Ravelry: where my stitches at?™

 The Numbers:

2,015,094 members - 6,505,596 projects - 269,692 patterns & 82,687 of them free!

 
If that doesn't impress you, find somebody who knits.. There's a high chance they will be a member of this website.. And there is a very high chance they will tell you Ravelry is the greatest crafting website ever!

Ravelry.com

How did this all start? Jessica Forbes, a knitter and blogger who was tired of the unorganized and chaotic knitting communities out there, and her husband Casey, a Web-developer who was tired of programming Java, decided to create this community in 2007. It started as a small, closed off community, but popularity grew fast and thousands of people were waiting to join. The couple was in desperate need of money, and Ravelry fans donated $71,000 to help keep up the site. Since then, it grew and turned into something no knitter or crocheter would ever want to miss again.


Today, the website is managed by a small team of four extremely creative and talented people:
Jessica & Casey (Founders), Mary-Heather (VP of Operations) and Sarah (Community Support).

Ravelry.com

But, Ravelry is so much more than just a free site for knitters and crocheters..
Let me try to describe it in its main points:

It's a extremely helpful Organizer! 

Ravelry.com

Members can keep track of everything in their notebook. They can catalog their projects with details about pattern, yarn, needles, modifications, how long it took to make and more. It's possible to save patterns they want to knit in the future in a queue-list, to add patterns to a favorites-list and to catalog all of them after whatever label they want. It's possible to create a library of owned knitting & crocheting books and magazines and to check out all of their featured patterns online. People can keep track of their blog posts and even link them to their project pages.

It's a Database!

Ravelry.com

I don't even know where to start to describe their insane database! I don't think people would be able to really understand until they signed up. All of it is carefully organized by volunteers and absolutely everything is linked and cross referenced to everything else.

Ravelry.com

I can click on a pattern and see numbers of already finished projects; I see a variety of suggested yarns, which have been used as alternatives to the pattern's instructions; I can see people's comments, modifications, ratings and so much more. I click on a specific yarn and see everything that has ever been knit with it by ravelers. I have three balls of yarn left over from knitting a pullover and don't know what to do with them? I type in the yardage and yarn weight and get every possible pattern I can use for it! The options and possibilities are endless.

Social Network! 

Ravelry.com

More than 23,000 groups and forums allow people to interact with other knitters and crocheters from around the world. Members can ask questions when they need help with a pattern, exchange experiences about different projects and techniques, share pictures of their cats and talk about how they manage to keep their recent yarn purchase a secret from their husbands. They can follow their friends' activities, recent projects, hand spun yarns or favorites. I have so many nice and creative people from so many different places in my friends list - Germany, England, South Korea, Canada, Japan, Bulgaria, France, Australia - It's really interesting to see the different types of yarn and knitting styles people from different areas use.

Designers can sign up as well and showcase and sell their patterns with only a tiny cut taken by Ravelry.

You can watch the Radar and see new projects pop up the second they were finished.

It's not possible to accurately describe it; I tried, but there is really no end to the awesomeness of Ravelry.

Tomorrow I'll introduce you to some of my favorite projects from people on Ravelry! 

You do not want to miss that!

National Craft Month!

Unfortunately, I didn't have that much time for crafting so far.. I had a ton of assignments and papers due the last few weeks. I finished the back and both of the sleeves of Shibuya last month, but the front is still laying around and waiting for spring break to come.

But that doesn't mean that you can't celebrate National Craft Month!
 
There is a really nice article on About.com by Sherri Osborn that lists more than 20 different crafts and interesting projects and techniques, including knitting, crocheting, cross stitching, weaving, pressing flowers, beading and how to make candles. All of the crafts are linked to pages that describe the topic more in-depth and give instructions and help. So get inspired and do something crafty and creative this month!

I love learning and experimenting with new crafting techniques! My only problem is that I tend to stop halfway through the process of one project and start a new one.. The widespread curse of UFOs.. If you like knitting and crafting, you will probably have enough "Unfinished Objects" laying around your home to understand what I mean.

