I have a wicked, unrelenting case of startitis. I spent all weekend pulling out new skeins of yarn and contemplating starting them all. I almost started a summer top (Rosebud – knit without sleeves) a new pair of socks or twelve. A new sweater (this one) a new shawl, and even a baby cardigan or two.
This is unusual for me. Not the startitis, the urge to cast on new things is my constant companion, fed by the blogs and the stuff I see my knitting friends knit, but it’s pretty unusual for me to be smitten by so much when I am deleriously happy with what I’m making.
To wit:
I am in the middle of the very beautiful Kauni cardigan, for which I have a big love.
I am happily knitting Cassie’s Loksins socks
Which are beautiful and perfect and move me to fits of good temper and amusement when I am looking for slightly fussier knitting.
I am knitting a gorgeous pair of very plain socks from Webs “Kangaroo Dyer” sock yarn in “Macaw”
which is so simple and beautiful that it needs be nothing else.
Plus today is Tuesday and I am going to spin something delicious,
So why the rampaging case of startitis?
Ravelry. I got on Ravelry. (Sneak peek here) I fell down and I can’t get up. Get yourself on the waiting list to be a beta tester if you aren’t there already. (They are adding people in a controlled way to make sure they get the bugs out.) It’s like smack. You want to see who’s knit a certain pattern and compare all the variations? Click. Click. You want to see everything everybody on there ever made out of Kid Silk Haze? Click. Click. How about see your “neighbours”? Ravelry keeps track of all your projects then shows you who’s knitting the stuff you’re knitting. Click. Want to see what patterns are the most popular? Click. What if you wanted to look at all the pictures for sport weight ladies cardigans? Click. How about all the hats in Noro? Click. What’s in Juno’s stash? Click. Hey I like that – what are all the designs from Sivia Harding? Click. Hey, what do people think is a hard pattern? Click. Wow. That is hard. I’m going to put that in my Ravelry queue to look at later. Click. Want to browse the “ugh” files and see other knitters disasters? Click. Click Click.Click. Click. Click. Click. Click.
A great honking, community building, idea generating, creativity boosting, knitter organizing, time-suck of happy smack.
Click.
Stephanie, we’re the same age, but my only comment is- DO YOU EVERY SLEEP??!!! I wish I had your energy and skill. I only have a small baby blanket as my WIP, and that’s it! I have become sock obsessed, and plan to start one for a business trip in a couple weeks. Wish me Bon Chance!
Still waiting for my Ravelry invite – and can hardly wait to see what everyone else is knitting while I toil away in baby bib/sockdom.
Darn you Darn you!!!! I totally forgot about Ravelry. I’m already having startitis…this is gonna be bad now!
I think I might be close to the top of the list (but not first. . . drat) I think startitis is a good thing and probably leads to less frustration than tattooits (especially when good ideas go bad. . . see my blog later for details. . . I’m still in hard core denial)
Have fun with all your beautiful knitting!!!
It’s that Kauni that grabs me the most, every time you post a photo. Gorgeous.
Back to knitting a shawl for book two. Writing knitting books disciplines the needles like nothing else I’ve ever tried.
I can’t wait to get my Ravelry invite so I can procrastinate on cleaning even more!
And yay! to the Webs mention, it’s my LYS and I can’t help but feel a little hometown pride there. 🙂
I’m afraid to click on it.
You’re scaring me.
Are you enabling in the usual “a little scary but I’ll love you for it” way, or is this truly so far beyond that, that I will never sleep again and will curse your name so loudly the cats will cower under the bed and only whiskers and big eyes will show under the dust ruffle?
Because it sort of sounds like the second kind.
Must. Resist. Ravelry. Must. Absolutely. Cause if I’m on there, I’ll just – overload. It’s bad enough that my honey, who is helping me declutter my home, asked me in a frightened voice to assure him he didn’t have to help with the stash. Ravelry has too much yarn, too many patterns, in too short a lifespan. I’d die . . .
I almost closed your post without going to Ravelry, but I got sucked in. There is no hope now. Darn you, Harlot! OK, not really, but I needed to say it, anyhow.
Doom doom doom. Good thing I can’t join yet, or I’d *really* never get anything else done. 😀
Thank you for introducing me to even more smack (web sites). I am visiting my sister and I have to fight her for computer time. I would be on the computer while she is sleeping but it is in her bedroom.
I hope you are happy.
YES, 100% agreed, yes. Ravelry helped me get organized and it also helped me get a to-knit list a mile long. I just get a giddy little thrill from clicking “cast on” in my queue.
(By the way, I am slightly embarassed to say I added you as a friend when I saw you were on the site. I feel slightly like a stalker.)
Thank you for this. Now I get it. I’ve been wondering what all this talk of Ravelry has been about and not really been able to fathom what it would do …… all is now clear. I wants it !
I’m still waiting for my Ravelry invite, but with trying to keep up with Mystery Stole 3, it’s not like I’ve had time to get going in Ravelry even if I got in. Oh well, I’ll just have to be content that MS3 is the number one WIP in Ravelry right now. Want to start something else?
Oh, Bristow! I’ve been looking at that pattern for months and years, maybe one day I’ll actually finally knit it. It just looks so cozy.
I have been hearing about this Ravelry for so long I do not know whether to rage in envy or affect some aloof manner of not caring when the heck my invite comes. Oh to be in that club…
I am waiting for my Ravelry invite, and hoping it doesn’t come before my house renos are finished or all I will have is a 1/2 painted dining room and a house full of started objects!
Love the Kangaroo Dyer yarn, never seen it before, going over to Webs to have a look!
Cuz you know, I have no yarn…
Wow they are all beautiful!!!
Guess I should be glad that they haven’t gotten to me yet. I have enough things to do without the temptation of wanting to start more.
Happy smack indeed.
So, are you going to start putting your stash up on Ravelry? I refuse to be baited into it.
I love the macaw sock, wonderful colours!
Isn’t ravelry fab? I seem to spend most of my free time there…. not getting alot of knitting done! But it’s such an enabler! See you there!
