8 Things to love about Ravelry

Knitting Tips Series: Introduction to Ravelry

Ravelry is an online knitting/crocheting community, a social-networking site for fiber enthusiasts. Whether you're new to knitting or a seasoned pro, Ravelry can help you connect, learn, and make the most of your knitting.

Here are 8 random reasons why Ravelry is so awesome:

1) Online "Brag" Book: Ever want to organize all your projects, show them off to others, keep track of what you knit when and for whom? With Ravelry, you have "My Notebook", a place to organize your projects and keep track of such details as how long it took you to make something, whether you followed the pattern word for word or deviated to suit your tastes, and the exact yarn and needles you used. Plus a picture! Or several pictures!

2) Organize your yarn and needles. And your books and patterns and future projects.

3) Get to know other knitters through the forums, through the patterns and projects, through the whole site. Knitters are really nice people, if I do say so myself. Need a place to start? Try the KnitOasis group--you know you're welcome there!

4) So many patterns! If you're looking for a pattern, say a scarf pattern that's just a shade beyond garter stitch, and you don't have a knitting book handy and you don't want to go get one, Ravelry has pages and pages of scarf patterns (and other patterns, too). Many are free and available instantly.

5) Books: If you're considering the purchase of a knitting book, but wonder if the patterns are all that great, look it up on Ravelry. See the patterns, find out what other knitters have to say about it, take the guess work out of it. This is also true of yarn, needles and knitting accessories. If it has something to do with knitting, you can bet it's been discussed on Ravelry.

6) You might not "love" this... Ravelry is like a lot of things on the internet...it can be a bit of a time sucker. You log in at 8 a.m. to look at Log Cabin blanket patterns, you look up, and suddenly it's 4:30 the next day and you're really hungry. But hey, you've gotten some amazing inspiration and done research on your hobby (even though research that is this lengthy pushes it away from "hobby" and into "obsession."). (And this is only a hypothetical example. Really.)

7) Are you ready to market your original knitting designs to others? Ravelry is just what you need. They'll walk you step by step through the process of setting up a designer account and putting your patterns before your soon-to-be adoring public. (For an example of a designer's page on Ravelry, here is my shameless plug: Designs by Tamara Goff)

8) It's free. Seriously. All this fabulous resource needs from you is a user name and log in, and you'll have a well of knitting info at your fingertips, day or night. Ready to get started? Follow this link: Ravelry sign up.

knit inn, version 2016

It has been my pleasure to attend the SC Knitting Guild's annual knitting retreat for several years now, and for a few of those years, it has been my honor to be able to teach classes there. When I tell my friends who are not yet knitters that I'm going to spend the weekend knitting, teaching knitting and hanging out with knitters, I get some interesting looks. (And by "interesting" I mostly mean "crazy") That's ok, though, because for those of us who are privileged enough to go, we get the appeal of all that knitting, all that bonding over knitting, and the knitting hangover that means that the Monday after is usually spent lying around like a slug if at all possible.

This year the Knit Inn began like most of my Knit Inns usually do; with an eclair from Strossner's Bakery. I wish Strossner's could expand into Charleston but then I wouldn't stop for my traditional bit of shoe pastry enrobed in chocolate because I could get them all the time and that might not be a good thing after all...

My first class of the weekend was one I was teaching--the Reversible Cable Wrap. I love this pattern because it takes some focus, but when you get several inches into it, you are rewarded with mindless knitting on each row, and when it's all done you have a beautiful shawl. It was a fun class to teach and shame on me for not getting more pics!

That night we had Show and Tell while we knitted and chatted and enjoyed the good fortune of being around people who understand why you are knitting something with garter stitch because you planned ahead to have lots of conversations which means you brought easy knitting that would accommodate social interaction.

The next morning I taught stranded Fair Isle, which involves knitting with two hands (or rather, two hands holding two different colors of yarn at the same time). It also involves learning a pretty foreign skill for a lot of knitters (holding that second color in the non-dominant hand) and this takes patience. I can't begin to tell you how proud I was of all 12 of my students, who all stuck it out until the light bulbs came on and they began to find a rhythm to doing something they had never done before. I told them it would keep their minds young and sharp and eventually become something they would actually enjoy. I think they believed me.

After lunch I took a dye class with my friend Pat from Bird Mountain Creations. I made some gorgeous yarn with which I promised to make something awesome. It was fun putting the dye in and squishing it around and then watching it "cook" in her cute retro microwave. It was so great to catch up with her while the dye processed!

Throughout the weekend I am always pleased when my students show me their progress from classes they have taken. It's truly a delight!

Gerri and her Charleston Indigo scarf from 2015, a lovely mother-daughter duo shows off their Reversible Cable Wrap projects, and you can just feel the excitement of Kathy's mastering the stranded Fair Isle technique on the Mr. Deeds hat!

Sunday morning I took a class in Needle Felting 101 from Cheryl from Purdy Thangz. We learned how to applique needle felting onto a bag (or a sweater or a scarf or whatever) and I'm sure I'm not the only one who came home from that class and ordered more supplies to make more sheep! This was so much fun!

