Unraveled

Jess, Casey, and I are headed to Southern California next week, where it’s about 30 degrees warmer than both Boston and Albuquerque. Woohoo!

Our first stop is on January 15, at Unwind in Burbank, where we’ll be joining Beth and Amanda from Lorna’s Laces yarns, Kelly and Dawn from Namaste, and Laura Birek, the author of “Picture Perfect Knits,” for a yarn-filled evening! The evening will begin at 7:30, and advance reservations are required because space is limited. There is a $25.00 reservation fee that can be applied toward any purchases or special orders made at Unwind that evening. Unwind will also be collecting charity donations for SOVA, so if you are able, please bring a non-perishable food or personal hygiene item. Your donation will allow you to be entered into a drawing to win one of the fabulous prizes that are available… including some Ravelry goodies. You can reserve your space on the Unwind website!

After the party at Unwind, we’re headed to sunny San Diego for the TNNA Winter Trade Show. This is always a great place to connect with other fiber industry folks and find out all about the upcoming books, yarns, and fibers. We won’t have a booth because we like to roam the aisles seeing as much as we can and talking to as many people as possible. If you see us, please come up and say hello!

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We’re very lucky to have so many generous, talented, enthusiastic, funny,
and friendly people here on Ravelry.

Thank you all so much for spending time with us this year.

Enjoy your holidays!

Love,
Jess, Casey, Mary-Heather and Erica (and Bob too)

Comments: Ravelry blog | Jess’ Flickr

This Week in Ravelry Issue #44 is out! Check out the issue and make sure to take a look at the extra special Holiday Potluck feature. This week also includes Auntie Bubbopants,
Forum Funnies, The Tip Jar, Forum Search Help and the Weekly FAQ.

View and print the recipe PDF on Scribd.com

If you’re in the Los Angeles, area, we have some exciting news for you!!

This Sunday, December 14, Ravelry is co-sponsoring a holiday art/craft fair at Gallery Nucleus. If you were a little over-ambitious about your holiday crochet and knitting projects, but still want to give a handmade gift, stop by and check it out!

Gallery Nucleus is located at 210 East Main Street, Alhambra, CA, 91801, and the holiday fair will take place from 10 am – 5 pm. We’re thrilled to be teaming up with them for this event!

In other holiday gift news, if you’ve been wishing for something from the Ravelry Mini-mart, you can start hinting to non-Ravelers now! Casey has opened up the minimart to all, so friends and family of Ravelry members can shop and purchase goodies! We’ve been stocking up and have lots of items available (even our Ravelry hoodies!), and more of our popular styles (the women’s AA Bob tees, for example) are being reprinted now. We also have some new goodies coming soon – stay tuned!

The Ravelry minimart is accessible at http://www.ravelry.com/minimart. Have fun – and thank you, as always, for supporting our store! You guys make our holidays merry, and we hope that this season is a wonderful one for all of you!

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The Ravelry Welcome Wagon turns 1 year old today!

The Welcome Wagon is a group full of friendly and generous users who message newcomers and personally welcome them to Ravelry. Thanks to the Wagon, every newbie finds a friendly message in their inbox soon after they join. We know that these hellos have helped countless people make new friends and feel more at home. During the last year, Welcome Wagoneers sent welcome notes to nearly 151,000 people!

Thank you Welcome Wagon! We really, really appreciate all of your hard work and positive energy – you make Ravelry a better place and we are all lucky to have you.

Without further ado.. Let’s have a round of applause for everyone who has Wagoneered during the last year!! Starting with the founders/moderators Sairy and smittenknitten and moderator/number one welcomer sitnknit…

Happy Birthday!

PS – You can leave comments in the birthday thread on FTLoR or on this post on the Ravelry blog.

We’re excited to announce the arrival of some brand-new merchandise in the Ravelry mini-mart!

First up – Bob t-shirts! We’ve already listed the American Apparel women’s style, and we’ll add unisex American Apparel shirts, Hanes v-neck shirts, and Hanes beefy tee shirts (in larger sizes) to the store over the next few days! The Bob shirts feature a sweet Bob in a pile of yarn with our “where my stitches at?” tagline. The art was created for us by the fabulous Verabee, and as you can see from the photo above, they are 100% Bob-approved.

UPDATE! Unisex AA shirts have been added.

The next new release will be…

Hoodies! Coming very soon (they are stocking the shelves in the warehouse as I type this) are zip-up hoodies with an embroidered Ravelry logo – it’s getting cold right now for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, and it’s time to bundle up!

We’ll have these hoodies in Unisex American Apparel and Hanes styles. We think the unisex cut is super cozy on both men and women.

UPDATE! American Apparel hoodies and Hanes hoodies in 2X, 3X and 4X have been added.

Finally, we recently added a new color of our “animals” shirts to the minimart – a cheery mint green, in American Apparel unisex and women’s styles.

Casey recently posted in the minimart forums about some of the Ravelry designs that are being retired soon, and more products that we have in the works (car clings, mugs, project bags, and more). If you’d had your eye on one of our current t-shirt designs, it might be going away soon – please check out his post so to see if you’ll need to snag one before it does! And of course, if you have something you’d like to see in the minimart, we’re always happy to hear your ideas!