I am sure I need another time suck…. it looks like so much fun…. I can’t wait…
I am in the same boat with the startitis… I blame bloggers 😉
You talk about startitis… right now I am trying to catch a case of finishitis. Real close to finishing my Einstein Coat (I know its summer, it’ll be ready for fall) When it is done I am treating myself to a sock class. It will be my first. You and all the pics of your socks have been my inspriation! Thanks
I just got my invite, too. I’m waiting for the kids to go to camp so I can play.
Oh, yes, Ravelry is a wonderful trap to fall into. I, too, have fallen and I’m not even trying to get up. Looking at everything is just so much fun and I’ve gotten so many ideas. I’ve got what seems to be dozens of projects demanding to be next to be started.
I’ve been photographing yarn like crazy, so I can get my stash all listed. Since I mostly knit scarves and lace shawls, neither of which take that many skeins of yarn, I’ve got a lot of photos relative to the size of my stash. Plus I’ve got a lot of older yarn that no one else seems to have put by, so I end up doing the basic yarn info, too.
Stop by and check my progress. I’m Digital Knitter there, too.
Oh My God woman!!! I’m already fighting one of the worst cases of startitis I’ve had since I took up the needles again, and you’re pushing Ravelry?!?!? I’m already feeling resentful of work and sleep and eating for cutting into my knitting time!
Of course, come to think of it, I requested an invitation some time ago … so if I get one it’s entirely not your fault. But still, you’re doing the Yarn Temptress thing again and it’s very distracting.
As is Kauni. She’s beautiful! And the socks, all of them! I can’t wait to see them when you’re done. And maybe, just maybe, someday I’ll FO one of my WIPs, too.
I’ve got to ask: Where do you find the energy to knit so quickly? My sister is amazed at my ability to knit faster than she can, but I’m a petrified turtle compared to you. There is no way that I can create such fantastic wonders in such a short time. What’s the secret?
I can see Ravelry becoming a very dangerous place for me….
I am glad to see I am not the only one with this clicking addiction on Ravelry. I can’t help myself! I have so many new ideas that startitis is starting to kick in.
just hoping my husband never tries to get an account…. he’d have full access to my stash (once it’s fully loaded) somehow- having yarn in plain sight all over the house seems less upsetting than him having access to how much I actually have….
Ravelry could be my unraveling;)
ps it’s helping greatly with the mystery shawl kal. There are nearly 4000 knitters knitting along-unbelievable) and 218 who are already on ravelry! Go Melanie.
Have to go back to my knitting- ripped back 3 times due to /fabric/guage issues…. crap. Will I EVER learn to swatch?
shuts down computer chanting: “knitting is fun, knitting is good, swatch it, then block it and know if it’s good”
Not on Ravelry yet, but I’m looking forward to it! Glad to hear that you, too, think it’s all that.
So. It’s viral, and you’re posting links left and right. Obsession loves company, eh?
I know, isn’t Ravelry GREAT!?!?!?!
I am almost overwhelmed by all of the possibilities, plus, OMG to get pictures of all my stash online? It makes me shiver!
I’m waiting with a tinge of fear for my invite. How can I carve out the time I know I will need for Ravelry? Will I give up knitting? No. Sleeping? no – I already get too little. Working? Now there’s an idea! If only the lottery people would co-operate…
That is so freaking awesome, its scary!
So, this Ravelry is like drugs, right?
If I’m understanding it right, it’s a way to keep track of all your yarn and projects and at the same time see what everybody else is doing? And to think all this time I’ve been using a pencil and a notebook! Silly me!
Oh, I asm excited to here you got on Ravelry. I am patiently waiting for my invite. I have caught some made startitis too–and I am not yet on Ravelry. I don’t know what happened! 🙂
Ravelry rocks! And you have to make the Hyrna Herborgar shawl, it’s so pretty. I made it for the olympic knitalong you hosted, and it turned out great!!
THAT’S EXCITING.
See, so exciting I felt the need to caplock by holding the shift key down for each letter.
Oh, Ravelry. You are a blogging-knitter-who-reads-and-loves-organizing’s dream.
You only just got on? If that doesn’t prove to everyone that there’s no hanky-panky going on with the invites, nothing will!
(PS Isn’t it awesome?)
“time suck of happy-smack” – I LOVE IT! Couldn’t have put it better myself!
I saw that site while ago, and lusted after it. Curses, I want in!!!! In other news I had a weird dream that I was reading your blog and you linked my blog as on you’ve recentally read. All I could think was, “No! Not yet! I haven’t updated in awhile!!!” LoL Good luck keeping your startitis in check.
Ravelry is like a huge bit of crack followed by a double espresso for good measure washed down by a cold beer. Honestly . . . it is addictive and mind blowing at the same time! I do like that you can see the possibilities of patterns before you write them off for good; several good knits were added to the queue because of it.
However, I might have a problem with my stash. I keep finding new skeins to photograph!
I know how you feel, except I can’t seem to stop starting new books.
Welcome to Ravelry. It’s an addiction second only to blogging.
I spent the entire weekend taking photos and adding projects to my Ravelry site. I could not stop. Not even to eat.
Oh yes, if one is paying attention, you can almost pinpoint when a blogger received a Ravelry invite. There’s a lot less posting (and knitting), and a lot more dreaming 🙂 Have fun!
Finding new sock patterns on Ravelry has been one of my pastimes for the past couple of weeks.
I vote for Reid. It’s my big project right now, and I’d love to see how fast you’d get yours done.
I’m on the smack too. I can’t seem to stop checking in and nosing around. Did you know that if you type in Canada in the search box on the People page it will show you everyone who’s in Canada?
So will you be getting a separate Flickr account for your stash or will that be a no-show no-tell policy? ;D
i love it, i’ve been there a while, and i’ve Friended you and i’ve been watching you add your photos and best news of all , one of the volunteer editors has asked to use one of my pix of footies i knit on the page for that pattern. i’m so proud of me!
