquired the addictive hobby of knitting. She needed a row counter to keep track of where she was in multiple projects. Instead of paying up to $12 to $30 for an store bought electronic counter, I decided that I had enough parts laying around where I could build one for a fraction of the price.

I based the counter off the Parallax SX28 microcontroller, an I2C EEProm for data storage when the device is powered off, three seven segment LEDs for the display, and a few lego pieces for buttons.

The counter keeps track of 12 different projects, and can count up to 255 rows.

Since I didn't have a printer handy to print off transparencies for etching a new circuit board, I used a protoboard. The wiring of the LED segments makes it a little messier than I would have liked. As you can see here:

To test out the functionality, Morgan did some nice cable knit.