The 21st century finally lured me in. I turned in my Luddite card and bought myself an iPhone. The Matrix owns me once and for all.

While I'm happy about being able to text without triple-punching a number key for each letter (ugh), I'm much more excited about how this handy little device will enhance my crafting life. I've spent the better part of the last week downloading apps, and here are three handy ones for knitters I found in my search.

• Knit Minder Lite – This organizer lets you track projects from start to finish. You can catalog your favourite patterns, yarn stash and needle collection. The Lite version is free but limits the amount of data you can store. Upgrading to the $2.99 full version gives you unlimited storage.
• Knit Hat Lite – This cool tool lets you customize a simple beanie hat according to head measurements, gauge width/height and ribbing preference. The app tells you how much yarn you need, and lets you check off each row as it's done (super handy!). The upgrade to Knit Hat Designer is a pricy $5.99, but it gives you 99 hat patterns to choose from.
• Stitch Minder – This simple interface helps you keep track of the rows, pattern repeats and increases you've done. Simply tap the number to add a completed row. (Just don't hit the nearby reset button, or you're toast.)

BONUS: if you don't mind spending $4.99, there's now an app version of my favourite learn-to-knit site, Knittinghelp.com. It contains all of the helpful instructional videos on the website, embedded right in the app. That means can whip out your iPhone/iPod Touch on a plane, in the woods or anywhere that doesn't have cell towers or WiFi and watch any video you need. Read all about it here. Are there any other cool apps you use for crafting?