Naughty Knitters

A free iPhone map and directory of British Columbia's yarn shops, fibre farms, mills and events.

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Inspiration

Vancouver Island and the Southern Gulf Islands are full of independent yarn shops, heritage sheep farms, mills and fibre events, but finding them means digging through scattered websites, Facebook groups and word of mouth. I'm a retired BC Rail conductor living in Langford, BC, and I built Naughty Knitters to put that fibre community on one map.

What it does

Naughty Knitters is a free iPhone app for knitters, spinners and fibre travellers in British Columbia.

  • Map of yarn shops, markets, mills and fibre businesses across Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands and beyond.
  • Directory listing each business with its area and how to reach it.
  • Community & Markets: a calendar of more than 200 fibre events, including fairs, markets and gatherings.
  • Free Tools: a row counter and a knitting needle size chart.
  • Fiber Trail Pass: an optional auto-renewing subscription (Monthly or Annual) that unlocks farm-gate stops on the map. Shops, markets, mills, events and tools all stay free.

Respecting farm privacy

Many small farms deliberately don't publish their addresses, some for biosecurity reasons, because visitors can carry disease between flocks. So every farm gets one of three levels:

  1. An exact pin, only for farms that sell to drop-in visitors or asked to be found.
  2. A town or island-level pin with a "contact first" note and no directions button.
  3. No pin at all: just the farm's name, area and contact link.

The Pass unlocks which farms are listed and how to reach them. It never buys a location the farmer didn't agree to share.

How I built it

I'm not a programmer. I built Naughty Knitters by directing AI coding assistants and checking their work against the real app. It's a native SwiftUI app with Apple MapKit for the map, a Supabase (PostgreSQL + PostGIS) backend for listings and events, and auto-renewing subscriptions sold through Apple's App Store and managed with RevenueCat, which tracks who has an active Fiber Trail Pass. Listings were researched with AI research tools, then checked against local knowledge, the businesses' own published information, and in-person visits and emails to shop owners.

Challenges I ran into

  • App Review. Apple asked for more information because my developer account was new, then asked for the subscriptions to be submitted together with a new build. I recorded a launch-to-paywall video on a real iPhone, answered their questions, shipped build 1.0 (3), and was approved on September 21, 2026.
  • Two currencies. Apple sets every price from a US base price, so a Canadian price typed in by hand kept "reverting". The Pass is USD $3.99 / CAD $4.99 per month and USD $29.99 / CAD $39.99 per year.
  • Keeping the data honest. Early data included discount offers that shops had never agreed to, so I deleted them. Shops close and owners ask for changes, and every request gets honoured.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

Naughty Knitters is live on the App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/naughty-knitters/id6802524617 Local shop owners have already reviewed their listings and sent corrections.

What I learned

Directing AI tools well means checking everything they claim against the real source: the code, Apple's own pages, or the shop owner. Respecting small businesses and farmers matters more than filling up a map.

What's next for Naughty Knitters

Expanding into Washington State, an Android version, and real shop perks, but only with each shop's agreement.

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