Why Ravelry Is a Godsend

Okay so last night, I found a new feature to make me love ravelry even more.

Now I have a few wips at the moment that need to get done asap, before I die of boredom, they have been on the needles so long. The startitis flu takes me over every six weeks I have to admit. Nor does it help that the list I started to write out yesterday, of all the things I want to start and finish before Christmas, was blown out of the water last night when I realized I needed to haul ass today and cast on and finish the baby set for Frosts co-workers new baby girl. At least the sweater is done. All I have to do is whip up a hat and booties and find cute buttons, but I digress.

My new favourtie feature is in the advance pattern search area. Since lets face it, I love knitting from free patterns I find on ravelry. Be it independent, first time designers or from the plethora of free on-line knitting magazines available to us these days. Now don't get me wrong, there are also great single patterns out there that cost a few dollars here and there but I am more of a buy the book or the magazine if there are at least 5 or 3 patterns respectively that I will make somewhere down the road from it. (I've only ever purchased two pdf's pattern downloads so far since i starting knitting 5 years ago, as I don't want to fall down that black hole as well)

And that is where I get sucked in. Since I will go through books and magazines, find those patterns I will someday make, subsequently purchase said book or magazine and then come home and add it to my bookshelf. Half the time not even giving it a second glance. Until now. Last night I was trying to come up with what to make with the four skeins of manos silk blend yarn I recently purchased from my lys. While trolling through the advanced pattern search, I entered the weight of the yarn I wanted to use as DK and then for my second option under the "availability" tab, noticed in the drop down menu the "in library" option and clicked on "yes."

Which means, that the search engine looks at all the magazines, books, booklets, and those few pdf patterns that I have purchased and is stored in my on-line library, and tells me which patterns I can make from my already existing stash of patterns. It's absolutely genius. Now all I have to do is troll through those patterns that come up in the search, and co-ordinate them with yarn I already have in my stash. I will also write down in the "notes" area on each individual yarn page of my stash, what pattern I plan to use with that particular yarn. Not that it will stop me from buying knitting magazines and pattern books, but it should start to make me use some of the ones I currently have in my possession, as that is what they're for.

It makes having the amount of stash I already have listed on ravelry that much more bearable if I have some kind of idea what I'll be using it for. I may even start to add from that extra box of yarn that might be hidden under the bed into my stash page. In bits and drags of course as I don't want to give myself a heart attack.

How rocking awesome is that discovery, EH?