New Thinking

I will confess that this week I have mostly been knitting. I have some hand dyed yarn that the yardage would seriously limit what I could make with it. I saw a fellow attendee at the fiber retreat wearing a beautiful shawlette. When I got home I looked up the pattern and discovered that I could make it with the stashed yarn. So I am slaving over knitting needles to hopefully finish it before Christmas. A niece has her first 'real' job and I think I will be just perfect.

Now on to other things. How has crochet changed.....

First and foremost I think a little social networking sight has an impact on the firber art community like nothing else in the past 20 years. Ravelry is almost 4 years old and already boasts 1,000,000 + members. Like other SNS you can connect with friends on line, make new friends and catch up on events. The relatively narrow focus of the site has allowed knitters, crocheters and other fiber artists to connect in a way we may never had been able to do so in the past.

Let me confess how I used to approach a new project. I am not a designer and I have the utmost respect for those who can design. When I would find a design or project that I wanted to make I would chase all over trying to find the EXACT yarn used by the designer. Needless to say I have many patterns that are gathering dust on my book shelves because I couldn't find the yarn the designer used. I didn't have the confidence or understanding of a project on how to use a different yarn.

Yes, the publishers of the designs might be tied to a particular line of yarn and really wanted to you do just what I was doing -- find their yarn. Along comes Ravelry and its amazing database created by knitters and crocheters the world over. Find a design you like, do a search on Ravelry. Odds are that someone else has made it and posted a picture of it. You get a first had glimpse into how a garment or project comes out when someone just like you has made it.

Another change which started before Ravelry but was certainly urged forward by their project pages. Instead of noting you need 99 skeins of a certain yarn for your project, now you know that you need 1500 yards of a DK weight yarn. So now you can choose any yarn you like that meets the criteria.

Another wonderful event caused by Ravelry is the explosion of new designers and new designs available. Some are free, some cost a minimal amount and some a little more perhaps published as a virtual ebook. Designers can present their designs for all to see. When they first start out they might enlist fellow crocheters or knitters to 'test drive' the design. Initially designs might be offered for free. As they enlarge their collection they can enter into a commercial arrangement with the site and sell their patterns directly.

So one very big change to the crocheting world is Ravelry. If you aren't already a member, I would recommend that you join the other fiber lovers soon.