Happy Ravelversary!

On this day six years ago, I joined Ravelry!  Ravelry is an incredible community of knitters and crocheters from around the globe. These days, when someone asks me to teach them how to knit, I start with the basics, yarn and needle selection, casting on, knit and purl. My next instruction is usually to create a Ravelry account. That's how helpful and essential it is.

Ravelry has grown in spectacular leaps from its inception - when I joined, their server capability was so limited that you had to get on a waiting list to even be allowed to create a user account. I'm not sure how long the site had already existed when I joined, but after at least the last six years, it now boasts:

• the single most comprehensive pattern index you could hope to find, searchable by dozens of detailed filters 
• similar indices for yarns, designers, and pattern sources 
• the ability to host your own PDF patterns for sale and download 
• an excellent project journaling system designed to track every detail of your works-in-progress and showcase photos of the same 
• a library tracking system to keep track of the patterns and pattern books you own 
• same for your needles, hooks, and yarn stash 
• a vast hive of social groups, each with its own network of message boards 
• a blog and newsletter 
• a merch store 

Truly, this site is the online dream-house of every yarn addict I know. If you are new to the craft (or not), and have not yet discovered Ravelry, please let me strongly encourage you to join up. They are now over a million members strong - no more waiting lists!

Also, it has all the letters in my name. So, that ups the awesome. ^_^