So by now, you may have heard about Ravelry.com I had been sort of ambivalent about it having only heard that it’s a place where you can keep track of your needles and see reviews of patterns and yarns. Until Ysolda‘s post about it, I didn’t know it had anything different for designers, but people… I am here to tell you that Ravelry ROCKS. I got an invitation from someone, signed myself up and WHAM! Instant addiction!
There is an instant messaging system within Ravelry so members can talk to eachother.
There is a “friends” function and a “add as favorite” function just like in flickr.
It gives you one place to put your projects. You can put as much or as little info as you want, but the options of what to add include yarn, gauge, needles used, colorway, yardage per skein of the yarn, etc… etc… etc… And if someone has already taken the time to input the info for the yarn you’re using, it will give you the option of just going with that info.
There is a seamless integration with your blog, meaning that it will snag URL’s to your newest posts and then you can link them to the projects you have in your “notebook” via a drop down list. So far I can’t see a reason to totally get rid of my blog, but it’s really cool to have it all linked together.
DEFINITELY click this to embiggen and see notes!
For designers, it gives you a place to put your portfolio, complete with links to purchase sites, and descriptions of the pattern, gauge, yarn requirements… the possibilities are endless. And then connected to each of the pattern pages is a place where people can add themselves to say they’re knitting it too, which gives you access to their profiles, their pictures of your pattern, and so much more. It’s really amazing how much info is packed into this place.
It’s also seamlessly integrated with your flickr account. If you’ve uploaded pictures to Flickr, then you can just drag them and drop them into your project and pattern pages in ravelry.
There’s also a discussion forum where topics range from Yarn and Patterns to requests for translation of foreign language items.
There’s a whole section that lists upcoming fiber EVENTS. I added Estes Park, Snake River and Great Basin Fiber Fairs to the list.
To be honest, there is much more there than I’ve had time to explore, but it’s really amazing. Sort of a one-stop shop for all your internet fiber needs. There really could be more options with regard to spinning, but it’s still in beta, so I’m sure that can be taken care of.
So in short, get on the invitation list for this thing. You can sign up here or get someone you know to invite you when they give out invites again. And be aware that the waiting list is not some exclusivity game, but is intented to make the 2 people in charge (only 2! OMG!) not go crazy and to not break the system.
So get thee hence to the waiting list! This thing is BIG! Oh, and when you get there, check out my notebook page at http://www.ravelry.com/projects/mimknits. My portfolio of designs is there too if you click on “my original designs”. By the by, that link won’t give you anything but the front page unless you’re a ravelry user already.
M
