Tuesday, May 18, 2010



ABC Wednesday

The letter of note this week is R


R is for RAVELRY


Ravelry is a free social networking enterprise, beta-launched in May 2007. It functions as an organizational tool for a variety of fiber arts including knitting, crocheting, spinning and weaving. Members share projects, ideas, and their collection of yarn, fibre, and tools via various components.  As of January 2010, Ravelry had over 600,000 members worldwide. (from Wikipedia)




Francoise Duparc (1726-78) Woman Knitting, n.d.




Husband and wife Casey and Jessica Forbes founded Ravelry with the idea of creating a web presence for all fiber artists.




Ravelry is a place for knitters, crocheters, designers, spinners, and dyers to keep track of their yarn, tools and pattern information, and look to others for ideas and inspiration.


It has been a most successful venture, with what appears to me to be pretty sophisticated underpinnings - Ruby and Rail technologies for creating research and distribution.  And all this for what was once the humble knitter, crocheter, weaver, or spinner - fiber arts which have now reached heights beyond crafts into gorgeous creativity.

YouTube is loaded with videos based on Ravelry activities, many of them giving instructions in the whys and wherefores of fiber art.
Here is one about an event that I would love to have attended!





If you are a fibre artist and don't know about Ravelry it's great fun to surf the net and see what you can catch....


For other versions of the letter R spin off over to ABC Wednesday here.

10 comments:

Pamela Terry and Edward said...

I was just on Ravelry looking up patterns!! It's such a great place to find wonderful ones.

photowannabe said...

Very interesting. I have never heard of it before.
Love the fiber art work.

Penny said...

Thanks for the video, looks wonderful.
The blue boy isnt a blue boy at all, it is a nodding violet, some how I have always called it blue boy. latin name streptocarpus ceulescence. Not frost tolerant but seems to do ok for me where it is inside or very protected. Related to african violets.
Penny

ChrisJ said...

I love that painting!

Mara said...

That painting reminds me of my sister. She knits like that as opposed to one needle under the arm (as most women in the Netherlands do).

Carol said...

Not heard of Ravelry, but I will surely check it out.I enjoyed the video. Thanks for the info, this was great for R day.

Tumblewords: said...

Super! I'll check it out -

Unknown said...

Great info, I'd never heard of this I'm off to check it out. thanks for sharing...

http://www.gardenersreach.com/post/R-is-for-Roseate-Spoonbill.aspx

Joy said...

Ravelry sounds like a great place, and idea, I'm going to take a look. Those wonderful wool colours in the video made me think about digging my needles out:-)

Roger Owen Green said...

I know knitters, but I was unfamiliar with Ravelry! Good choice!

ROG, ABC Wednesday team