Will someone PLEASE explain ravelry to me?

[madametj]

What is soo incredibly awesome about it? What IS it?

I so confused!

[Jan in CA]

In a nutshell, it's a place where you can keep track of your FOs, WsIP, yarn, needles, etc. You can search a pattern name and see how everyone else did it, what yarns they used and comments about said pattern. You can search a yarn and find out what people made with it.

You can go to Ravelry to sign up, view a video and see what the owners of the forum are up to.

There must be dozens of posts here in the forum try searching and you'll get lots of info and comments.

[HamaLee]

Oh my....where to begin.

Well, to be concise it's a massive online, interactive database. But it's so much more fun than that sounds like.

Basically for you, the individual, it's a place to:

A.) catalogue your stash: you can upload pics of your entire stash to flickr and then have those pics organized in your ravelry "notebook." So you know exactly what yarns and how much of it is in your stash without rifling through it everytime. You can also catalogue your needles, etc.

B.) collect and store patterns: You can catalogue what books or magazine patterns you have, you can bookmark all your favorite online patterns straight to your notebook and organize it in a queue.

C.) have a virtual Stitch'n'Bitch: Ok here's where the fun is (for me). All those yarns you catalogued? Well Ravelry automatically tells you everyone else who has those yarns in their stash, or what projects other Ravelers have made with that yarn to give you ideas and visual examples. You can also catalogue everything down to the dye lot if you want to search for someone to help you acquire that last skein of whatever to finish your sweater.

And remember those patterns you queued up? Well Ravelry also automatically links to everyone who has it in their queue, or who is working on it, or who has finished it. So you can browse and see how your pattern looks as an FO in different sizes and yarns before you start. And you can also PM those people to ask questions, etc.

I love it

There are also social groups to join (there's a KH one, an NPR one, a Hugh Laurie one, sports teams ones, sock knitters, etc etc etc) and that just basically connects you to other knitters with similar interests. Gets you more ideas. There are forums (fora?) as well in the same general vein as KH, but honestly I much prefer the KH forum. I sort of ignore the Ravelry forum but I do love love love it as a resource and database and idea generator.

Hope that gives you an overview (and get on the waiting list! )

I got carried away, Jan beat me to it.

[knitgal]

I'm not in yet, but that response got me really excited about it!

[madametj]

Oh my....where to begin.

Well, to be concise it's a massive online, interactive database. But it's so much more fun than that sounds like.

Basically for you, the individual, it's a place to:

A.) catalogue your stash: you can upload pics of your entire stash to flickr and then have those pics organized in your ravelry "notebook." So you know exactly what yarns and how much of it is in your stash without rifling through it everytime. You can also catalogue your needles, etc.

B.) collect and store patterns: You can catalogue what books or magazine patterns you have, you can bookmark all your favorite online patterns straight to your notebook and organize it in a queue.

C.) have a virtual Stitch'n'Bitch: Ok here's where the fun is (for me). All those yarns you catalogued? Well Ravelry automatically tells you everyone else who has those yarns in their stash, or what projects other Ravelers have made with that yarn to give you ideas and visual examples. You can also catalogue everything down to the dye lot if you want to search for someone to help you acquire that last skein of whatever to finish your sweater.

And remember those patterns you queued up? Well Ravelry also automatically links to everyone who has it in their queue, or who is working on it, or who has finished it. So you can browse and see how your pattern looks as an FO in different sizes and yarns before you start. And you can also PM those people to ask questions, etc.

I love it

There are also social groups to join (there's a KH one, an NPR one, a Hugh Laurie one, sports teams ones, sock knitters, etc etc etc) and that just basically connects you to other knitters with similar interests. Gets you more ideas. There are forums (fora?) as well in the same general vein as KH, but honestly I much prefer the KH forum. I sort of ignore the Ravelry forum but I do love love love it as a resource and database and idea generator.

Hope that gives you an overview (and get on the waiting list! )

I got carried away, Jan beat me to it.

wow, i'm so excited nowi saw the video tour, too. i can't wait!!

[bobi1218]

Oh, I'm so excited! I *should* be in by the end of next week, at the latest

[lelvsdgs]

I went and signed up without really knowing what it was all about... I have about 10,000 people ahead of me but now I am really looking forward to my invite. Sounds like there is plenty to do

[DorothyDot]

Uh, if it's like this hugemongous database and interaction with really great knitters...then why the waiting list? Why can't folks just walk in and register?

Dot

[mrslevite]

Uh, if it's like this hugemongous database and interaction with really great knitters...then why the waiting list? Why can't folks just walk in and register?

Dot

If I understand correctly, the help hotline or support email address or whatever you want to call it, couldn't handle that many questions and emails at one time. At first - and possibly still - they were also working out kinks and bugs. It's much easier to do that with a small group. As time goes by, it seems that they are gradually letting more and more people in each day. I thought I wouldn't get in till sometime in November, and then at the very end of October, and now it's looking like next week - unless they decided to let in 2895 people today. (Pleeeeezzzze! )

[knitwit]

Found you!

• You signed up on September 20, 2007
• You are #34470 on the list.
• 7741 people are ahead of you in line.
• 8091 people are behind you in line.
• 60% of the list has been invited so far

- I can't wait to check it out and see what the buzz is all about. I probably should start photoing my yarn just so I'll be ready set go when I get the green light to log in