Why I love Ravelry (and why you should love it, too!)

When I lived in Columbus, many moons ago, my crafting supplies were stored in the closet under the stairs (ahem, note the recurring Harry Pottery theme... thank you very much!). Later, I found out that they were also stored in the upstairs guestroom closet. Then I realized that they were also stored in my bedside chest of drawers. From patterns to yarn to hooks, to chocolate lollipop supplies, to a sewing machine and all necessary haberdash, my 700 square feet apartment was like a treasure trove for crafters.

When I moved to Madrid, I sold the chocolate supplies, I sold the yarn, I sold the patterns, and I kept the sewing machine in storage. And I resisted the urge to travel across the ocean with my hooks. This, in retrospect, was a mistake... not that I'm bitter, mind you.

Now that I live in a much more humble 500 square feet apartment with only one closet and a Spanish boyfriend who - surprise! needs his own space, too - I have to be smart about my crafting supplies. There are days when I leave the house with four or five skeins of yarn on the couch (and beg for mercy, or at least mumble an apology as it's 6:30am and I am not fully awake), but for the most part, I have figured out ways to be more organized.

Tangent: That's one thing that I like about Spaniards. They don't clutter. They live in very small apartments (by American standards) with small children, who eventually turn into big children, who then turn into live-in adult children, and yet the house is usually presentable and the clutter is hidden. If my nieces and nephews saw that there was no space in Grandma and Grandpa's house for their 3 laundry baskets of toys, they would probably throw a hissy, but I quite like the idea that less is more.

I store all of my yarns with members of the same genus and species (Nilo in the 2nd row, Lanas Stop in the 1st row, all Gato Negro yarns in their neat little balls in a box, scraps in the right top corner) in one drawer of an armoire in our living room. I store all of my items from my Etsy shop in another drawer in a second armoire in our living room. I store my buttons, hooks, scissors and threading supplies in a small plastic Ikea box that I can throw in a small bag or in any of the above-mentioned drawers. It works.

But once I started my Etsy shop (aka This is a plug), I realized that I had to keep more than my yarns organized. Inventories and pricing lists and order invoices... not to mention the patterns! How could I keep my projects organized as effectively as my yarns?

I discovered Ravelry as a fluke, but it has since become my favorite place to keep my Etsy shop organized! It's free, and you can create an account quickly. You can use Ravelry to:

• Search for Crochet and Knitting patterns
• See lots of pictures of other people who have made the same pattern and brainstorm for your next project
• Research yarns that you like and see ideas for new projects
• Get to know other Ravelers in your area and attend their meet-ups or other events (note to self: this doesn't work so well in Spain)
• Ask questions or read topics in the forum
• Buy from friends and Ravelers in the Marketplace (meaning that you might save money on a pattern)
• Buy yarn! (I haven't tried this yet as I'm in Spain, but if you have in the US, please leave a comment and let us know how it went!)

This website is great, but my favorite feature is yet to come!... Enter the Ravelry Notebook. Here's a quick look at my Ravelry Notebook:

In your Notebook, you can keep track of your projects, your yarn stash, your favorite patterns, your needles and hooks and your interaction with other Ravelers. So how does the Ravelry Notebook work?

Let's say you want to crochet this amazing bonnet that you found when you were browsing the amazing selection of patterns:

From this screen, you can access the pattern (description), see who else has made this project and what pictures they have posted ("10 projects"), check out yarn ideas and... add it to your notebook. There are four ways to do this, all located in the top right corner of the page:

1. "add to favorites" - this is a great option if you're browsing, but you aren't committed to the pattern
2. "add to library" - this adds it to a wonderful library with thumbnail views of your favorite projects, sort of a way to browse within your own little collection of wonderful (note that on my screen it says "In my library"... well, cause I've already added it!)
3. "add to queue" - this helps you save the pattern for your future projects... so if you're buried in three projects, but you want this to be the very next one you begin, put it in your queue in position 1
4. "hook it" - this is your note page on the project, where you can put down what yarn you use, what hook you use, what size you make, etc.

Hook it is always my last step, because that's how I keep all of my projects organized. Here's a peek at my "Hook it" / "Projects" page for the pattern above:

When editing the page, you add in all the information (which is a really helpful way to keep track of this project in case you want to reproduce it in the future... say, for example, if it's something you list on Etsy, sell and need to make more). You can even add a picture, the date you started and completed the project, state how difficult you feel the pattern is, and put notes to yourself (very helpful if you, like me, are constantly modifying patterns).

Adding a project takes about 2 minutes once you finish the project, and it can save you a long time of looking through a million bookmarked crochet patterns in search for the very one you used to crochet the first baby booties you made this year and now you can't find the f")$/"@∞|@ pattern but you need it para hace cinco minutos!!! (Not that that's ever happened to me, mind you.)

Here's my current projects page:

Every time I start a project, I add it to my Notebook, even if it's just to put down the hook size and yarn and pattern source. I update it as I go along if I find errors in the pattern or modify the pattern. When I'm finished, I note the date and jot down any last minute notes. After I list the item on Etsy, I put a picture so that I remember exactly which item I made. It really helps when you start getting upwards of 25 projects... and imagine how much it can help when I have sold hundreds of items (to my closest friends and relatives) and end up making hundreds of euro pennies!!! Ahem...

So that's that. You should join Ravelry. You should take advantage of an amazing and free site that lets you connect to the bigger brain cloud of yarn crafters all over the world. And you should look me up. My name is scuttleboose.

.... and now for the credits:

I am honored to thank Katherine and her blog Crochetlatte for amazing patterns that she shares with us and some of the best yarn photography I have yet to see. Her site is still developing, but she has some amazing things! So, credit where credit is more than due, please check out Crochetlatte's blog.