My Ravelry invitation has arrived!

Last week, in all the hubbub of the school play, my Ravelry invitation arrived. I didn't know anything about the site except that many Knit Pick members are also ravelry members. It's very interesting how you can organize all your knitting projects. When I explained all the cool features to my husband, his comment was "If you send so much time typing every thing up when do you have time to knit?"

These questions go out to all the Ravelry members:
1. How do you use the site?
2. Do you find it useful?

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Comment by SuzieKnits on June 28, 2008 at 7:41pm: As I spend time on Ravelry, I am really drawn to this feature: the personal library (under "my notebook"). Very cool! I add all the books I own and once I do, images of each book sit on virtual shelves on the screen. How pretty! So much more organized than any bookshelf I have here at home! Then, all I have to do is click on a book and the next screen brings up a reference to every knitting project posted from that book on Ravelry. Wow. I love it. The photos and reference material are wonderful.

Comment by Vicki on June 21, 2008 at 9:41am: Although I had not planned to do so, I joined Ravelry a sort time ago as well. It seemed that a lot of the free patterns - including those of pattern companies - were being posted there, so it just no longer made sense to put it off. (Resistance was useless.)

Having gotten started with the site, I do like the organizing capability it gives me. Although my projects are packaged physically (yarn, patterns, notes, etc.), and I had them organized mentally, Ravelry provides a quick visual reference so that I don't have to move the actual inventory around to think through the queue.

I also really like the ability to quickly see what people have done with any given yarn, not just read descriptions or reviews or see the skein photo. There are so many wonderful yarns to chose from that it's a real plus to have a community laboratory reporting results of use.

I like and use it a lot more than I had expected.

Vicki

Comment by SuzieKnits on June 21, 2008 at 7:05am: How has your time on Ravelry been working out? I recently joined and am fascinated with the organizing capability of that site. I have been keeping a hand written list of the sizes and numbers of knitting needles I own for several years and not always being able to put my hands on it, so I am thrilled to see that I can keep this record on the site and not worry about losing my list! I have been intending to organize my own list on the computer (using excel) but never got around to it. Here is where I know I will love the Ravelry site --for helping me to stay organized and on top of what I have in needles, yarns, patterns, books, etc. Nice! It is also great to easily reference others projects using the same yarns. Definitely a complement to this site!

Comment by Amy knits on April 19, 2008 at 2:25pm: After a week of browsing around Ravelry, I don't feel so overwhelmed by it. It is a great way to organize your projects and get ideas from other people. I like Knit Picks because it is much smaller and has more intimate discussion groups. This site also offers a blog spot which ravelry does not. The two sites complement each other very well.

Comment by SuzieKnits on April 19, 2008 at 6:35am: Great question, Amy. I am interested in reading the responses. This is the first knitting community which I have joined, and I chose it because I felt I was in heaven when I discovered Knit Picks yarn. I share Vicki's desire to support the efforts of Kelly and staff. So far I have been very pleased with what this community offers. I hear so much about Ravelry, but know nothing about it.

Comment by Vicki on April 16, 2008 at 9:02am: To date I haven't requested a Ravelry invitation, Amy, because there seem to be people waiting in line for a membership and because I was uncertain how I would put it to use personally. ( I did not want to take up a membership that someone else was anxious to have and then let it languish!)

I would be very interested to hear what your experience with it is and how much you continue to use it over time. (The initial blush of excitement is often so deceptive, and I am a cautious person, I'm afraid!)

I actually set up the Knit Picks membership to acknowledge my thanks to Kelly for her leadership and efforts as the co-head of the firm, particularly her personal efforts with the podcast. In non-knitting life, my spouse and I share responsibility (with a third colleague) for a weekly team teleconference. Producing quality content and getting it out into the world week after week is much harder than the end result conveys!

My hat is off to Kelly, so when she invited, I joined.

I've been delighted to create additional knitting connections and to see the work of other knitters in the photos, so the Knit Picks membership has been very positive for me. Keep us posted on how the two (Knit Picks and Ravelry) experiences compare. Isn't it wonderful to have all these resources?

Vicki