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.