raveled

Only last week, I was telling Stacey at my local stitch and bitch that I hadn't signed up for Ravelry* because although it sounds like quite a cool thing for knitters (and other fiber artists, keep your stitches on), I was leery of another time sink, which I need in my life like a hole in the head.

*What is Ravelry? Oh, you're not a knitter/crocheter/spinner/fiber-person? Or you don't read knit blogs (other than this one)? Go here and read about the latest craze in knit-blog-land.

However.

I was reading a blog post at Yarn-A-Go-Go, where she described a use of Ravelry I had heard about but hadn't really thought through: you can look up a specific pattern and see other people who are working on it, how they're doing, what it looks like, modifications they've made, etcetera. (She looked at a pattern she had dismissed for herself because it looked so good on a smaller friend, she thought it wouldn't suit her, until she saw that it also looked good on larger people.)

Hmm. You can do that on Ravelry.

And I thought about sitting at Stitch and Bitch and watching another woman making the Ruffles scarf that I had made before, only she used a much lighter yarn, and the effect was really different, and I liked it both ways, and I wouldn't have thought of that. And maybe on Ravelry, I could look up that pattern and see people who made it in two colors, and find out how, because I never did find a blogger that explained that, last year, and I couldn't get the color switch to go right when I tried it.

Hmmm hmmm.

Plus, I heard that there's this regional aspect to it, that there are groups forming from it: local people who blog and knit, that sounds like people I would have things in common with, eh? Three things, anyway.

Hmmmm.

I know that they're beta testing, so you sign up and wait to be called. I did think about signing up when I first heard about it, but just wasn't sure...

Now, I give in. I signed up, poked around the front of the site a little, signed up for the Ravelry News blog in my Google Reader, and saw that I could check the status of my invitation (I love that the address for that page is /antsy don't you?). This is maybe five minutes after I signed up.

Found you!

• You signed up on Today
• You are #27720 on the list.
• 17774 people are ahead of you in line.
• 3 people are behind you in line.
• 34% of the list has been invited so far

Three other people have signed up already? In five minutes?

Wow.

Except, that's nothing. I checked again tonight, and now the numbers are:

• 17672 people are ahead of you in line.
• 176 people are behind you in line.
• 35% of the list has been invited so far

These people are moving. No wonder the Yarn Harlot talks about the power of knitters, that we're a force to be reckoned with. This may turn out to be quite interesting. Further updates as events warrant.

************************

While we're talking about yarn, shall we look at what Nantucket showed me?

I didn't go much out of my way, so this is what we kind of fell across. There was one store in town (and I'm sorry, but I forgot the name) that had some needle craft supplies but mostly clothing (really expensive clothing), including a child's sweater almost exactly like the ones I just made for the twins, only with the word Nantucket in a contrasting color across the front. Not that I don't understand the appeal of that, in Nantucket, and yes it is Season, but still isn't $98 a bit much? Anyone?

On one wall, though, we had this:


Pretty! And there was also some very soft pretty yarn with this tag:



Can this be true? Mothproofed? This falls into my "learn something new every day" category. Read all about it!

Later we stopped in at the real yarn store on the Island, Sheep to Shore (I'm not saying that it's the only one, because I don't know that it is; just that the store that I saw that had yarn mostly carried other things, but this was a Yarn Store).


I wonder why so many yarn stores do the punny names. Anyone have a theory?

Oh, you want to know about the store? It's really nice. The woman there was very pleasant (even though we came in with a three-year-old, which would have been a turn-off to some), and they had a wide selection of some lovely yarns:



I managed not to buy, because they were plenty expensive, and I'm trying to knit what I have right now. I have quite a few projects in mind from my stash, after all, and just because I'm madly tempted by some perfectly lovely new yarn does not mean I should overlook three key facts:

• it's $44 a skein ($28 for the "cheaper" stuff I liked)
  
• I have nothing in mind to make with it
• I just spent plenty of money getting to Nantucket, and since money is already tight right now, I really should let that be enough reasons
  

It was actually fun to look at and fondle the yarn, and only hurt a bit to leave without it. I'll go back when I win the lottery.

Right?

Just say yes.