When I first discovered Ravelry, I was so giddy because it had everything I was looking for at that time. If you haven’t heard of it, you should definitely read this post and then check out the site. It’s free to use! Ravelry is a combination of an online community, look for patterns to crochet or knit, and keep track of hooks, yarn stash, and needles. This comes in handy sometimes since you can log in on your smartphone and see what you currently own. In case you find yourself in a craft store and you wonder if you have a certain type of yarn or a hook.

Plus, once you find a pattern that you want to make, you can save it to your library for future reference or line up your projects. It’s very possible that if you are searching for a scarf, you can end up finding five scarves that you want to make. Save it to your library for safekeeping. No need to search for these patterns again.

There is a lot to see and use but let’s take a bit of a tour of the site. These areas are, what I think, you should check out to help organize your projects and meet other crafters like yourself.

Homepage

As soon as you log in, you are viewing the home page for the site. There is always a post highlighted which will be a great read and the patterns shown might interest you. So, take a look at it in case it interests you or give you ideas for your next project. Off to the right of the post, are the helpful links to the site and a search bar.

The menu bar holds links to find patterns, yarn that other users are selling on the site, your friends list, groups that you are a part of (more on that later), forums, your notebook, and an inbox if your friends send you messages.

To customize your Ravelry account, start with the “My Notebook”. Here you can add the projects that you are currently doing and add others to your queue. When you find patterns on the site, you can add them to your library and favorites. Most bloggers that I have seen, have a Ravelry button on their patterns so that when it is clicked, it will add them to your library. Your notebook also can track what you currently own in terms of yarn, needles, and hooks. If you purchase items on the site, you can easily find it your notebook as well as any contributions you make on the site.

Notebook > Library

The library keeps track of the patterns that you find on Ravelry (free and paid) and those that you find from blogs that have the Ravelry button. It’s a great resource to keep patterns in one place. There would be times where I would decide out of nowhere that I want to do a pattern and will go to a yarn store after work. Having access to patterns digitally makes yarn shopping so much easier. Once you have a lot of patterns in your library, the filter options to the left of the “bookshelf” will help in finding patterns.

Notebook > Needles & Hooks

If your building your “toolbox” slowly, the “Needles & Hooks” section will help you in remembering what you currently have in regards to needles, hooks, circular needles, and double-pointed needles. No more “accidentally” buying crochet hooks that you currently own. I can never remember what I have and I don’t have to! In the hooks section, there is a separate section for steel hooks.

Groups

Groups are where you can join the community or build your own within Ravelry. It could be where, as a group, you do crochet-a-longs/knit-a-longs or have your questions answered. There are so many groups out there and everyone is so welcoming and helpful. Some yarn stores have their own groups on Ravelry. You can start with these if you don’t know where to start.

Can you now see why I signed up to use the site? I’ve used it many times to look for a pattern and to see if I have a certain hook size. It has saved me from having multiple hooks of the same size. Ravelry and Pinterest keep me as organized as I can be.

Have you used Ravelry before? If so, what do you use it for? If you don’t, are you now thinking about it? Let me know!

If you want information on how I use Pinterest for crochet, check out my post on How to Use Pinterest. Stop by and say hello on my Ravelry page!

Pin Me For Later!