I do NOT need another time suck. As it is, all my friends think it’s weird that I knit. Weirder yet that I knit on the train, in doctor’s offices, while drinking, etc. If I spend more time obsessing about knitting they’re likely to try and stage an intervention….And I think we all know how futile and fruitless that would be.
Not sure how I did it, but I managed to get into Ralvery before the wait list. I am never that cool. It is a completly addicting and awesome tool however! Worth the wait.
BTW, is that lorna’s laces Aqua? i’m using it for my River Rapids…
holy cow that sounds cool!!
I too am addicted to Ravelry. Not only addicted, but inspired by what everyone is knitting. Everything I click on looks so gorgeous that I just want to knit it all up. Now, if only there was enough time in the day 🙂
I heart Ravelry with all my heart!
Yup. It’s pretty much just like crack. 🙂 I’ve been on for a few weeks now and I have to say that it’s one of the bestest things EVAH. I get all shiny and happy when I show it to other knitters and their faces go all slack in wonder and awe.
It’s like pushing the Bible, only more fun and with yarn.
Beautiful projects, as always I’m amazed at your facility with colorwork. Colorwork gives me hives and bad dreams.
I sooooo know the Ravelry love!!! Had totally forgotten that I signed up (like last Feb???) and got the invite a month ago. Constantly. On. It. Endless love. Crazy fantastic idea that.
I can’t believe how many FOs you complete though. I think I have 3 or 4 from this year, and they’re socks or something small. You’re cranking out sweaters and handspun and all of these things!
I am very impressed! And also, maybe a little jealous!
*laughs* I think you just gave the best advertisement Ravelry could ever want or hope for ^_~. I’m still waiting for an invite, but I’ll definitely take a sneak peak at your lists once there ^_~ (yours, and a whole lot of others, I’m sure)
I was looking at the picture of your Kauni cardigan and I noticed the yarn in the top right hand corner. Are all those beautiful color changes from the yarn? Like a self striping sock? (imagine my eyes bugging out at this point)
I’m almost scared to get my Ravelry invite. Yet another addiction that will fuel my knitting addiction that fuels my spinning addiction…you get the point.
Oh, this time suck I have become very acquainted with. Alpaca with a twist? click. Miriam’s shawl patterns. click. Sockpr0n’s gorgeous projects. click. click. click. 🙂
*nodding emphatically* I logged into Ravelry the other night and when next I looked at the clock it was nearly 3 hours later! The forums rock, the response to bugs is fast, the people are friendly, and there are ideas and eye candy everywhere. What more could you ask for in a site?
o where o where is my ravelry invite, o where o where can it be?
It’s such a wonderful, creative, welcoming space! You don’t even realise how quickly you get sucked in, and then you suddenly find yourself dragging all your yarn outside to take pictures.
Isn’t it great?
Yeah, I just got my Ravelry invite today. I am dooooomed!
I LOVE that rosebud sweater but I never thought of doing it w/o sleeves! hmmmmmm…..another thing on the list! thanks for apssing on your contagious disease! 🙂 although I htink I had a case of that already-AND right in the middle of doing a project I love, too! agghhh-the perils of the knitter!!
that sounds about right for ravelry .. today i bought a new bin to keep the wips in because they are overflowing too close to the hamster’s cage. she thinks yarn tastes good.
in any case, ravelry is good crack.
i’m actually using up a bit of stash with the project ideas which means more stash building… (and maybe, maybe, just maybe a wheel!)
I am in love with Ravelry too. What I can’t wait to see is the Raveler meetup at Rhinebeck. The way things are going, it will be a mighty group.
isnt ravelry ace, I have been a member over a month now and just getting into the swing of it!!
I am loving Ravelry too and have been addicted for about a month now. Just like Carolyn, I am also looking forward to a Ravelry meetup at Rhinebeck! It is a little scary to see my stash all displayed on one screen though…
Tell me about it! I have spent so much time on Ravelry since I got my invite a week ago. I photographed almost everything in my stash, and my WIPs, and I keep going back to stare at what other people do with the yarns in my stash or the projects in my queue.
It is 100% pure knitting crack.
Ravelry looks interesting, thanks for the tip. The ‘baby surprise jacket’ caught my eye and after checking it out find the pattern will cost a fortune to ship(I’m in UK) 🙁 I found a link to your version of this cute jacket too. Oh well, back to the socks…
Yeah, startitis tends to be a problem for me since I love the “launch” of new projects more than the actual work or even finished project.
And a good KAL always messes me up. I become enthralled with the novelty of something like Mystery Stole 3.
If someone can make a game of something, I’m always the first in line.
I know… I’m totally addicted in a bad way… I have so many sites that I have to keep up on now… but this one is my fave!
I HAZ RAVELRY! IT IS THE DEVIL!!! I LUV IT!
ok – seriously. I love love love it. I talked about it on my podcast more than once. I tell people it is worth the wait. IT IS!
*drools into the keyboard and heads back to Ravelry*
Oh – and I am getting ready to make a cross country move – you can search for people by location and I have been adding friends in my new home of Kansas City so I can have knitting friends as soon as I get there!
Comments about Ravelry aside (because my invite hasn’t come yet), I say go ahead and cast on the new projects! The Kauni knows the love that you have for it, it will be forgiving.
I kinda hope it takes a long time for Ravelry to be totally up and running. Not because I’m not excited about it, but because I will likely spend all of my time on it and lose my job.
Please don’t send me hate mail! I really can’t wait for the sharing!
“A great honking, community building, idea generating, creativity boosting, knitter organizing, time-suck of happy smack.”
Best description I’ve heard yet. Do you really think there are still knitters out there who are NOT on the waiting list? I heart ravelry big time.
What is the yarn you’re using for the Loksins? It’s such a lovely color and looks very soft.
