Ravelry

I'm in Ravelry! My screen name is Lussina. Look me up when you get there.

See how I assume that you are already on the waiting list :) What? You are not one of the 19,000 still on the waiting list? Never heard of Ravelry? Then you have probably not been reading the knitting blogs, because _everyone_ that gets on Ravelry, raves about it.

Ravelry is the newest free knitting/crochet community, with a wonderful improvement. It has the groups for discussions, but it also has an ever growing data base of information. The concept came out of one programmers frustration of trying to google for specific projects for specific yarns. The idea of putting all that information in one spot with one powerful search function was born.

Ravelry encourages you to use your own space to catalog your yarns and projects. The data entry is quick and easy. I used a MP3 recorder to do a verbal running commentary as I went through my boxes, and then transcribed that information by listening and typing into the data base. The only thing that slows the process is including a picture. So right now my data base does not have photos of anything. But I plan to update that as I have time because the photos are the best part of Ravelry. Talk about eye candy! Picture after picture of glorious knitted projects, yummy yarns, and faces of knitters from all over the world.

I have already used the powerful search function with great success. I have an opportunity to buy a hand painted yarn called Kauni. I had heard that there is a KAL cardigan out of that brand of yarn. I entered Kauni into the search box, and got three hits, each a different gist of that yarn. In a spot beside that was a clickable link that said for example, 10 projects. When I clicked that link I was shown the 10 projects posted in Ravelry out of Kauni yarn. Perfect assistance in deciding just what type of project to plan with the yarn.

So the pictures make all the difference and that is why I need to get mine on there too.

Not in Ravelry yet? Here's a hint I wished I had thought of before I got there. Go ahead and do the stash inventory and post the pictures on Flickr. Flickr is now a part of Yahoo, so if you have a Yahoo ID, you will have a Flickr ID. All pictures used on Ravelry are stored permently on Flickr under your ID. That way you have control when you want to remove everything, or change it. Say you are showing progress on a knitting project, just update the photo from your picture on Flickr. Since the photo taking, and uploading are the only tedious part I see to the whole concept, a head start is a very good idea. Your pictures will be there and waiting when you finally walk through the Ravelry door.

Meanwhile, keep knitting, because soon your will want to be showing off your wonderful work on Ravelry.

CW