Ravelry
Encyclopedia
Ravelry is a free social networking website, 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
, fiber
, and tools via various components. As of November 13th, 2010, Ravelry had over 1 million members worldwide.
In addition to serving as a social network site for users to discuss their crafts, Ravelry facilitates micro-business, allowing crafters to sell their patterns or yarns. Both large- and small-scale businesses are able to advertise their wares on the site. The site has been also used by some for market research.
Ravelry has been mentioned by Tim Bray
as one "of the world’s more successful deployments of Ruby
and Rails
technologies."
Information in Ravelry is organized via a series of tabs. Some customization is available within the tabs: i.e., the ability to re-sort information contained in a tab, create sub-tabs, or change the level of detail displayed. The site was in beta through early 2010. New features and enhancements are still added frequently. Often these features and enhancements are driven by the community.
Ravelry is an organizational tool for knitters and crocheters. It includes a project album, a yarn stash album/inventory, and a needle inventory sheet. These are all tools for personal organization. It also includes a yarn and pattern database and research tool. This consists of a searchable community-edited yarn and pattern database where users share information and project photos. The database was created by encouraging people to share their projects and information. For social networking, the site has forums, groups, and friend-related features that give people ways to interact with other knitters and crocheters. Photos can be added to project and stash pages, and also to forum posts, by connecting to the user's own Flickr
or Photobucket
or Picasa
account or by uploading a photo directly from the user's computer or iPhone (a small annual fee is charged for uploading photos directly).
Ravelry has three sub-shops within it. These help to generate income to maintain the site. They include the Ravelry Mini-Mart which sells a small range of items such as t-shirts, bags, and stickers that have logos on them, a Marketplace where small adverts are displayed for a range of fiber arts related products and the Pattern Stores which sells PDF versions of patterns. A small portion of the sales from the Pattern Stores goes to Ravelry, while 98.7% goes to the designers.
Knitting
Knitting is a method by which thread or yarn may be turned into cloth or other fine crafts. Knitted fabric consists of consecutive rows of loops, called stitches. As each row progresses, a new loop is pulled through an existing loop. The active stitches are held on a needle until another loop can...
, crocheting, spinning
Spinning (textiles)
Spinning is a major industry. It is part of the textile manufacturing process where three types of fibre are converted into yarn, then fabric, then textiles. The textiles are then fabricated into clothes or other artifacts. There are three industrial processes available to spin yarn, and a...
, and weaving
Weaving
Weaving is a method of fabric production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. The other methods are knitting, lace making and felting. The longitudinal threads are called the warp and the lateral threads are the weft or filling...
. Members share projects, ideas, and their collection of yarn
Yarn
Yarn is a long continuous length of interlocked fibres, suitable for use in the production of textiles, sewing, crocheting, knitting, weaving, embroidery and ropemaking. Thread is a type of yarn intended for sewing by hand or machine. Modern manufactured sewing threads may be finished with wax or...
, fiber
Fiber
Fiber is a class of materials that are continuous filaments or are in discrete elongated pieces, similar to lengths of thread.They are very important in the biology of both plants and animals, for holding tissues together....
, and tools via various components. As of November 13th, 2010, Ravelry had over 1 million members worldwide.
Development
Husband and wife Casey and Jessica Forbes founded Ravelry in May 2007. Their idea was to create a web presence for all fiber artists.In addition to serving as a social network site for users to discuss their crafts, Ravelry facilitates micro-business, allowing crafters to sell their patterns or yarns. Both large- and small-scale businesses are able to advertise their wares on the site. The site has been also used by some for market research.
Ravelry has been mentioned by Tim Bray
Tim Bray
Timothy William Bray is a Canadian software developer and entrepreneur. He co-founded Open Text Corporation and Antarctica Systems. Bray was Director of Web Technologies at Sun Microsystems from early 2004 to early 2010. Since then he has served as a Developer Advocate at Google, focusing on...
as one "of the world’s more successful deployments of Ruby
Ruby (programming language)
Ruby is a dynamic, reflective, general-purpose object-oriented programming language that combines syntax inspired by Perl with Smalltalk-like features. Ruby originated in Japan during the mid-1990s and was first developed and designed by Yukihiro "Matz" Matsumoto...
and Rails
Ruby on Rails
Ruby on Rails, often shortened to Rails or RoR, is an open source web application framework for the Ruby programming language.-History:...
technologies."
Features
"Ravelry has become the Internet tool to help the typical needle-wielder navigate through the woolly wild."Information in Ravelry is organized via a series of tabs. Some customization is available within the tabs: i.e., the ability to re-sort information contained in a tab, create sub-tabs, or change the level of detail displayed. The site was in beta through early 2010. New features and enhancements are still added frequently. Often these features and enhancements are driven by the community.
Ravelry is an organizational tool for knitters and crocheters. It includes a project album, a yarn stash album/inventory, and a needle inventory sheet. These are all tools for personal organization. It also includes a yarn and pattern database and research tool. This consists of a searchable community-edited yarn and pattern database where users share information and project photos. The database was created by encouraging people to share their projects and information. For social networking, the site has forums, groups, and friend-related features that give people ways to interact with other knitters and crocheters. Photos can be added to project and stash pages, and also to forum posts, by connecting to the user's own Flickr
Flickr
Flickr is an image hosting and video hosting website, web services suite, and online community that was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and acquired by Yahoo! in 2005. In addition to being a popular website for users to share and embed personal photographs, the service is widely used by bloggers to...
or Photobucket
Photobucket
Photobucket is an image hosting, video hosting, slideshow creation and photo sharing website. It was founded in 2003 by Alex Welch and Darren Crystal and received funding from Trinity Ventures. It was acquired by Fox Interactive Media in 2007....
or Picasa
Picasa
Picasa is an image organizer and image viewer for organizing and editing digital photos, plus an integrated photo-sharing website, originally created by Idealab in 2002 and owned by Google since 2004. "Picasa" is a blend of the name of Spanish painter Pablo Picasso, the phrase mi casa for "my...
account or by uploading a photo directly from the user's computer or iPhone (a small annual fee is charged for uploading photos directly).
Ravelry has three sub-shops within it. These help to generate income to maintain the site. They include the Ravelry Mini-Mart which sells a small range of items such as t-shirts, bags, and stickers that have logos on them, a Marketplace where small adverts are displayed for a range of fiber arts related products and the Pattern Stores which sells PDF versions of patterns. A small portion of the sales from the Pattern Stores goes to Ravelry, while 98.7% goes to the designers.