I know it happened months ago, but due to being out of the country the past 10 months, I didn’t get to see you on Knitty Gritty until yesterday when I watched it at my best friend’s house. She Tivo’d it. Got to love modern technology. It was awesome & your nails looked really cute!
two syllables… di. tto.
ok, more than two – i’m going to go on… this is what i was telling a friend about the other day – – i picked up knitting in an effort to quit smoking. and i’ve truly replaced one addiction for another… (two and a half years running!) i used to be mid-cigarette and get a pang to light up another (not every cigarette, just on rare occasions)… now? i’m knitting something i love and i wish i had 6 hands so i could start those other two things i REALLY want to be knitting. ravelry? the devil and sweet salvation, all in one. *happy sigh*
I have the same webbs sock yarn in the same color and mine doesn’t look nearly as pretty. I guess the plain sock is the way to go with it. Oh, and my how you make smack sound so appealing!
You realize this means that all of us who are in Ravelry right now are going to friend you immediately, don’t you? 😉 Welcome – I am loving it just as much as you are. 🙂
I’m so addicted to Ravelry…it’s a good thing my boyfriend also thinks it’s a great site (even though he’s a muggle), or he might get jealous of all the time I spend on there!
I can stop whenever I want to! But I figured out that if I start drinking smoothies, I can cut down on all the time I spend taking bites of my lunch. If I sip a coffee through a straw at about 3:00 PM, I can stay up a few hours later. Maybe I can hire a driver…
I’m not really a good enough knitter to be this obsessed.
–Barb
I got my husband to read your post and then said “See? It’s not just me.”
Waiting. Twitching. Anxious. Still waiting for the Ravelry invite. I need to be there.
While I wait, I now knit socks. Thanks to you, you have enabled me. Now I need Ravelry to enable me some more.
It must be startitis season, Either that or I need to learn how to knit with my toes 🙂 So many things to knit so little time.
Ravelry’s is such a Black Hole of a time sink. But it’s addictive and I love it. The only thing that draws me away is the sound (or total lack thereof) of my monkeys making mischief.
what kids? what housekeeping? what knitting? what packing for vacation? Nothing else mattered once my invite came through. CAN’T. STOP. CLICKING.
Ravelry. Waaaaaah! I’m not in yet! It can’t be that much fun if I’m not there! 😉
Just keep knitting… Just keep knitting…
Latest case of startis blamed on…Harlot…got the pattern for the Tulips baby cardigan and eyed my stash of 1824 cotton and well…and then tripped over the Threadbare site and came up with about 47 more colorways with the 1824 cotton that are going to HAVE to be tried…thanks for the fun pattern…I see now how Ravelry will work (it will keep me from my work!).
OMG sleeveless Rosebud. Genius. I knit that sweater for my sister while she was pregnant and loved knitting it. Thanks, yet another thing to add to my queue!
I’m hopelessly addicted to Ravelry too, and can’t even contemplate a cure. I’m still sleeping, eating and making to work on time.. that means it’s all good right??
hey Steph–look who invaded the wool drying on my porch! hehehehhe
Boo. At last count, over 7300 of us were not yet cool enough to be on Ravelry. We are waving at you.
It’s starting…Knitting Daily, Ravelry, before long knitters will have taken over the world!
Heh. I’m going to go look you up and see how many projects you have in your queue. But, um, don’t look at mine, k?
I am smacked – and LURVING IT!
Oh, man. I am like 30000000000 in line and I’m just DYING to get on Ravelry!!
🙂 I’ve been checking in on my friends’ activity page, watching you load in your FOs. Lots of memories! But I think I speak for everyone on Ravelry, and who will one day be on Ravelry, when I request: show us your stash!!!! Yours is one we’d definitely love to see.
Cassie raises a good point. Will the stash see the Ravelry Light of Day? Talk about a time suck. 😉
Ravelry wins at the internet. That’s it. The rest of the internet can just fold up and go home. I sometimes forget the other things I used to do online now, it’s all about Ravelry.
And the forums! They are so friendly and quick and much more helpful than anywhere else I’ve ever encountered (especially LiveJournal, by God, people are mean there). How should I sew up the seams on my Baby Surprise Jacket? Lots of different answers, all quick, AND, I get to look at everyone else’s version.
I love that new features are constantly being added too. It really just keeps getting better. I could keep going, but, I have to go play more on Ravelry.
Not to mention the friend thing… Oh my gosh, I am just so into everything everyone is making… click, click, click, friend, friend, friend.
Hi Stephanie,
Bristow is on my list to knit as well. I’ve just moved and was overwhelmed by the number of boxes containing yarn. I’ll be cataloging and sorting for a long time! Tanks for mentioning Ravelry. I’ve already signed up!
Erica
I’m so jealous of the ravelry invite! I’ve been on the list for what feels like ages, but has probably only been about 2 weeks or so.
I’m jealous, too, I asked to be on ages ago! They need to embiggen faster!
Isn’t Gail’s yarn amazing?! I just wrapped her lace weight into skeins yesterday in colorway Rainforest. To die for.
I want my Ravelry invite! 🙁
I love Ravelry because it’s evil and awesome all at the same time. You’re right, you want to look at every single person’s stash and patterns and WIPs and everything, and then you gotta start knitting all of the cool stuff, but wait, maybe you don’t have that yarn so let’s just slope over to Webs and grab up some of that Cathay that’s on markdown, but wait maybe I should take some more pictures of my current stash and post them to my Ravelry account, and oh my stars and feathers I just counted up this morning (after the little Debbie Bliss accident – who knew yarn fumes traveled over the Internet?) and even though I’ve really been knitting for not quite 4 years I somehow have about 90 pairs worth of sock yarn and enough yarn for 19 sweaters (oops, now it’s 20).
Hehehe. Crack and smack and caffeine and wool, all mixed up together. Glorious!
Um…I might have had a little bit of coffee this morning. *twitch*
I see you started adding in you projects! I just want to see you put your stash in there so I can rest comforatably knowing someone has a bigger stash entered in than I do.
I can’t wait to start Ravelry! I don’t know if you’re knitting (or tempted to knit) baby cardigans because you have babies in mind, or just because the patterns are simply wonderfully delicate (and wouldn’t it feel great to hold those delightful FOs in your hands?). If you are looking for a candidate, we just found out we’re having #3 early next year, and oh yeah, we sold most of our baby stuff in a garage sale last year. Rookie mistake. 🙂
Best of luck with all your starts. I’m unwaveringly engaged in “clessidra” socks right now.
ravelry=crack. I am so addicted, for all of the reasons that you mentioned. Not only has it sucked up my time, but it has made me covet so many yarns that it’s truly going to end up being detrimental to my wallet.
