Ravelry
Written by Cassie on September 3rd, 2008I’ve been on Ravelry for about six months now, but haven’t used it much at all. I have nothing listed in my notebook and I can never remember to update it with new yarns I buy or patterns I’m working on. I guess it’s just one more thing to add to my daily routine of websites. I think the idea of going through my stash and listing everything feels daunting.
I know quite a few of the knitters who read this blog are on Ravelry and Ravelry user “loveasaverb” even posted about it on a forum. I think I understand the many benefits of using the site, but I guess what I really want is to hear someone wax poetic about how much it helped them get organized and how it changed their life.
I know that I really do need to do something about my stash and my tools as things seem to magically disappear every now and then. Does Ravelry really help? Am I less of a hardcore knitter because I don’t use it often? Sometimes it feels that way so maybe one of you can help me figure out what Ravelry is all about. I’m listening.
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Hey Cassie–I replied to your post on my blog. I’m not sure if you allow pingbacks so I just wanted to let you know. Please feel free to delete my comment if you get the ping back.
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I love Ravelry!
Having friends allows you to peruse what they’re stashing, knitting, what patterns they like which makes it much easier to be enabled on great new things to do!
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Oh, waxing poetic about Ravelry is something I could do for days! I love it, but I have to confess to having an organizational sort of bent. Or rather, I have a fantasy of being an organized person and Ravelry helps me feel more organized. I usually have a dozen or so things on the needles at once, so it does help me keep on top of things. I don’t know if not being really into Ravelry makes you less of a hardcore knitter, but I’m pretty sure that knitting level one of Mario into a scarf balances it out!
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I love ravelry. I did not load all my stash and old projects in. I did upload my sock yarns and attempt to update my stash as I buy yarn. I also didn’t upload old projects, but just added stuff as I was working on it. It keeps me honest and gives me the needed reminders to work on projects I haven’t touched in months.
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Ravelry is great! The groups make it easier to get feedback and help on projects and there is even a yarn sell/trade section. The organization of my stash helps too, I don’t have to go digging through my 95 gallon tub of yarn to find out what is all in there anymore.
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What you use Ravelry for (at least, what I use it for the most) is a research tool. I use it to look up patterns, bookmark patterns, and look at what people made from those patterns to see if they had any problems, what they recommend, etc. Sometimes I read the discussion boards too or look around for more advice. That’s really what it’s for, in my opinion.
I don’t really put stash up either, I have too much “one skein of random worsted” to really bother.
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Some things I love about Ravelry:
*Being able to see all of my projects in one place, including the ones that were gifts.
*Being able to see the different types of yarns people used in a prospective project. Also, seeing the different ways projects turned out.
*Getting inspiration and advice from more experienced crafters.
*Being able to look up patterns from a magazine/book to see if I want to purchase it.
*Getting comments on my projects. Not that I get a lot, but when I get one it makes my day.
–if you do decide to do the Ravelry thing, look me up. My sn is meredithlynn on Ravelry.–
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Ravelry really helped me to get all my needles orginized, I had no clue which one’s I had until I entered them in, now I know I’ve got just about every size I could ever want and I don’t *really* need to by more. I didn’t enter my whole stash at once, I did a little at a time. I’m still not done
I do try to enter new stuff when I buy it.
I use it most to find patterns. they have a ton of free patterns, you can see what they look like finished by different people (if they take pictures) you can hear if some one thought the project was harder than advertized, or if they came up with a cool variation.
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I just recently joined Ravelry because I want to get inspired to knit and crochet again. I don’t see how a website online can make me more organised in my home though… It sort of requires you to already be organised in your physical location, to be able to enter all your supplies into your Ravelry account. And since I don’t lack things to do online but I do (severely) lack home organisation…. I feel about the same way you do I think. =)
But I’m looking forward to a community and hopefully plenty of inspiration for the dark autumn!
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I have found Rav to be realy useful – I’ve not got any old projects on it as I never kept records but in terms of new projects it’s really nice to have a record of your stuff in one place. I’m slowly getting through listing my stash and again I find it really useful to see what I have in a glance, rather than hunt through the cupboard that it is kept in. I like the tagging function and the plain old useability of the site for finding other’s work, new yarns and new patterns (free or not).