In Praise of Ravelry

Got your Google+ invite? Yes? Created some circles, placing people where you think they belong in your life then moving them about every time someone else you know appears on the site?  Wish the circles would overlap because you just can’t resist a decent Venn diagram? Want a Ninth Circle of Google+ where you could banish those people you never want to interact with?

Well, I can’t help you with any of those questions but asking them got me thinking about how and why I use social networks.  Maybe it goes back to those chat rooms when AOL was the only game in town and I had two kids in diapers (not to mention the two huge dogs and one large husband to care for) so uninterrupted face to face chats with friends over coffee or at a bar just weren’t going to happen.  We mommies opened up our chat rooms in the morning and popped in and out as naps and videos allowed.  My children survived to enter kindergarten and my marriage probably lasted a few days longer due to the opportunity to converse with other adults with similar interests and issues.

Fast forward a significant amount of time and we have Twitter.  I signed on initially to share a conference experience at NYU but then discovered what a wonderful platform it was to converse with friends, network with professionals, and keep in touch with the world outside my classroom.  This lasted about two years but then the school community jumped on board and, well, it became a case of “be careful what you wish for”. Used to be a great platform for self expression, now not so much, but that’s how I learned to manage Facebook lists.

Now we have Google+.  Just about the time I got my invite, @hoxtonhandmade tweeted an article from Slate entitled “A Tight Knit Community: Why Facebook Can’t Match Ravelry, a Social Network for Knitters” (more about @hoxtonhandmade in a few).  Ravelry was founded by a husband and wife team and has just four employees to keep a social network of over a million members going.  No pretty diagrams, no chats based on sports metaphors, just forums, groups, shopping, and a way to catalog all my favorite patterns and yarn as well as ask questions of other knitters as I strive to be more than a novice.

I have over 2000 followers on Twitter, close to 200 friends on Facebook, over 30 folks in my Circles on Google+ … and 3 friends on Ravelry.  One to one connections aren’t as important as sharing a passion for a specific topic with the group at large, and you needn’t post all over the place to feel like you’re a participant. While I’ve never joined a knitting group, I get the impression that Ravelry is like those chat rooms the moms ran way back when – a group of people discussing their knitting successes and failures as well as resources and entertainment.

I tend to visit the groups that focus on the various podcasts I love.  The Knitmore Girls, Electric Sheep, and A Playful Day are my favorites (although I’ve found I slip into a decidedly British accent for no reason these days I swear, and the latter 2 podcasters love of mustaches and ale is an added bonus).  Yarn and pattern recommendations are easy to follow up on Ravelry, and when I’m looking for that perfect next project, these podcasts tend to at least give me a push in the right direction.

I admit, after catching up on A Playful Day’s podcast I’m seriously lusting after Madelinetosh DK yarn, and @hoxtonhandmade’s essay from awhile back about acrylic yarn made me feel not so bad about using Red Heart over fancy alpaca or cashmere.  After all, I am a new knitter, poor teacher with two expensive teenagers … and acrylic was certainly alright for Grandma!  I wish The Knitmore Girls hadn’t timed their first vacation with mine, but their return in September will make that month just a bit more palatable!

The best part of Ravelry for me, though, is exactly what made me first love Twitter.  A wealth of timely information and a group of experts to provide almost instant answers to pressing questions.  I recently decided to knit this pattern from The Brisbane Courier‘s Thursday, November 29, 1928 edition, based on this version created by Ravelry member KnittingAnd.  When I couldn’t quite figure out how to attach the lining, I emailed her and got a quick response even though she’s in Australia!

A successful social network for me at least is one that provides a platform for people interested in a similar subject to share ideas, ask questions, and provide information.  When I joined Twitter, I wanted contacts in tech and marketing, asked and answered questions about those topics and then education.  Yes, it’s great to send random thoughts out to the twitterverse, get your news almost immediately in your Tweetdeck stream, and casually chat with friends throughout your day, but for real social media value, I think specialized networks are the up and coming platform not the meganetworks like Google+.

I may be wrong (and please tell me if you think I am), but I wouldn’t be surprised to find there are other very successful specialized social networks out there…