Ravelry.com has been in beta for a long time, but this growing online community of yarn-obsessed folks is incredibly strong and filled with content.  Before I procreated, I had tons of time to knit.  One year, I made custom scarves for everyone on my Christmas list, carefully picking out yarn and patterns that I thought matched each person’s style.

Now that I’ve got rugrats, I have very little time to knit along with a large yarn stash that I had been building for years.  I’ve also added to it a little bit over the past few years with the good intentions of knitting for my kids and my friend’s kids.  I have lots of half-finished things floating around: a sweater that I never did the sleeves for (can this just be a vest?), a dolly that has two legs, one arm and her head knitted but not sewn or stuffed together, and even worse, bags with patterns, needles, and the yarn … but not even cast on.  What is the most disturbing is things like the bag of baby cashmerino yarn in lilac that I purchased with every intention of making a baby blanket for my daughter Serena (who turns five in a few months).

In a quest to use this (very expensive!) yarn to still make something beautiful and useful for my daughter, I searched Ravelry.com at the recommendation of a knitting expert friend.  Enter in the name of the yarn that you have, and you will see pages upon pages of suggestions for it’s use along with photos, patterns, and details and comments from others that have made the item as well. You can limit the results of your search if they are too overwhelming, the tool that lets you search the patterns and yarns archived in the community are really excellent.

How wonderful for someone like me, who works days and is home nights with the kids to find a community of like-minded knitters to talk to, trade patterns with, and get advice on how to use my yarn stash.    Take the tour and see what Ravelry is all about.