Motivation (and Ravelry)
May 20th, 2007
I’ll start off by saying that I have putting off talking about Ravelry since I got my invitation to join. I can’t remember which blog on which I first read about it, but I was very excited to hear about the possibilities. Keeping track of projects, seeing others knitting, communicating with other knitters, project ideas, yarn ideas, etc, etc, etc. There are so many possibilities and features at Ravelry, I’m not even going to try to list them all.
I say I was excited to hear about it, but I was also very frustrated and disappointed. If you haven’t heard of Ravelry yet (which I doubt), click on that link above and check it out. My frustration was because general sign-ups aren’t open yet. However, you can submitt your name and e-mail to eventually get an invitation, which is what I did. It did take a while, as the creators are only two people, and are trying to get everything squeaky clean and working properly before it’s open to the general public. I knew how frustrated I was to see everyone writing about this potentially cool new toy, and I didn’t want to make others feel as I did.
But…
I just had to mention it, especially because of what it’s been doing to my knitting lately. I have no lack of inspiration to knit, but being a Ravelry user for the last week (?) has really upped the motivation to knit. Seeing all my works in progress listed there right in front of me every time I log in has been a good reminder of their neglect. In fact, I used that to my advantage and got some real work done on a few languishing projects (and started a new one or two!).
Like my handspun sunset socks! All I need to do is graft the toe, weave in the ends, and wash them. I’ve got some new comfy slipper socks! I think these socks are going to be a bit tight in the toe, as I didn’t very accurately measure the foot. I like the toe of my socks to be a bit loose so my toes don’t get squished. However, since I won’t be wearing shoes, I think this will be OK. I wonder, is everyone as picky as me about their socks?
I’ve even got a bunch left. What to do with it…kerchief?
Then we’ve got new projects, and this one I’m really excited about. I went to the yarn store yesterday on a little impulse buy, and bought some Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool. I got some natural gray, and a natural white (which you see below). Man I must say I love this yarn! It has a great natural, almost handspun feel. It’s soft, fluffy, and beoootiful.
When I got home, I thought I remembered this yarn being used in the Branching Out
I will definitely be blocking this when it is done, but I don’t think I’m going to stretch it out as vigorously as I usually like to. I don’t want to flatten the texture of the yarn; I just want to open up the lace a little bit. This will be a great spring scarf, and I’m sure I will finish it before the season is over 
In other languished project news: You may have also noticed a few posts ago that I finally posted another entry in the Heel Compendium. I’ve got another one on the way, and hope to cast-on for still more, using Knitting Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush as my guide. Lastly, there’s the lace shawl that I started a while back and let go dormant. I still need to work up to it, but I think soon I’ll be able to pick it back up again, fix the mistake, and keep going. Wish me luck!
Why am I the ONLY one who has requested a Ravelry account and not gotten it?! *grumble*
LOVE the Branching Out scarf – yarn AND pattern.
All the lace is lovely but I especially love the sunset socks, the colors are gorgeous! I hadn’t heard of Revelry before you posted but now I’m intrigued and I’ve got my name on the list. I don’t like the idea of moving all my photos to Flickr though. Hmm.
I love the social web. I think its great that you can find a community website for just about any hobby.
They’re talking about other image hosts that they might be able to use, but the reason they need an image host is due to their tendency to automatically create resized versions of your images as you upload. It seems they need about 3 different sizes for the ravelry site (thumbnails and such). I added all of my images slowly, a few every day for a few projects every day.
Beth, and it’s even cooler when that website was created by that community, rather than a commercial entity