Because I can't celebrate this year's Craft Month by showing you a new and exciting project I'm starting, I will share some of my UFO's!
 
Two of the more recent projects that still need to be finished are The Scent of Lavender by Stephanie van der Linden, started in January, and Perfection by Patricia Kristoffersen, started last December. I would probably be able to finish both of them in less than two weeks, but for some reason I just can't get myself to start. Maybe when Shibuya is finished..

The next one in line would be Captivating by Patricia Kristoffersen. It's a really stunning pattern, especially crocheted in black. I started it in March 2011 and have about half of the doily finished - much more than this picture shows. Unfortunately, I don't have a recent picture of it; the doily is in Germany right now. You can take a look at epawelko's finished Captivating, to get a better idea of how it would look.

Another unfinished projects would be my On the side.. Blanket!, started in January 2011. The pattern is 124-1 Crochet blanket in ”Delight” and ”Fabel” by DROPS design. I really love this project and can't wait to finally finish it. I have almost 50 squares done and should really continue working on it.. I think it's my favorite out of all the UFO's and people on Ravelry seem to like it as well. It received the most hearts out of all my projects, closely followed by Age of Brass and Steam.

The next two are cross stitch projects and so old that I don't even remember when exactly I started them. The first one is a table cloth I planned on making for my mother. It has a three-colored bamboo design, which I really liked when I first picked it out in 1999. Now, 13 years later (what?! wow - I feel really old right now..), I can't really understand the weird color scheme at all; why would bamboo be black, light blue/gray and yellow?!

It's a medium-sized square table cloth with two of these motifs stitched in opposite corners. There's not a lot missing from the second design and my mother still seems to like it, so hopefully someday I will manage to finish it. 

The last project is probably to most complicated one I have ever started.. I think I started it sometime in 2007 as a birthday present for my sister, who was a big Emily Strange fan at that time. I used an image and transformed it into a stitch pattern with the help of a cross stitch program. Unfortunately I really don't remember which one it was; I know I only had the two month trial version.

I knew that I wouldn't be able to finish it in time, so I printed all the charts and color information before the two month were over. I guess I was right.. after about 5 years, it's still waiting to be finished.

I really have to finish this one. It's about 3/4 done and already looks stunning with all the shapes and subdued colors. The last few parts are the faces and eyes and the slightly more complicated detail work. I have all the thread and instructions here and would only need time and the right mood to actually continue.. "only"..

There are probably a few more UFO's hiding around here somewhere, but this is it for today. I hope you are inspired and willing to start some crafty projects for yourself and remember to stick to them and finish them! Digging out a 13 year old project will not make you feel too good..

Favorite Pattern Friday - Knitted Doilies

Doilies are nothing new to me; I crocheted more than 20 different designs during the last year. Most of them were made for family members as birthday or Christmas presents. I even sold one of them on Etsy once. At the moment I have one WIP hibernating in a corner somewhere.. It's really pretty, especially in the dark red thread, but I just can't get myself to crochet the last 2-3 rows right now.. blaeeh..

Some of my Doilies

I spend hours crocheting all of these and really enjoyed it, but for some reason the idea of knitting a doily really frightens me. I don't know why, it just seems so extremely complicated. I prefer other people making them and me looking at the pictures. Maybe I'll surprise myself and try it one day; until then: Pictures!

Knit Flower Doily by Coats & Clark   free!

Published in Coats & Clark

Coats & Clark

This one is still nice and cute..

Doily with Spiral by Verlag Otto Beyer Design Team   free!

Published in Yarn Over

Photo by Talsu

But then it gets to a point where I just can't follow anymore..

Stor Lysedug by Vintage   free!

Published in Yarn Over 

Photo by muumi

128 rows of crazy! Unbelievable.. I would never have the patience..
 

What do you think? Would you try it?

Maybe you already have?