Unraveled

We have been recovering all week from the absolutely amazing time that we had last week in Portland at Sock Summit. Our expectations for this trip were high – how could they not be? Incredible teachers and classes, fun events (including our own Ravelry party!), and a gathering of yarn-lovers in a huge marketplace. Each and every aspect of the event was better than we could have hoped. On the very first day, we noticed something a little funny about all the attendees, including us: everyone was walking around with a big goofy grin! It was clear that we knew we were a part of something special and we were all feeling so grateful to be a part of it.

The Ravelry Party on Saturday night was loads of fun. Between 600 and 650 Ravelers came out to the World Forestry Center in Portland and had an incredible time, thanks to our wonderful party sponsors Lantern Moon’s Sox Stix and Namaste (Cashmere Sponsors), and Berroco, Bijou Basin Ranch, Buffalo Gold, Gardiner Yarn Works, and Zealana (Merino sponsors). Thank you so much for your generosity – we hope that those of you who were able to attend had a great time looking around at all the smiles you helped to create – we could not have done this without you! :) Thanks also to the volunteers who came early to help set up the party and stayed late to help break it down (and to ConvolutedString Lisa, the hard-working volunteer coordinator for Sock Summit, who generously helped to round up the awesome crew)! Your cheerful work made it possible for us to have time to eat before the party (a minor miracle) and go to bed at a decent hour afterward (a major one). Thank you! The kindness and generosity of our community is really overwhelming sometimes.

That community spirit was at the forefront of the entire Sock Summit weekend. I think that anyone who was there would agree: the energy was palpable. There were many happy tears and full hearts – Sock Summit was so big, and yet it felt so intimate and special. The Sock Summit team (Tina Newton, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, Cat Bordhi, Debbi Stone, Rachel Harvey, Debra McVae, and JoAnn D.) poured their hearts into the creation and execution of the event, and we all appreciate every moment! (And… ahem… hope for another! Too soon to mention that?)

Here in our Team Chatroom at Ravelry, we can’t get over just how inspired we are – not only with regards to our craft (such amazing classes, projects, and yarn all around!) but especially when it comes to our community and the wonderful people at the heart of it all. Jess and I were lucky enough to attend classes and lectures by the amazing Nancy Bush, Priscilla Gibson-Roberts, Heather Ordover, Barbara Walker, and Anna Zilboorg, and each gave us new skills as well as a deepened appreciation of the history and meaning of our craft. We are so thankful to them for sharing a bit of themselves with us and with everyone else there. Though we were too shy to pose for pictures with all the teachers, when we went to Barbara Walker’s lecture and saw that she was graciously posing for photos with her (many) fans, we looked at each other and said “we’ll really regret it if we don’t ask!” She is an incredible woman and was kind enough to say “yes” and take her picture with us. You can see that we are both a little teary and amazed at that moment… that happened a lot!

I might have to frame that one.

For more pictures from me or Jess, check out our Flickr sets (MH’s Sock Summit set, Jess’ Sock Summit set)! You can also browse the photo pools on Flickr: Sock Summit 2009 (for all photos) and Ravelry Events (for Ravelry Event-related photos). If you’re on Flickr and attended Sock Summit and/or the Ravelry party, please add your photos to the pool! We know that we aren’t alone in our feeling that we’re going to carry our Sock Summit experience with us forever: Casey set up a special part of Ravelry for Sock Summit Memories – all Ravelers can read blog posts and tweets related to Sock Summit, and a common phrases seem to be wow, fantastic, incredible, inspirational, fun, and of course: we hope there’s another!

Thanks again to the Sock Summit team, all the teachers and vendors, our fabulous party sponsors, and to everyone who came up to us and said hello or gave us a hug (or both)! You were all a part of a weekend that we will never forget. To Socks!

update: I forgot the cardinal rule of wearing handknits on the Ravelry blog – they must be linked! :) In several pictures, I am wearing Entomology by Laura Nelkin (the light pink beaded shawl), and Jess is wearing her Ishbel by Ysolda Teague (deep pink lace). In the bottom picture, Jess is wearing her wedding shawl, the Flower Basket Shawl by Evelyn A. Clark. :)

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The Dye For Glory Results are live! The gallery is publicly viewable – you can share it with your non-Raveler friends!