Yea… I started to photograph all my projects and stash because of the filthy thing. I imagine that is a much more daunting task for you however. Hope you don’t mind me adding you as a friend. 😀
Ah yes, that’s how it goes!
I am also a beta tester on Ravelry but I am afraid to go on there for all the reasons you mentioned. By the time I came up for air my family would have either starved to death or replaced me with a mom that actually notices them.
Is Ravelry like virtual clear plastic bins labelled with Sharpie and then squirreled under the eaves of my house? Or is it more like the Day Planner I buy every year in January and then lose in February and then wish I could add the kids swim lessons in July?
Hey there–constantly starting too many projects. Have one I hate and three I love on the needles right now and want to dump them all as my sister is expecting her first baby within the week. I’ve already knitted one sweater and bootie set for the baby (who will live in the anti-sweater heat of San Diego) but can’t stop looking at yarn and magazines and planning more!
By the way, back in Slushflood you mentioned needing to mark the storm drain when it was warm out. Now would be a good time. ;D
You are an EVIL woman! I see though your nice, sweet, Canadian-girl-next-door facade. First you lure us in with a little knitting humor. Then, you mix in a little of the mom-wife-working woman-feminist-do-gooder-knitting humor. You talk about your stash, your knitting, your spinning. You suck us in with some dumb-ass newby knitter mistakes that no one who’s been knitting as long as you should ever make so that we think you are “one-of-us”. You draw us out into the light with your book tours. But this move is so bold and brazen that it shows you for the evil you truly are.
Two years ago (for some reason I still do not know)I taught myself to knit. Then, I started aquiring a stash. Then I read your first two books and laughed until I cried (and felt better about the size of my growing stash). Then, I started reading your blog. Then other blogs. Now, I have one of my own (not that I update it regularly or anything). Next, I got a drop spindle. Along the way I have aquired a few dozen knitting books…and yet more stash. I now have at least three different socks on the needles at all times because they are…you know, socks…(only you and your readers understand what a sock in progress is damnit). I still haven’t tried a spinning wheel but I can smell a wet sheep from a mile off. I dye my own sock yarn (my kids know the Kool-ade is NOT for them). For Mother’s day I got special cubicle shelving for the stash (darn, need to remind the Hubby to get just one more so it will ALL fit). My husband still doesn’t quite grasp the idea of what an umbrella swift or a ball winder is or how they would save me ages of time and aggrevation but he does know he can’t get them locally.
When he finally does decide to file for divorce because I can’t seem to knit and clean at the same time and if I knit the house just gets grungier but if I clean the house still gets grungier (just at a slower pace) AND I am the Bitchfromhell to live with…
Well, I will be thanking you and this straw-that-broke-the-sheep’s-back, Ravelry!!
Of course, if I give up sleep entirely (I’m almost there anyway…what’s a few more hours), and stop eating (hey, I just might finally lose some of this weight) maybe I can use this awesome new site to finally get organized…
Wow… to knit all that, you may need ask the powers that be for more than 24 hours in a day!
I have to tell you that Ravelry has swallowed up huge amounts of my time as well. I find myself obsessively taking photos to post and looking for new, interesting items to knit. I almost can’t wait to cast on for Rusted Root. Seriously beautiful.
Keep on clicking!
It sounds like an interactive, knitterly version of the Internet Movie Database. But even cooler. Can’t wait to see what happens if/when I get an invite as I already have no free time, yet this is exactly the sort of thing that will suck me in. I’d better go Finish some Objects now, just in case.
Just stumbled onto Ravelry yesterday and am (im)patiently waiting for my invite! I can’t wait to jump on and ogle at what everyone else is doing!
Alas, my case of startitis is terminal… I’ve got all these projects started but with a 4-month old baby and a 5-year old kid out of school, absolutely no hope of finishing anytime soon. Someday…
i’m loving the knitting crack, too. my clicking addiction: must.click.patterns.tab.constantly.to.be.sure.i’ve.seen.all.designers. literally, i do this at least once a day to be sure that all the designers on the page show up as visited links–god forbid that there be a pattern i haven’t seen yet! i keep doing it until i’ve seen all the designers twice in a row. and i have two computers, so i sometimes do it twice, because i have to be sure. this = obsession. also: let me see who else is from pittsburgh on there. click. and let me see what other people have made with this yarn i just bought on destashforcash. click. and let me add the five patterns i like in this new magazine/book/issue of knitty. click. clickclickclickclickclick.
just have to be sure that i don’t get a repetitive stress injury from ravelring that keeps me from knitting. 🙂
Also a sufferer (well, not really) of startitis, Ravelry’s done me in. As if I need more to cast on, my queue is now something like 42 …. Puh leeze! I roll my eyes at myself, as usual. Thanks for joining us in the happy land of Ravelry!
My husband spends inordinate amounts of time in Second Life. (www.secondlife.com ) It used to bother me. Then I got my Ravelry invite. … He didn’t understand my sudden acceptance of being a Second Life widow until I told him Ravelry is like Second Life for knitters. (It is nothing like, except in the addictive time suck part). Now we co-exist in peace once more.
So will this mean that folks won’t blog about that stuff any more? And then where are all the folks like me for whom the very idea of cataloguing all our stuff makes us twitch?
It’s the best, isn’t it? Life will never be the same.
Thanks for the linkage.
Rosemary
Must be contagious. I’ve been starting WAY too many things here lately.
How do you search for hard patterns on Ravelry? I tried the things I thought would work. They didn’t.
I just got on Ravelry and am totally hooked. Isn’t it the best?
I’m soooo addicted to Ravelry! It’s awful though, finding so many patterns that I never knew of that I simply must knit. And pretty new yarns. And ideas for yarns that I already have. Oh my. It’s amazing that I get anything done at work anymore…
You need to knit with the Harlot’s Mums!
