Knitting… it isn’t just for grandmothers anymore.

I can’t tell you how many times I have gone out of my way to not have to sew, knit, crochet, or do anything like that at all. I just have never been interested in that kind of stuff, until I began researching Ravelry. Ravelry brings together yarn artists and resources on a single networking website. Ravelry allows  knitters, crocheters, spinners, and weavers to share ideas and find inspiration. Members, which range from  hobbyists to professional dealers,, can find patterns, keep notes on projects, see what others are making, and  keep track of their yearn. Ravelry’s members can create their “notebook,” which organizes their projects, yarn stash, needle inventory sheet, patterns,  and other resources. All of the content on Ravelry is user-driven.

Ravelry was founded in 2007 by Jessica and Casey Forbes. Their dog, Bob, is the Ravelry mascot. Ravelry has over 3 million registered users and membership is free.  Ravelry has 53,563 followers on Twitter (@ravelry) and a blog. There is also a mobile site.  Wooley is their Apple iOS app, and Ravulous is their Android app.

Advertising  for your business on Ravelry can be very lucrative. Ravelry offers advertisers a very clear target audience to promote their products. Additionally,   Ravelry gives advertisers flexibility, reasonable prices,  good exposure, and a captive audience. There are several advertising options to choose from: 1) Marketplace, is a business-card style ad that can appear in fiber-related categories and it is also inexpensive. 2) Forum banners display at the bottom of each page in forum discussion treads, it is also inexpensive and high traffic. 3) Group banners, which are the same as forum banners, but are geared toward groups, 4) Feature pattern is a prominent spot to showcase your pattern, and  5) Feature yarn is a prominent spot to showcase your yarn.

The buzz online about Rivelry is mostly positive.  The issues or challenges that I could find for Ravelry was that they have competition from other sites that offer a larger variety of free patterns and they have limited resources when it comes to technology, especially for their apps.

All in all, Ravelry is a really cool niche social network for the yarn enthusiasts. Ravelry is a tight-knit community (no pun intended) that has enabled people who share the same passion for yarn to connect with one another. Who knows, I just might become a knitter, when I’m done with school, of course.