You can read more on the Sock Summit blog and at the Yarn Harlot’s blog – thank you, Tina and Stephanie, for the wonderful idea, thank you to all the amazingly talented dyers who participated, and thank you to all 14,557 people who cast 154,828 votes. Wow. Congratulations, all!

It has been a little over a year since we introduced Ravelry’s mini mart and to celebrate we are doing our first sale!

We’d like to clear out some of our old inventory so that we can bring out some new merchandise- and we have some things that we are really excited about coming up!

Starting now get 20% off overstocked and discontinued items if you buy anything at regular price!  This could be your last chance as some of these sale items will not be re-stocked!

Crazy Bob’s Super Sale ends August 10th.

I don’t know about the other Sock Summit attendees, but here at Ravelry, we can’t wait to get out to Portland!  I have been busily working on my homework for my classes, assembling class materials and figuring out what comfy shoes to wear. Casey, of course, has been making lists of local beers he wants to try. :)

We also have been working hard on pulling together a party where Ravelers in town for Sock Summit and locals can get together and have some fun!  I know we will all be busy having a great time meeting the amazing teachers and speakers and learning new techniques but I hope you can spare the evening to come by our Ravelry meetup!

Where: Central Plaza and Cheatham Hall at the World Forestry Center in Washington Park, Portland (more info including directions below)

When: Saturday, August 8 from 7 – 11 pm (please oh please! arrive no earlier than 7pm)

RSVP on the Ravelry Events page!

We’re going to have finger food (not full dinner but some yummy snacks!), music, cash bar with good local beer and wine, amazing prize giveaways from our Sponsors, plenty of Hello! username buttons so that we can identify each other, and a really fun time.

It just would not be possible for us to host this event without the help of our Sponsors:

Lantern Moon’s Sox Stix and Namaste

Berroco, Bijou Basin Ranch, Buffalo Gold, Gardiner Yarn Works, & Zealana

Thank you so much to our generous Sponsors!!

Getting to the party:

The World Forestry Center (google maps link) is accessible via the MAX light rail line so it should be very easy for us all to make our way over there from the convention center.  Here’s a map with the two stations highlighted. (For more information on public transit options, call TRI­MET at 503-­238-­RIDE or visit their website.)

We don’t recommend driving since we cannot guarantee parking although there is a shared lot with the Oregon Zoo and the Children’s Museum.

Address for the World Forestry Center: 4033 SW Canyon Rd Portland, OR 97221-2798

Once you arrive at Washington Park, we will have signs directing you to our party at Central Plaza and Cheatham Hall but you may find these maps handy: Washington Park map and World Forestry Center map

We will also be attending classes and shopping at the market at Sock Summit so make sure you come say hello! Can’t wait to see you there!

RSVP for the party!

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Those gorgeous yarns (201 entries total!) are the work of the 81 dyers who have entered the Sock Summit Dye For Glory contest! We’re pleased to announce that voting is now open to all Ravelers!

Voting is easy! Just go to www.ravelry.com/socksummit and click on a category to see all the colorways that have been submitted in that category. (The yarns come up in a different order for each voter, so we’re all seeing the colorways randomly and there is no advantage to being at the top.) Look at the pretty pictures, read about what inspired the dyer, and select your favorite by clicking the “vote for this yarn” checkbox. You’ll see a green banner showing your vote at the top of the yarn, and a little green arrow will show by the category name, to show that you voted in that category.

Voting is open until August 1st, 11:59 pm Eastern time. If you like yarn (and we’re guessing you just might), take a moment to check out these submissions and vote for your favorite! We think that every single submission deserves a little glory.

p.s. To the 660 eager people who found the voting link early and have already cast their votes – please go back and take a moment to be sure that all of your votes are still the way you want them – a few entries were moved to different categories or removed. Thanks!

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A few minutes ago we hit a huge milestone on Ravery: 100,000 patterns sold using our Ravelry pattern sales service. 100,000! That’s over $500,000 in pattern sales!