All in all, another great Knit Inn, thanks to the incredible efforts and time and talents of the SC Knitting Guild.  A special thank you to my driver and roomie, Angel, who I hope has recovered from her first year at Knit Inn. Since she was already planning for next year, I know she had fun, too.

Also, I managed to find a peanut butter cookie to end the weekend--two years in a row! (Diet starts Monday!)

Do the next thing

Yesterday I finally managed to (somewhat) organize my office. Today, as if by magic, I now feel like writing again!

Surviving a natural disaster is as life-changing as you've heard everyone say it is. For several weeks over the last 4 months I even questioned THIS. Should I keep teaching? Should I keep writing about knitting? Should I just go find a hostess job at one of my favorite restaurants instead? I gotta tell ya, it can get pretty lonely around here while waiting around for contractors to show up, or watching them rip the doors out by the frames, leaving more mess to clean up in the process of finally tackling the last really big replacement job. My life has revolved around putting the house back together, a job I did not sign up for!

So what happens then, once they miraculously return and finish the 5 little, but messy, jobs that remain for them to do? Then I clean out the garage (again). I find the boxes (still packed) of stuff that goes on the walls, and decide what gets hung back up and what doesn't. I clear enough room in the garage to stain and finish five pieces of furniture (what was I thinking??) so I can unpack the last of the books/photo albums/knitting notebooks. I send hubby downtown to Port City Glass to have them put in a replacement for the glass that got shattered on our (sort of) antique China hutch when it was being evacuated to dry ground back in October. I call back the floor guys to redo the trim around the fireplace that snags us if we walk by in socks (handknitted ones, even!).

In short, I will...

DO THE NEXT THING

Years ago I read this advice somewhere and it has helped me greatly. I can easily become immobilized when faced with bigger than normal challenges. When I can't figure out how to get through the next month, it helps to focus on getting through the next week. Or the next day. Or the next hour. To just do the next thing.

In doing the next thing, over and over, I have managed to regain a sense of equilibrium and focus. I have found again the joy in my job that was sadly missing for a while. I have accomplished much by doing the next thing.

I've spent this week getting ready to teach at the SC Knitting Guild's annual Knit Inn, and while there are some knitting samples that have been lost since the flood (and may turn up the week after I no longer need them), it has felt good.

When challenges come in life, and they will, remember to do the next thing and then the next and then the next. Before you know it, you will have survived and when you come up for air, you'll have something to show for all your struggle.

I'll be teaching stranded Fair Isle this weekend--featuring the Mr. Deeds hat, worn here by my beautiful daughter. Dog was indeed spoiled in the taking of this picture.

Happy New Year!

I can tell by the fact that my 2015 wall calendar is all used up that a New Year is upon us. For the first time in a very long time, as I set goals for the new year, they did not include a specific list of knitting plans. I'll be honest--this freaked me out a bit.  Then I had a nice long chat with a very wise man (my hubby, who has now officially survived two natural disasters: Hurricane Hugo and the Thousand Year Flood). He told me that it's normal to go through what we did and find yourself taking stock of your life in unexpected ways. That, combined with the unsure life of a family rebuilding their home, can make it almost impossible to see very far ahead. Take this week for example: I made out a schedule that would enable my homeschooler to get back to his studies and my other teen to get back to her work and dance classes, fitting in things like cleaning and grocery runs around sharing a vehicle and getting people where they needed to be and still making it to Monday Morning Knitters. Sounds good of course until you throw in a work crew measuring to replace flood-damaged doors and (hopefully) painting all the new baseboards (which means moving all the stuff we have been so diligently organizing to make our home, well, organized). I can't even begin to describe how hard it is to concentrate with the possibility of a work crew, much less the actuality of one.

So here I sit, first week of January, trying to be "normal" when, 3 months now since the flood, "normal" is still not something we can readily lay our hands on (like the yarn bowl and the ironing board, which were missing for 10 weeks).  I can't really give you a bullet point list of What I Plan to Accomplish This Year for KnitOasis. Y'all, I'm not even sure I'll be able to finish cooking dinner today! What I can give you is this: a rough idea, my hopes, what might happen if they can finish installing the kitchen cabinets by the end of the month...

Classes--I promised some folks a Beginning Knit and an Intarsia, and the rough plan for this will be February, after I have taught at the SC Knitting Guild's Knit Inn, of course!

Charity blanket sew-up party--Hoping for February, and might have to have more than one. We have a lot of squares to sew together! Yay!

Indigo--Between the wacky weather and the half-finished home, this workshop has been put off for months, so it won't mind being put off again for a bit. After all, one of the lessons of indigo is patience....

Knitting Patterns--I have a new blanket pattern I'm working on, plus a few things I want to send to yarn companies, and a seemingly endless supply of ideas. I really enjoyed coming up with new afghan blocks last year, so I might see what I can do along that line again. And of course, I want to design a new Red Scarf Project scarf.

As you can see, it's not a tidy list, it doesn't ooze confidence and it won't make a Buzzfeed Knitting Resolutions Top 10. But, you know what? If knitting has taught me anything it's that we all get there at our own pace. Sometimes we have to go easy on people and let go of expectations we might have had to see things turn out a certain way, and very often those "people" are us.

So Happy New Year, knitting friends! Thanks for being along for the journey. You make the world a better place, and that is no small accomplishment!