romping with the ravelers

I first heard about Ravelry, the new online knitting/crocheting community, back in May. It sounded like it could grow to become a good resource for finding out other people's experiences with patterns I was planning to knit, information that has previously sometimes been a challenge, so I went ahead and signed up then. There's a waiting list to get in because they want to grow slowly and take time to work bugs out of the system, so I didn't give it much thought and just figured my invitation would come through eventually. Apparently a few other folks also thought it sounded like a good idea because there are now thousands awaiting invitations. Mine came a couple of days ago and, though I haven't spent a whole lot of time there yet, I can already see what a cool niche this is filling.

I set up my profile and entered a few projects, but mostly I've been poking around to see what's there. I already found a couple of project that could be on my to-do list and a few groups that I'd like to explore. It's very helpful to be able to type in the name of a pattern and get feedback from others who have made it, including modifications they've made to the pattern, errors they may have found, different forms of construction, etc. What I like best so far is that it's not just a big database. There are ample opportunities for different personalities and styles to show through, and the site itself has little bits that just make me smile, like in the Ughs category for ugly projects, the button to close out of that area doesn't just say "Close." It says "Make it stop." :-)

Leah's been out a lot the past few days, but she just came into my office and saw the screenshot above. She knows about Ravelry from assorted podcasts that we listen to together and she immediately recognized the image. "You got a Ravelry invitation?!" And now she wants to set up her own membership so she can share her projects there too. She knows a fun fiber thing when she sees it!