Ravelry

Forgive us if you are already a convert, but here at The Woolly Brew we love Ravelry.

(Before we go any further you'll need to be a member of Ravelry to access many of these links... )

Ravelry is an online community for knitters, crocheters, spinners, weavers, designers.  It launched in 2007 and is free to join.

Amongst other things, it is a social networking site allowing you to chat with like minded people in specialised groups.  These groups could be for a shop or club (join The Woolly Brew group here) or for a designer (e.g. Cecily Glowik MacDonald) or for a geographical location (e.g. Knitting in Fife).  There is a (HUGE) sock group here and if you like monsters check out this group.

You can connect with people all over the world or just next door.

It allows you to catalogue and organise your patterns, yarns, needles and projects.  And you can create a queue for all your would be projects to wait in!  Its a great way to keep notes on your projects and yarns and to find patterns, designers, ideas, yarn substitutions and lots and lots of inspiration (and knitters envy!)

It allows you to search thousands of patterns, yarns and other people's projects (and read their notes) and tag and favourite that information for future reference.

The search facility is great (and users are asked to help keep the information up to date and relevant).

So, if want a free pattern written in English to knit from the top down a woman's cardigan or jumper using an aran or worsted weight yarn... simply check the boxes in the search facility and you get this list.

I quite like this one...

Garter Stitch Swingy-Sweater by Jenn Pellerin

and this one

Cables & Garter Cardi by Tahira Probst

You can buy pdf patterns offered by designers through the Ravelry site, and store them and any free downloads in your Ravelry library.  Great if you use more than one PC.

I have recently bought Little Miss Greenjeans and Eternity Cowl.  Both are great patterns and excellent value for money.  And you can sometimes talk to the designer via Ravelry if you have any problems with the pattern.

You can see some screenshots of Ravelry here (a little out of date but gives you a good idea of what if looks like).

If you joined up a while ago but never spent anytime on the site then we would highly recommend you check it out.  If you want to say hello you can find me here and Karen here.

I use the notebook feature extensively for my projects (not so much for the stash).   Karen doesn't use the notebook so much but you might find her lurking about the yarns...