In this week’s Community Spotlight feature we’re looking at Ravelry, a crafty community, filled with knitters, crocheters, designers, spinners, weavers and dyers.
What is it?
Ravelry is a crafting community that allows members to keep track of their yarn, tools, project and pattern information, and look to others for ideas and inspiration. Members can keep notes about their projects, view other projects, search for patterns, join crafting groups and connect with other members.
The site was launched in April 2007 after founder Jessica Forbes, who was already an experienced knitter and blogger, struggled to find one site to bring together all the information she needed. Her husband Casey set up the site, and it grew from there.
The site is very much a walled garden, however, which means you need to create a username and password before you can really explore.
Who’s it for?
Crafters of all ages — there are plenty of niche interest groups you can join within the site.
Number of users:
More than 400,000 registered users.
Countries
Based in the USA.
Key Features
- Tools to plan and track your projects
- Forums to swap crafting tips
- Search function for free patterns
- Checklists for knitting needles and crochet hooks
- Specialist groups for fans of Japanese patterns, or members of Stitch London, for example.
What people are saying:
A combination of a social networking site, a place to share information about patterns and yarn, a forum and a place to keep records about your stash, your needle collection, your current projects and more, it has quickly become the must-join site and every knitter’s favorite time black hole.
This is probably very un-nerdy but I’ve become completely addicted since I discovered it. Hard to believe that it’s an online resource for knitters; yes, I know.
Tempero on Google+
Looks like a very productive outlet that encourages creativity. It’s also a great way of improving your craft, since you get to interact with other, more experienced people.