The pattern is Oceane, by Kristeen Griffin-Grimes (frenchgirlknits), and it was purchased by Raveler michelledevon. Thank you to Kristeen and Michelle!

We are very proud of our pattern sales service and are lucky to have received such great feedback from designers and Ravelry users – feedback that has helped us to build cool features for everyone.

Knitters and Crocheters: why would you want to buy patterns on Ravelry?

There is the handy Ravelry library! Ravelry pattern purchases are stored in the “PDFs” tab of your Ravelry library and available for you to download at any time. Not only do you never have to remember where you saved your PDF file, but the pattern will also show up if you choose the “in my library” filter when you are looking for patterns using the Ravelry advanced search:

You get pattern updates! If a designer finds errata in a pattern that you purchased, they can easily update the pattern with the new, corrected PDF and send out an email with a link to download the new PDF (the PDF in your library will also be updated)!

The designer gets most of the bucks! Supporting each other helps to keep our industry growing.

Designers: why would you want to use Ravelry to sell your patterns?

For all the reasons above, plus:

It’s easy! You can manage your store right through your designer profile on Ravelry, check out your sales charts and other statistics, and get lots of help from Ravelry and other designers in the Ravelry Shopkeepers group. The Shopkeepers group is a great place to share ideas with us, too – like everything else in Ravelry, the Pattern Sales service is a WIP and we’re always happy to get ideas and suggestions for new features!

You can use the Ravelry Pattern store to sell on your own website – even to non-Ravelry members! With every pattern you sell through Ravelry, you get download links to use on your own site, for individual pattern purchases or to add to a cart so that crafters can purchase more than one of your patterns at a time. We even provide links that will give you cute “buy now” buttons for your site!

We’re not exclusive! If you use the Ravelry pattern store and also want to use another service somewhere else at this time, for whatever reason – go for it! We’re always happy to hear of new features and improvements we can add to our services, but we will never make you agree to use Ravelry’s services exclusively.

Not only do we provide all these cool features, but the fees that Ravelry charges to use this service are very reasonable:

$0 to $20 in monthly sales: free
$20.01 to $100 in monthly sales: 5% of total sales
$100.01 to $250 in monthly sales: $5
$250.01 to $1000 : $10
$1000.01 and up : $20

That means more money goes right to you, the designer! Helping independent designers and yarnies get exposure and share their passion and their work with the community of yarn-lovers on Ravelry has always been a huge focus of the site. It makes us happy to know that knitters, crocheters, and designers are all connecting and supporting each other through offering and purchasing great patterns right here on Ravelry!

p.s. As a special surprise, we are going to send a Mint Animals Ravelry t-shirt in the size of your choice (they come in the Unisex style, too) and a Ravelry Button Pack to michelledevon and frenchgirlknits. (We’ll write you for your shipping details!) Thank you for using the Ravelry Pattern Store, everyone! Designers, we can’t wait to see what you come up with next!

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We are really excited to announce a team effort that we have been working on with the creators of the upcoming Sock Summit event: Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, the Yarn Harlot, and Tina Newton of Blue Moon Fiber Arts. We’ve all watched Sock Summit grow from a sneak peek of an idea on Stephanie’s blog to an incredible event bringing together inspiring sock-kniterati and thousands of excited yarn lovers (like us!) this summer in Portland for classes, community, and an amazing marketplace.

Here at Ravelry, we knew that we were going to Sock Summit, and we knew we wanted to have a meetup, but we also knew that the community spirit that was building around the event was going to be something really special, something that we would love to help bring to knitters and crocheters who weren’t able to attend the event in person, if we could. So we wrote to Stephanie and Tina, and it turns out they had the perfect idea for a Sock Summit/Ravelry teamup in the works:

They had been thinking about a contest to provide a showcase for dyers connected with Sock Summit. Tina, a hand-dyer, wanted to create an opportunity for dyers to come forward and strut their stuff to the global community of knitters and crocheters who admire their work. As knitters and crocheters, we are inspired each day by the work of dyers, soaking in their color choices and often choosing our patterns and projects based upon what would work best with the techniques they choose. This contest and showcase offers dyers connected with Sock Summit to create a special sock yarn colourway that fits into one of the categories listed below and display their work in front of the global Ravelry community, and it gives Ravelers around the world the chance to participate in this amazing event by voting for their favorite colourway in each category. Together, we can all Dye for Glory.