Flipping ravelry. I am jealous (stomp pout whine).
Also love Franklin (that kangaroo dyer yarn). Sometimes at Webs there are skeins of this yarn that just say “HD” on their bar code with no color name. These are colors that won’t ever exist again. I buy them constantly, one of a kind skeins. I adore them.
You enabler you. I had a hard time remembering that clicking on the screen shots on Ravelry wasn’t going to make the pictures bigger. Fabulous idea. Hope the invite comes soon. Thanks, for making me laugh, for spreading the word about the Kauni, for introducing me to Ravelry, etc. Ahhh, the list is long. theresa (aka fibercrone)
Ravelry is terribly addictive. I got on it last week and I check it even before I check emails! Now I have one million new projects on my queue. But the good thing is that I found many projects for the yarn that was in my stash.
Hi, I don’t normally comment but I thought that I would drop you a note and let you know that I love your writing. Just over a year ago I stumbled upon one of your books and followed the yarn trail back to the blog – at which point I read all of the archives… I think that the Canadian jokes you make are absolutely hilarious too (I’m from Calgary).
Raveler here! Yes its all that and more! So much more! It is fiber addicts dream come true! Seriously. Best description I have seen yet.
oh oh oh sounds to me like a LOT of knitters are spending their time on line searching through Ravelry instead of knitting. Lordy I don’t need that in my life. I knit slow enough as it is and also spend enough time on here. Good luck to the ones that join and getting all their knitting done.
Oooh…stay away…you1’re worse than the pusher I mean enabler at my LYS
Ravelry is great fun! I love seeing all your projects in one place. The startitis might be a seasonal thing, I think I have it, too.
Still waiting to get on but it almost scares me-I can see my sitting all day looking at the beauty that is all knitting and not knitting a stitch.
Your cardigan is so beautiful-we knitters in Michigan are trying to find a wholesale host so our LYS can order the yarn for us. Sigh-
As if Ravelry isn’t bad enough already, I read your post and had to hie myself over to Webs to get some of that Macaw – gorgeous! (Then I had to order enough more yarn to get the discount, darn…)
Well, that pretty much clears up what I’ll be doing with my luch hours from now on. Lovely sweater, lovely socks. Must resist dumping out stash buckets…must resist ( sound of knitter being buried in yarn) ahhhhhhhh
Ravelry is addictive. I wonder if it can be classified as a controlled substance. Or, more likely, a controlling substance. I can’t believe how many projects I’ve found that I.absolutely.have.got.to.knit over there. Egads. I love it!
Thanks a heap! Now I have two more sock patterns to work on, and very little time in which to do it all, having signed up for a stashbusting exercise!!!
Sleep is obviously for the weak…
Oh, and I did sign up for Ravelry a while ago, so I’m just crossing my fingers I get my email soon 🙂
You are a bad influence. I wasn’t going to put my name down for Ravelry, I REALLY wasn’t. Because I lose enough of my day on the Sockapalooza4 Pligg (http://alison.knitsmiths.us/sockapalooza4/blog). So I was being all mature, and doing the self denial thing. And then you go and write this post, telling me how great Ravelry is, and the world goes all swirly, and next thing I know I’m looking at the Ravelry page and there’s this little message in the sidebar saying they’ll notify me when I get to the top of the list.
If you see a news report about naked feral children living wild in rural Australia, just know that IT’S ALL YOUR FAULT.
I totally know what you mean!! I check my email in the morning, read my blogs and then on to Ravelry for an hour or so just browsing around. thanks to it, I have about 7 projects otn right now!!
I agree. Although I didn’t know about checking out the difficulty of a pattern. I’m off to check now. And maybe add some more patterns to my queue, then add some yarn, or projects I have been working on…
If it wasn’t viral before, it sure is now. Don’t you know that once you post something in your blog, it spreads through the knitting community like wildfire? My goodness woman, you know how influential you are. Your blog posts should have labels–warning, you may have the uncontrollable urge to start a project (or ten) after reading this blog post–or warning, you may find yourself knitting a stupid ruffly scarf for some unknown reason after reading this post. (Yes, I made a ruffly scarf.) I mean really Stephanie, have some compassion for us out here. Did you just want some company or are you in cahoots with the yarn companies?
Goodness. What time is it? Is the LYS still open? Where are my needles? Outta my way!! I have to start a new project!!!
Um, yeah. My first thought when I got my invite was, “WOOOOO!” and the second thought was, “crap, I SO don’t have time for this right now!” Didn’t stop me from uploading two years’ worth of photos and a year’s worth of projects, though. And then some yarn…sigh…it’s incredible. A wonderful, incredible, time-sucking black hole.
uh oh. I should have read the comments before I added my name to the waiting list. How do I explain to partner that not only am i traveling for work half the summer but the other half could involve Ravelry, not revelry with him?
I’m telling myself I put in a request for a Ravelry invite a while ago, though I may actually never have done so. I figure once they say they’ve invited everybody on their list, I’ll know. Until then, I might remain married and employed. I know a rabbit hole when I see one.
As always, I’m voting for hyrna. But really, those Cassocks are quite handsome.
I’m jealous of the whole blogging community. I’ve got a few pics up on my MySpace (I know, slightly pathetic) but I’d like to get into blogging, although I have a feeling that my husband would probably divorce me. He feels that my knitting “habit” is taking too much of his time as it is. Suggestions?
PS – Stephanie, I loved your blog about the squirrel. I laughed out loud when I read it 🙂
I got my Ravelry invite a while ago and literally spent a week taking pictures of my yarn (well, first figuring out a good lighting scheme and then taking pictures), editing them, uploading them, and filling out all the info. I did NO knitting that week. It is so addictive.
Stephanie! You finally made it! I can’t wait to see photos of the tremendous stash to which we all aspire!
I absolutely adore Ravelry! Click-click! Aside from the sheer organizational beauty of this thing, it is really great to be able to see what other people are knitting, have knit, have FUBAR’d, have OOH,AAH’d…This is wonderful! A “real” virtual community! 🙂
P.S. What’s your ravelry name?
