Friday Night Web Picks--Ravelry

By borges, Section Friday Web Picks
Posted on Fri Jul 04, 2008 at 06:41:42 PM CST

[This Friday pick is via Ewetopia_Fiber_Shop that puts out a nice monthly_newsletter and recommends this link to the knitters among us. Thanks Kathryn Ashley for letting me post this. b-]

Picture in Ravelry.doc

With everything virtually a click away on the internet, crafting has jumped aboard, not just through free patterns and online yarn companies, but with virtual knitting groups and personal interactive knitting organization and show-and-tell. Heard of MySpace or Facebook? Well, Ravelry is kin to these mega cyber-living spaces, with everything the knitter or crocheter could ever dream of, including yarn and pattern reviews, a handy printable needle inventory card, and all kinds of active virtual knitting groups and forums.

Ravelry was founded in May 2007 and has been inundated with new "ravelers" ever since. In fact as a beta site, they had a waiting list that at some times could take as long as a month to get invited to the site, and that was with its founders a husband and wife team, Casey and Jessica Forbes, adding 500-
1000 new Ravelers each day! One year and one day after the site was launched (June 1, 2008), Ravelry had 135,000 members! Today there is only about a 1-2 day waiting period before they catch up with you and invite you to the site.

Ravelry is a huge resource for finding new patterns and yarns, to see real pictures of finished projects before you start your own adventure. Personally I now look up every pattern on Ravelry before I cast on to see more angles and read up on the pros and cons of the pattern.

Ravelry's numerous local, regional and just-for-fun groups make connecting with new knitters a breeze! In fact Ewetopia even has its own group called "Friends of Ewetopia"! Due to the many vibrant and regularly used forums and groups, Ravelry is a great place to find new yarn shops, the newest fashions, the best new yarns and designers and get help with any question you may have!

Hardcore fiber crafters are all welcome and are encouraged to join Ravelry. Have fun and get addicted, I have found that I finish more projects now in an order to upload new pictures to my "notebook"!