How do you participate? The first step is for the dyers. After that, the rest of us get to play. :) First things first: here are the rules:

What kind of sock yarn colourways can be submitted?

The Dye for Glory contest has the following categories:

Kettled: The entire dye process happens in the dyepot (kettle); all manipulation occurs with the whole skein in the pot with the dye.
Watercolors: Any hand-dye process that uses any group of colours diluted and mixed to create a watery fluid effect.
Random Stripes: Any skein that is hand-dyed to create stripes by nature of the placement of the dye on the skein, no matter how you get it there.
Predictable Stripes: Any hand-dye process that produces a skein designed to generate predictable, intentional stripes, by nature of long repeats of colour.
Pooler: Any hand-dyed process that creates a skein that pools colour in delightful intentional puddles while knitting. (We hate that these pretty yarns have a bad name.)
Mosaic: Any hand-dye process that results in a skein with multiple colours, all existing in small areas and resulting in short repeats, usually the result of the use of multiple techniques on one skein.
Painted: Yarn that’s dyed outside of the dyepot, with the application of colour (using a brush, turkey baster, syringe, fingers…) to paint on the skein.
Dipped: Any skein that’s coloured by dipping parts of the skein in dye.
Machined: Any yarn dyed by a mill, rather than a person.
Printed: Skeins that are printed by machine with dye to produce a regular, predictable pattern over the entire length of the skein. (Regia Jacquard Colours or Opal Hundertwasser are good examples.)
Primary: A hand-dye process that uses only primary colours (Red, blue, Yellow)
Tertiary: A dye process that uses (or results in) only tertiary (look it up) colours.
Shaded solid: Any hand dye process that results in a skein that is only one hue, and gets its variance from the rate of absorption, or the addition of black, not other colours.
Out of the box: This category is for any other process (Machined or hand-dyed) that we didn’t think of. Yarn people are creative people. If the dye-process results in sock yarn, you’re on. Go nuts!

Dyers, in your stash section here on Ravelry, you will see the following fancy new button on any yarn that is not in the database but that is added by you or belonging to you (if you are a yarnie):

(This button is going to appear all over the place in Ravelry stashes, since we at Ravelry don’t have the info about who is eligible according to the rules. We know that the button is shiny and new, but please don’t click and submit your yarn if you aren’t eligible to participate! That’ll just make more work for Stephanie and Tina, who will be checking the booth information for all of the submissions.)

If your yarn will be sold at Sock Summit, when you are ready to submit your special colourway, you’ll start there in the stash section – enter your yarn (with all the information you can completed and filled out first, including colorway name and the information about the Sock Summit booth in which your yarn will be sold in the notes).

Very important dates!

Have questions? We’ve started a thread about this in the Sock Summit Ravelry Group. Please use that thread to ask any questions you might have about this! We here at Ravelry will be monitoring the thread, as will the good folks from Sock Summit. Together, we’ll be able to team up and respond to you quickly. (Please do not use the customer service emails of Ravelry or Blue Moon Fiber Arts, or Steph’s email address, or comment on our blog posts if you need help – we really will help you faster if you post in that thread! Plus, it’s likely that others will have the same questions you have and you’ll be helping lots of other people by asking it there, which is totally appropriate and good for this community event.)

We’ll have more details about the voting when we’re closer to the date on which voting begins – July 23. Until then – dyers – dye for glory!

We are finally starting to catch up on sleep after our travels to the Estes Park Wool Market and TNNA!

On June 10, Jess, Casey and I traveled to beautiful Estes Park, Colorado. There is an annual Wool Festival there, and, while we weren’t able to stay for the entire weekend, we would love to go back – just look at the amazing scenery!