Ahhh, Ravelry. Now you know. It’s like sweet, forbidden candy, just for knitters.
seriously! like I need more reasons to be addicted to knitting in the relm of the internet!! that’s insane! I’m practically frothing at the mouth!
I couldn’t agree more about Ravelry. I got invited a few weeks ago, and it has been great to keep me organized (and also to take pictures of my knitting) but dang, once you get on, you get sucked in. I love looking at what other people are doing with the patterns I am knitting. It’s awesome!
hmmmmmmmmmmmmm, steph, have you ever kept a running total of the number of projects you’ve completed in your lifetime? if not, what do you estimate it to be? no, wait! don’t tell me. i already feel bad enough that i only complete one or 2 things a year! the sheer magnitude of that count would overwhelm me. even though it’s getting late, i’m now going to go “do a few rounds”. see ya! 🙂
And how many “friends” do you now have on Ravelry??
Since EVERYONE wants to be your friend.
🙂
I LOVE Ravelry. I’ve been consciously staying away this week, for other commitments, but oh…what a wondrous thing is Ravelry.
SO glad you’re there, too! Everyone should be!
And those Macaw socks are to die for!
(((hugs)))
Ravelry is the devil and I can’t resist it either. I just got my invite a few days ago and I find myself wanting to log on a few times a day. If someone tries to interrupt my Ravelry time, I get cranky. I have all sorts of pics on my camera to upload and I’m feeling so impatient because my Ravelry page NEEDS photos! It needs them NOW! I’d love to see you take pics and upload your stash on there. That’d be a fun page! I realize it may take a few weeks to do, but it’d be so worth it! lol!
I *heart* Ravelry! Isn’t it awesome?!
Oh yes, Ravelry scares me. I was over there just last night, checking it out (again).
And tonight I’m trying to think how to spend less time on the Internet because it’s sucking up too much time. *sigh* I can’t remember what I did before the Internet came along. I love it.
Sniff! Ravelry is a big, well-lit sweet-shop with endless beautiful sweeties on display for all inside to indulge . . . and I’m the snotty-nosed, tear-stained urchin with my face pressed against the window steaming up the glass with hunger! Sniff! . . . and now the Yarn Harlot Lady has inadvertently sucked on her techni-colour lollipop right in front of my nose. No, really, my increased saliva and I are very happy for her. Sniff! Ravelry . . . I want CANDY!!!! (Foot Stamp)
Oh, Baby! Can I make a Lady Surprise Jacket in my own size? I just finished a shawl using all those single skeins that are too exensive to buy more than one, in pink-peach-brown. I could put together a similar collection in blue-green-purple, for a jacket.
I have plenty of time to decide: I had joint replacement surgery on my right thumb this morning. Nothing but garter stitch, and very little of that, for the next six weeks.
Hi there! I’m also sick with the casting-on virus right now. I don’t know what it is, but I’m desperate to knit EVERYTHING I see, including all the fabulous knits on your site.
I subscribe to your RSS feed, and I’ve gotten such a kick out of reading all your entries. I have a knitting blog that’s less-frequently updated at http://nocturnalknits.blogspot.com, but I hope to start posting more often. I have a knitting book coming out from Chronicle (e.t.a. Fall 2008), and I love reading other knitting book authors’ blogs!
Keep up the great posts!
Oh yeah, one more thing:
I’ve recently gotten totally OCD on my stash and created a MySQL database (powered by an excel spreadsheet) to track my yarn. I even have a dedicated page on my website to keep track of my stash. I’m a dork.
I also have SO much more to add to the database. I’ll have to sit down with a pile of yarn and my kitchen scale and just do it some night in the near future.
Ravelry is a thief of time!
But still, I love it. I haven’t had time to put much on there though, the time thieving has been caused by the pattern browser function (want to knit a shrug? here are 100 to choose from!).
Oh I do wish you guy would stop taunting me with Ravelry! 😛 My invite should be coming up, but in the meantime, everyone keeps telling me how great it is. Pure torture!
Love the Kangaroo Dyer!
Anxiously awaiting my invite…been on the list for a week and a half now. It’ll be nice to have a place to organize and show off my stuff as I am blogless and slightly blogphobic. Been wanting to make Rosebud myself for about a year now. Do you think the Kauni would work with Noro Kureyon??? Rushing to finish my Clemetine Shawlette before the next MS3 clue as I’m making 2 of them. PS – You really do not want to see my kitchen right now…Oh yes – yarn is like Crack. Alynxia
Ravelry… I am waiting for my invite. But I think I need a voice command computer system, so that I can knit and “click” at the same time!
Caroline, the SockPixie
Damn. I’ve been ever so patiently waiting for my Ravelry invite. Thanks for making the wait that much harder. Clearly this is a wicked strain of viral startitis because you’re spreading it all among the knitting community with linkage like that. I’m going to go cast on some new socks. Or a shrug. Or a sweater.
Damn.
I might have to knit the Phineas socks since they share a name with one of my cats.
As for Ravelry…I think I’m happy I’m still on the waiting list. Sounds dangerous.
Ooohmy, what a lot of lovely colors! (Dang, I nearly typed ‘coconuts’ at the end, there, and I don’t even really know the joke! Or song. Whatever it is.) Everything’s looking gorgeous, and what’s wrong with startitis? I love startitis. I wish I could love finishitis, but I’ve rarely experienced that, so I’ll have to make do with startitis. 😉
Ravelry – me, I’m going to be one of those rare ones who’ll wait until it’s out of beta to get to it. [g] Sounds great for the looking at patterns and FO’s and yarns and such, but me, organizing my stash? Taking pictures of it all? (Which would entail digging through everything and sorting, and… well… organizing.) Getting all my UFO’s and few FO’s and in-progress O’s photographed? Organize my *needles*? Um – no. I’d never get *any* knitting done, and I’m bad enough at that already, LOL! Plus getting pix up on my blog. Besides, if I organize things, I lose stuff. Permanently, sometimes. I’ll just wait until the dust settles. Maybe by then I’ll have finished some socks! ::snerk::
this is my holiday i am american with close to 400 years behind me and always wtih me
ny family packed up the wagons in virginia
walked out to indiana with a baby born under
a cherry tree aong the way. .peter was father
of fourteen and arrived 1833 i would think they
knitted for they would need warm clothing
for the babies and themseles..400 years and more
i knit happy fourth of july
to all have a sparkling day
be proud and raise a glass
to those who cant make it to rhe party
i guess you would mark this A
Ahhh, the elusive Ravelry invitation. I’ve been waiting…and waiting…and waiting. It seems like years, but it’s probably only been about a month. I am so excited about it. I’m checking my email several times a day, as opposed to a couple of times a week before the hope of a Ravelry invite! (Note to self: must get a life…..)
