It's the absolute coolest thing ever
I know by now the blogs are all abuzz about Ravelry, a new online knitting and crochet community started by Frecklegirl Jess and her husband, Casey. At the moment the site is in beta version, open by invites only so it doesn't get too huge too soon and they can work the bugs out. I read about it on Adrian's blog on Wednesday and must have sent in my invite just before about 1,000 other people did, because Jess got right back to me and I've been a member ever since.
Y'all, I love this place. It's so cool. It's so intuitive and goodlooking and easy to use and it's really helpful as well. I put four or five projects up so far. Think of it as an online diary containing all that stuff that you keep on your blog anyway, but organized so you can find it all. You link in your pictures from Flickr. You connect your journal page to all the posts in your blog about a project. It makes you fill in critical stuff you aim to remember but will probably forget, like how many skeins of yarn you really used for that scarf. All your pattern notes are centralized and organized by project - great for somebody like me who often finds untranslatable notes in my knitting Moleskine. Best of all, it's shared - so I can see how many other people are working on my same WIPs at the same time without googling and searching all over and then having to go hunt through their blog and hope they wrote down what needle size they used.
Sign up for it absolutely as soon as you can. It's going to be an absolutely indispensable tool to most knitters. We need to give serious props to Jess and Casey for not only dreaming this up, but making it a reality. It won't take the place of blogs, but it's definitely a place to organize everything you blog about. (My username is MeanGirl. Surprise.)
Also I've been having way too much fun over at Twitter. It's hard to explain. It's kind of a cross between a message board and a chat room. Everybody gets 140 characters to type in an answer to "What are you doing right now?" The answers go online in realtime. It's kind of like online people-watching and totally addictive. My favorite from yesterday said something like: "On the one hand, vegetarianism is humane and sensible. On the other hand, bacon."
I love that. Just absolutely love it.
Didn't do much knitting yesterday, just a couple rounds of a sock. I got the new IK for summer in the mail, and boy do I ever love that tuxedo linen top, the Josephine top, those spiral boot socks (must buy Sea Wool NOW) and I have a feeling I'll be making you-know-who that little doggy sweater (we just won't tell her it's for dogs). The only complaint I have this time - as a magazine designer - is that the cover is weak. It needs bolder fonts and brighter colors. More tags. The new IK is full of lots and lots more stuff. I wish they'd just try more tags one time and see how cool it really looks. (It's hard to ease into, and always looks different on-screen than when you print it out. A certain amount of hope is necessary.)
All in all, it feels better organized and like there is a lot more content. I don't know, what do y'all think??
Y'all, I love this place. It's so cool. It's so intuitive and goodlooking and easy to use and it's really helpful as well. I put four or five projects up so far. Think of it as an online diary containing all that stuff that you keep on your blog anyway, but organized so you can find it all. You link in your pictures from Flickr. You connect your journal page to all the posts in your blog about a project. It makes you fill in critical stuff you aim to remember but will probably forget, like how many skeins of yarn you really used for that scarf. All your pattern notes are centralized and organized by project - great for somebody like me who often finds untranslatable notes in my knitting Moleskine. Best of all, it's shared - so I can see how many other people are working on my same WIPs at the same time without googling and searching all over and then having to go hunt through their blog and hope they wrote down what needle size they used.
Sign up for it absolutely as soon as you can. It's going to be an absolutely indispensable tool to most knitters. We need to give serious props to Jess and Casey for not only dreaming this up, but making it a reality. It won't take the place of blogs, but it's definitely a place to organize everything you blog about. (My username is MeanGirl. Surprise.)
Also I've been having way too much fun over at Twitter. It's hard to explain. It's kind of a cross between a message board and a chat room. Everybody gets 140 characters to type in an answer to "What are you doing right now?" The answers go online in realtime. It's kind of like online people-watching and totally addictive. My favorite from yesterday said something like: "On the one hand, vegetarianism is humane and sensible. On the other hand, bacon."
I love that. Just absolutely love it.
Didn't do much knitting yesterday, just a couple rounds of a sock. I got the new IK for summer in the mail, and boy do I ever love that tuxedo linen top, the Josephine top, those spiral boot socks (must buy Sea Wool NOW) and I have a feeling I'll be making you-know-who that little doggy sweater (we just won't tell her it's for dogs). The only complaint I have this time - as a magazine designer - is that the cover is weak. It needs bolder fonts and brighter colors. More tags. The new IK is full of lots and lots more stuff. I wish they'd just try more tags one time and see how cool it really looks. (It's hard to ease into, and always looks different on-screen than when you print it out. A certain amount of hope is necessary.)
All in all, it feels better organized and like there is a lot more content. I don't know, what do y'all think??
posted by Jen at 9:28 AM
4 Comments:
oh my gosh, thank you for this link!! what a great place and I was just thinking the other day how I really have to get better at putting details of my projects down instead of thinking "oh, i'll remember.." haha. riiight. i have sent in my request to join! how great!
.♥.
*rushes to befriend meangirl on ravelry*
I thought about joining Ravelry, but I think my stuff would look poor compared to other work! :-)
There are a couple of patterns in IK that I could knit, but I think I am going to let my subscription end because I have never knitted anything out of all the magazines I have. I can always pick one up if I really want it.
Wow! Ravelry looks so cool! AND ADDICTIVE! I signed up, with my fingers crossed that I'll get an invite. Thanks for the link.
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