Jess and Casey were greeted by the lovely secondsister, who had knit each of them a pair of cozy coordinating socks – such a generous gift! They’ve both worn them frequently since:

We came to the Wool Market to teach a class on Ravelry, called Ravelry: Unraveled. Classes were held in the local high school (our room had a Johnny Cash poster on the wall – cool!) and we felt quite official! The room was full of friendly Ravelers, and of course knitting, crocheting, and spinning in class was not only permitted – it was encouraged.

The class went quickly (for us at least… hopefully for the attendees, too!) and we really enjoyed sharing the details about how Ravelry got started as well as handy tips on how to use the site. It felt like we had just arrived in Estes Park, but early the next morning, we got up and headed to Ohio for TNNA!

When we arrived in Columbus, we met up with Sarah – our first meeting with her since she started working for Ravelry a month ago! Sarah was given such a warm welcome at TNNA – it was great. Lots of questions about “the new baby” and mentions of that silly stork image kept us laughing!

It was great to have the whole team together in person – boy do the ideas flow when we all get talking!

TNNA, our industry’s trade show, is always a whirlwind. There is truly no other way to describe it. From the moment we arrived until we left, it was non-stop activity. Our first event was the Keep the Fleece party organized by BuffaloGuy of Buffalo Gold yarns (mmmm)…

Keep the Fleece is a celebration of fiber in honor of the United Nation’s proclamation that 2009 is the International Year of Natural Fibers. The goal of Keep the Fleece is to raise $250,000 for Heifer International by organizing teams to knit and crochet on the world’s longest scarf! Our job at the party was to help at the front door and sign up shops to sponsor rows on the scarf (they will be sewn together at the New York Sheep and Wool Festival this fall). Anyone can help with this effort – for more details and to participate and talk to others taking part, you can join the Keep the Fleece Ravelry group!

The party gave us the chance to start this year in a festive mood and talk to lots of other TNNA attendees. We met up with new and old friends, walked every inch of the conference center floor (next year I want to wear a pedometer – our feet take a pounding!) and saw an unbelievable amount of beautiful yarn and many exciting new books and publications coming later this summer and fall. The mood of the show was upbeat, busy, and invigorated – great news for all yarn lovers!

As much fun as we have at TNNA, it really is a lot of work (in a good way!). This year, we were even busier than usual, because we taught a class at the show! Together with Kim Werker, we gave a class for LYS owners called “Your Shop and the Internet: Working Together.”

Despite an early class time (8 am on Sunday morning – brutal!) we had a good number of attendees; shop owners with a wide range of comfort and experience levels with the internet. It was very exciting to have been selected to speak at TNNA about something we are so passionate about, and the class had great questions and feedback both during and after the session.

We were also honored to have been present for the outstanding (and hilarious) model-off between Cirilia Rose and Ysolda Teague. They explored all the “knitting + modeling” cliches we could come up with. These two are pros, indeed – just look at the “expert” way they hold their needles!

No post about TNNA in Columbus is truly complete without a mention of that most splendid of treats, Jeni’s Ice Cream. Many have spoken of its charms, and if you’ve never tasted it, I’m sure you are wondering: “seriously, is it THAT good?”

The answer is yes. Yes it is. Jess and I already miss the yummy “goat cheese and roasted cherries” flavor we got hooked on – it will be hard to wait until next year, but wait we must.

Thank you to everyone who we spoke with and met with at TNNA and Estes Park, and especially all of you who took the time to come and hear us speak at either event. There is nothing like a friendly crowd of Ravelers to put us at ease, and we’re honored that you were interested in what we had to share. Thank you!

Updated! Two important, burning issues from the comments:

1) What is the blue shawl that Jess is wearing? The pattern is Andromeda, by Miriam Felton. One of these days we’ll learn that any handmade items we post on the blog require pattern names and links! ;) (To that end: the purple that I am wearing wearing is Ishbel, by Ysolda Teague, and the deep red shawl that Sarah is wearing is the lovely Cleite by Miriam Felton.)

2) When I wrote about “the new baby,” it was a silly reference to the stork image that we used to announce Sarah’s hiring (if you click on the link where I joked about the new baby up above, you’ll see it); lots of people at TNNA thought the image was funny and commented about it. Nobody on Team Rav is pregnant. :) (Sorry, Frecklemom, Mama Forbes, Grammie Philips, and Rainydaygoods’ Mommers. No grandbabies yet… but you have very cute grandpuppies.)