Ugh!!! and Yea!!! all at the same time. Time that’s what it never seems like there is a enough of. I already can’t put my needles down and when I do I’m either reading knitting blogs or knitting books or knitting novels.I need more time. I to wait for my Ravelry invite. Some of my friends don’t get, I tell them its like the cabbage patch dolls or the beanie babies people just waited in long lines to hopefully get a toy. We are all just waiting in a long line with something much more rewarding in the end of that line and won’t collect dust.Of course knitting always help when your waiting in a long line:D
I love Ravelry. Somehow I got on the list early, and I love it. Welcome!
Stephanie, you are evil in a good way. I clicked on all your links, and boy do you have good taste. I want to knit them all too. One thing at a time….
Honestly, I’d love to know what their invite criteria are. I’ve been on the list for beta testing for three months and have yet to receive my invite.
Ravelry is the pedantic knitter’s dream.
Still waiting for my Ravelry invite…glad to hear I’ll be in good company when I get there.
OMG, I thought the blogiverse was bad enough as far as startitis goes. This will kill me (and all my free time) I’m definitely signing up 🙂
pardon my ignorance, but does the yarn knit up in pattern form with regards to the very beautiful Kauni cardigan? It is very beautiful in deed.
I am patiently waiting for others that I know to get the invite to ravelry. I have been on for about a month and I am obsessed. I have no one else to talk about how freakin cool it it yet. I will watch for your page. I imagine it will take you awile to get your projects up.
Yay ravelry! I’m on there (as Corvus, predictably) as well, and I’m saving up for a flickr pro account because of it.
Holy cats, does Ravelry ever look cool. I have a feeling I’ll be on there more than I’ll be knitting. Thanks for the heads up; I hadn’t heard about it yet.
O, thou temptress! I can feel a bad case of startitis coming on myself. Just finished a self-imposed finish-the-damn-projects week where I don’t allow any new castings on. Finished 3 of the projects that are in the works. Now beginning to regard the stash with an eye towards “oooh! right! that’s the most awesome, yummy, beautiful yarn. i wanna play with it.” of course this sentiment is being applied to everything i pick up. sigh. the startitis is too powerful. i will have to self-impose another finish-the-damn-projects week soon, i fear!
It’s a wonderful thing! Until I get laid off in Aug and actually inventory the stash that is! I may faint.
Please God, let my Kauni yarn (in the rainbow colorway) be in my mailbox today, when I get home from work. Please.
I was totally hoping that joining Ravelry might help me curb my startitis, what with having all of my works-in-progress staring me and everyone else in the face. Unfortunately, I underestimated the power of “ooh! Shiny!” There’s just way too much great stuff to knit!
I got a Ravelry invite and joined. But am very disappointed and have sent in suggestions. I do a lot of dyeing and spinning AND knit from other independent handspun and roving vendors. There is no way to log those. So I gave up in disgust. You can see what I loaded so far – member = kitkatknit
Ravelry has sucked me in, too. Luckily, so far, it hasn’t induced startitis, but I have spent tons of time looking at patterns (in every yarn and color possible), everything knit in certain yarns in my stash or that I just love, etc. etc.
Oh, and tons and tons of time entering my own data. This is exactly the kind of tracking/organizing thing I’ve been looking for. I tried to mock it up on my own in Typepad, but I never kept up. I think I will with Ravelry, because all the data fields are already set up (and with Flickr, I’m not limited in amount of stuff I upload… only how much how fast… like I was with Typepad). It’s fabulous and dangerous all at the same time.
Raverly– that is how I keep stumbling over the word….like Elmer Fud. I wish it well, but I do wish I could manage to say it! 🙂
Oh lord – Ravelry is the best site on earth!
It is outrageously addicting isn’t it?
I have some of those same patterns in my queue.
Haha..yes, Ravelry is like an addictive substance. You find a pattern and then it’s click, click, click….etc.etc.etc. My biggest complaint on there so far, I can’t add your books to my “library”, sniffle. They just don’t come up yet for the library feature yet.
What a great yarn you are using! Yummy colours!
Off to go click click click!! Thanks for that too!!
~gyl
That woman from ravelry is a marvel! I had the great wonderful fortune to sit on a bench in Northampton, waiting for you to appear across the street at the Calvin, and sits down next to me but Jessica and hands me a button advertising her site? I got to sit next to a woman making history.
Oh and on the same day you posted this (I am a little late reading, as usual…two kids home from school…)I pulled out all my stash and spread it out in the back yard. Good thing I didn’t read about the MS3. I would be in deep trouble.
I recently listened to an episode of Radio Lab called “Mortality.” http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/episodes/2007/06/15
At the beginning (about a minute to a minute and a half in) of the section called “Fountains of Youth” is a fact about squirrels you may find disturbing. That is, the number of years you have to look forward to battling it out with the “rat bastard” is unsettling. You’re gonna wish it was an actual rat who steals your fleece, rather than a rat bastard squirrel.
Radio Lab is a fascinating radio series, btw. The way it’s edited is like no other radio show. Probably because the editor/one of the hosts is a musician/composer.
Yup, I’m late to this party since I got my invite 7/4 and haven’t been able to pry myself away ever since! No sleep, no food, just wonderful knitterly and crochet goodnes!