Feb. 19, 2008 - Oh for the love of Ravelry
Have you been there yet? I'm addicted to it. I know I shouldn't but I can't help it. I have to check it several times a day. I just can't stay away.
What am I talking about? ravelry.com of course!! On Ravelry I'm also crochetlu. If you'd like to see what I'm stitching, check out my projects.
Two months ago, I went to my knitting club night at Border's bookstore and asked the girls in the group, "So what's so great about Ravelry? How do you use it?" I had been a beta member for a few weeks and I just didn't get what was so exciting. As so often happens when a group of women get together, our conversation vered off-course and I never did learn why ravelry was so special. So I went home and decided to figure out what all the fuss was about.
Oh my...I began by listing my needles. In Ravelry, there is a section where you can fill in a chart and list all the needles and hooks you own. There is a separate section for circular and straight knitting needles as well as crochet hooks. The crochet hook area needs work, but I'm sure that will come. So, I sat down with my needle cases in hand and began to fill-in the chart. You can even print out a little card to place in your wallet listing all your hooks and sticks. I thought, "Oh my goodnes...this is so cool!" A few days later I wanted to begin a new project. I checked the needles required and quickly zipped over to ravelry.com to see which sizes I owned and which I would need. Yes, cool.
Well, after spending a few months on ravelry, I'm completely hooked. My latest passion is entering my projects. Since we are without a digital camera right now, I use the camera on my phone. the quality is not great, but I am able to post the pictures of all the projects I am making or have finished. You have to post your pictures to a flickr.com account which is managed by Yahoo. But once you've uploaded pictures to your flicr account, placing them in your ravelry projects section is EASY! This past week, I was stitching away and posted four completed projects! I love having a catalogue of all that I make. When I'm spending a lot of time working on projects and many are given as gifts, I have no idea what I've made over a period of time. THAT is no longer the case! I now have "My Projects" in ravelry where I can see at a glance what is in progress and what is complete. And I have pictures and reference to the pattern on my projects space. Oh, for the love of Ravelry.
But that's not all! There are groups. Oh yes, groups. If you have an interest, Ravelry has a group. I'm in six or seven, I think. I don't spend lots of time reading posts on each group, but it is still nice to know that there are others with common interests, many not knitting or crochet related, using Ravelry. Some of the groups I'm in are "Homeschool Yarnies", "Christian Book Club", another Christian group, and "Central Penn" which is for th area in which I live. When you are part of a group, you simply go to that groups area and read what others are posting. You can post replies to others or post new subjects that relate to your group.
Ravelry has a very extensive pattern section which makes you wonder why you should ever buy another pattern book again. I do find the site to be a little knit-heavy, but that may just be because of areas I've investigated thus far. All-in-all I have no complaints. If you've not signed up for your free log-on, do it! what are you waiting for?
