Blogs and Feeds

Ravelry -- A Community Site That Gets It Right

Ravelry, a community site for knitters, really gets it right. Being part of a community takes work and time. The user must constantly recheck the site, engage with other members, add to the community. All of this takes time, one of the most precious commodities any of us have. Ravelry has over 267,000 members, all knitters or crocheters, individuals who are eager to spend their spare time knitting or crocheting.

Confession time -- I am an avid knitter. I knit at home, while watching television, while riding in the car. I even knit in public, on planes, as part of knitting groups. I seldom don't have a knitting project with me. Like most avid knitters, I have a complex lace sweater at home that I must pay close attention to lest I get it really wrong. I have a very portable pair of socks on the needles, a large all knit sweater that I work on in low light locations. As one project finishes, there are several others all ready and waiting to go. This is typical behaviors for knitters.

Why my statement that Ravelry gets it right. The site fulfills a number of knitterly needs. It offers a place to share pictures of finished and partially finished projects with an audience, lots of community connectivity, information on yarns and much, much more. It is not just the activities that can be done on the site that makes it so compelling, but it is the organization.

The site was developed and designed by and for knitters. An avid knitter is always pondering what pattern to use or how would a chosen pattern work in a different yarn that the one shown on the pattern picture. A quick trip to Ravelry -- they are seldom quick -- can provide endless inspiration. Since community members share their experiences, it becomes an important part of the knitting process to check and see how a pattern works or what has been another knitter's experience in working with a specific yarn. It becomes part of the process to check these experience. If other knitters have found that the pattern knits up large, it is nice to know before putting hours of good time and lovely yarn into a project -- I, for example,  just made a hat that is very ample, a size smaller would have worked. I should have paid closer attention to the notes written by others who noted that it made up large. This is sharing of information and experiences is just what being part of a community is all about.

As more members come online in the community, and the database grows with evermore  finished objects, yarns and pattern links both free and for purchase, I expect this site to continue growing and engaging its audience. An audience very busy knitting. The time spendt on the site must be fulfilling since it is time away from knitting -- time over 260,000 knitters have chosen to give. Now, that is a community site that gets it right. 

Five things you (probably) didn’t know about me, -- I’ve Been BlogTagged

David Temple tagged me in the Blog Tag game so here I am about spill the beans on five things most people probably don’t know about me:

1. My first job -- It was as a kitchen helper at an Episcopal retreat house, St Marguerite's Retreat House in Mendham, New Jersey. Every Friday afternoon after I finished my college classes, I would eat dinner at the convent across the driveway, then help serve dinner at the retreat house, run the dishwasher (oh the thrill and power of the commercial dishwasher), set up for breakfast and then return to my room in the convent, and listen to the murmur of the nuns as they chanted the Compline prayers. Then, it was off to bed for a very early start. The retreat house was silent area, where we were urged to keep conversation to the minimum, so by the end of my workday it was always a bit of a shock to return to the real world. 
2. On a noisier note -- Some people remark, even complain, that I have a loud, booming voice. It is no accident. Two of my aunts, my dad’s sisters Dusolina and Euphemia, were opera singers. Dusolina sang at the Met during the 1930s, and my aunt Euphemia taught voice at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia for many years.  My grandfather was an operatic tenor whose voice was heard on some of the earliest recordings. Here he is singing Santa Lucia a tune covered by Elvis Presley some fifty years later. I marvel that I can hear the voice of my grandfather whom I never got to know. Who knew that today I would be into podcasting and digital audio and only sing in the shower?
3. On a literary note -- I’ve read the entirety of Plato’s Republic in Greek. I did this as part of my graduate studies. I’ve also read lots of other works in both Latin and Greek. I once thought that history after the Renaissance was too modern to interest me – there was so much neat stuff to know and learn about the so-called Dark Ages.
4. On a restless note -- I love to drive. One summer I actually drove by myself from Seattle to Northern California, then on to Michigan and then back via the Dakotas to Seattle. I had the company of ten show dogs in my pickup truck. We camped, went to dog shows, and in Michigan I spent a week in the main office of the company that I worked for. I’ve also driven from Michigan to Florida with my dogs, and of course I’ve driven all over the Midwest with the dogs. Note: I have no dogs now. Not all of my long lonely jaunts included dogs. I once drove from Ann Arbor, Michigan to San Antonio, TX in a van with a load of computer equipment that needed to go to a trade show. Even now I still have a fierce wanderlust, and it doesn’t take much to trigger it.
5. On a strange note -- I’ve been on national television on a leash. I got you going there – I was holding the leash while I showed Ziggy, one of my dogs in the Toy Group competition at Westminister Kennel Club Dog Show . The event is televised to dog lovers far and wide. Ziggy was an English Toy Spaniel, a Blenheim. She was one of many that I loved, played with, showed, cared for and mourned over a period of twenty active years in dogs. I closed my kennel ten years ago. This one is not mine, but a lovely similar dog. 

Bonus -- As if you have not read enough. I’m an avid fisherwoman. I love to fish (and play golf). I don’t care if it is with a spinning reel with bait or a fancy fly rod, catch and eat or catch and release - I’m game. Most of the year you will find tucked into the back of my car trunk a fishing pole, small tackle box, and a valid MA fishing license. My particular love is to fish in the cold waters off Maine.

Now here are some folks I’ve tagged that I want to know more about:

Lisa Williams

Jeff Molander 

Sam Harrelson   
Rick Klau

Sam Decker

A Video with Impact

Here is a video that really struck a chord for me just like the cartoon of the two dogs and the line "online nobody knows your a dog." this one says it too.