Carry on!

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 Last week, Casey and I spent a few lovely days up in New Hampshire at Squam Art Workshops. (Ravelry event page!)  I am sure you have heard about it if you know anyone who attended- we all can‘t stop talking about how wonderful it was!  We were so blessed to be invited by Elizabeth, one of my longtime blog friends and organizer of SAW, to attend.

So what was it like? Sort of like combining all the things you love about summer camp: the woods and nature, cabins, beautiful lake views, friendly camaraderie and then adding in all the things that we adults need to have fun: thoughtful organizers, good warm beverages in the morning, amazing food and cozy beds! (Take a look at other peoples’ photos on flickr if you want to see what I mean- they say it all better than I ever could!)

Then, of course, there were the incredibly creative and friendly people- I spent a lot of my time there just being happily overwhelmed by genius- Jonatha Brooke singing,  an impromptu hooping session with handmade hula hoops, inspiring teachers and enthusiastic fellow students!

Casey and I were able to take some great classes!  I took ‘Combination Knitting’ with Annie Modesitt and ‘Knit to Flatter and Fit’ with Sally Melville– both were really excellent. (My first knitting classes actually!)  Casey took the Color Class with Lizzie House, which he said was awesome.  Next year, we will be taking more!

There also was the gorgeous location of the Rockywold- Deephaven Camps.  I love getting out of the city in the summer and, really, it is impossible to not relax at Squam.

And on Saturday night, we got to participate in the great art fair!  Here we are getting hugs from Elizabeth next to our booth:

We brought some beer and waaaaaay too much pizza- I spent most of the time making sure that everyone was fed. ;)

We were so lucky to have great vendors that joined us:

Shepherd Susie and Erin from Martha’s Vineyard Fiber Farm:

Lisa from Tsarina of Tsocks, Jennifer from Holiday Yarns and Heather from Sereknity Yarn and Fiber.

Caro from Splityarn and Debbie from Stitchy McYarnpants (or if you prefer, Splityarnpants- haha)

   
Kim from The Woolen Rabbit and Jessamyn from Jesh’s Spindles:

Thank you so much to everyone who planned and participated at Squam this year- we’ll see you next year!

We are pleased to announce the newest addition to our little team!

…drum roll please…

onestitchshort Sarah!

Before we let Sarah tell you all a little about herself, we’d like to send a final thank you out to everyone who applied for the Community Support position. So many *amazing* Ravelers applied for the position and although 1500+ applications were a lot to go through, we truly enjoyed learning a little bit more about each of you. Thank you all for the time and energy that you put into applying. The process was a lot of work for both us and the applicants but it was also fun and educational. Our only regret is that choosing one person meant that we had to turn so many great people down. We were so lucky to have so many incredible, enthusiastic candidates.

Sarah is a creative and dedicated customer support professional. She’s a fantastic communicator and is joining our team with fresh eyes and new ideas, but is also a long-time Ravelry user who really understands the vision and tone of the site. We are so happy to welcome her to Team Ravelry! Once Sarah gets settled and has helped us out with a few immediate things you can expect to see a lot of her. She’ll be actively involved and talking with you all in the forums, email, and other spots just like the three of us.

Without further ado – here is a video message and a short bio from Sarah:

Sarah:

A little bit about me…

I grew up watching my mom crochet and knit, but I resisted learning how until about eight years ago when I decided to try crocheting. My mom spied my crochet project when she was visiting and decided that I should learn to knit, too, so I can help her with the family stockings that she knits each new member of our family. The rest, as they say, is history. I was completely hooked! When I’m not playing with yarn, you can find me chasing my toddler around the house or the playground, cycling with the husband or snuggling on the couch with my miniature schnauzer, Mr. T-Bone (pictured below). Yes, while it wasn’t a requirement, we have a new cute dog on Team Ravelry! I love Ravelry and I am super excited to get to work with each of you in this new role!

Want to leave a comment or a welcome for Sarah?