We really want to thank everyone who has bought items from our mini-mart and shared ideas in the store forums – sales of Ravelry goodies are a big part of what keep the site running, and it’s exciting to know that you like the products that we offer. Thank you!

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We had an amazing time at New York Sheep and Wool this year- there really aren’t even words!  I think all of us that attended are still recovering… I know I am!  Thanks to everyone who participated in our meetups and party- we had so much fun!

It was definitely the coldest Rhinebeck that I have ever attended- there were warm handmade objects everywhere you looked and the fall colors couldn’t have been more beautiful.

1. Checking in!, 2. Ravelry’s awesome party sponsors, 3. Nichole’s pretty sweater & scarf, 4. The garland, 5. Whole Group, 6. Cosmicpluto & Gleek, 7. prize drawing, 8. Casey in the VLT, 9. Bob cupcakes!, 10. maryheather, 11. Ann, Kay & Nancy, 12. She looks warm!, 13. Spinnin’, 14. Kinnearing!, 15. Fire!, 16. Bev, MH and Scout. Um yeah- that is all I have to say about that., 17. Sunday Ravelry Meetup, 18. Welcome table, 19. So are Nichole & Erica, 20. time to head home!, 21. Us Three, 22. Stephen gets a bit carried away, 23. Maryse blew up a lot of ballons. A LOT., 24. SO many prizes!, 25. Team Rav! Ready for the party!, 26. No-raffle Ravelry winners, 27. Pied Piper MH, 28. Caro and Minty, 29. Bobcakes!, 30. Raffle hopefuls

(These photos and more can be found on our Ravelry Events flickr pool!)

The party on Saturday night was a huge success!  Even HUGER than we ever expected!  :)  Our estimation is that around 650 Ravelers and their families joined us at the Elks Lodge.  Everyone was so cheerful and respectful of each other- even when we had to move cars from the street.  The Elks Lodge is even excited to host us again next year and are thinking of ways we can improve the party!

Again, we’d like to say a big thank you to our wonderful sponsors:

Quiviut Sponsor: Yarnmarket.com

Cashmere Sponsors: Namaste, Fabulous Yarn, Socktopus, Martha’s Vineyard Fiber Farm, and WEBS

Merino Sponsors:  Bijou Basin Ranch, Schaefer Yarn, Dodge Creations, Knitch, Knitting Out Loud, Creatively Dyed Yarn, The Loopy Ewe, Sixth & Spring Books, and the Tsock Flock Club 2009.

We couldn’t have hosted this awesome party without you guys!  (Visit those links and support our sponsors!)

We had some fun project bags printed up, designed by my friend Julie at symposi.com.  The sponsors provided some coupons and and goodies.  The reaction from Ravelers at the party was so positive that I think we will print some up for the regular Ravelry store!

We also had some wonderful items for the door prizes from Applelaine, Bijou Basin Ranch, Briar Rose Fibers, Classic Elite, Cocoknits, Crochet Today, Debby Ware, Designs by Romi, Dodge Creations, Knit Picks, Knitspot (with Briar Rose Fibers, Shivaya Naturals, Woolen Rabbit, and Knitting Notions), Knitting Out Loud, Martha’s Vineyard Fiber Farm, Material Whirled, njstacie’s etsy shop, Namaste, Philosopher’s Wool, Sassafras Creations, Schaefer Yarn, Sixth & Spring Books, Splityarn, Spunky Eclectic, Storm Moon Knits, Tactile Travel, The Painted Sheep, Tsock Flock Club 2009, and WEBS.  (I hope I didn’t forget anyone!)

DellaQ also donated 400 zip pouches and Soak gave us hundreds of mini soak wash samples!

We also had two great meetups during the day on Saturday and Sunday- here are two group shots!

People even brought cupcakes and cookies!  It was really fun to get everyone together- we even shocked the festival organizer that MH and I had worked with before the festival.  He was very surprised at how many people we assembled- glad we got a nice big space this year!

Finally, I would also like to personally thank our friends and family for helping us throughout the weekend- Team Rav worked tirelessly to hand out buttons and sharpies, running errands, set up for the party, breaking down the party, welcoming everyone and generally keeping Casey, Mary-Heather and me sane.  Thank you so much, Cheryl, Danielle, Caro, Erica, Chelsea, Nichole, Lara, Maryse, Maya, Steve, my brother, Kyle, and my Mom, Judy!

If you have photos from Rhinebeck this weekend or any other Ravelry event or meetup, please add it to our Ravelry Events pool on flickr!  It is really fun to go through those pictures!

Comments!

Here in the northeast U.S., the leaves are turning, the weather is crisp and everyone is pulling out their scarves and mittens.  Just in time too… this weekend is New York Sheep & Wool Festival!

We are jumping in our big rental van on Friday to head out to NY.  Now is the big rush to prepare for the fun events we have planned for Saturday and Sunday.  We really hope to see you there!

The big event is our 2nd annual Ravelry Rhinebeck Party!   We upgraded our location this year so that we can actually fit all of us. ;)

Where: The Elks Lodge (outside pavilion) in Red Hook, NY

When: Saturday, October 18 from 6:30 – 11 pm

The address is: 7711 Albany Post Rd/ Route 9  Red Hook, NY 12571

Google Maps Link!  (5 miles from the fairgrounds)

We’re going to have food (not full dinner but lots of yummy snacks!), drinks, music, LOTS of really amazing prize giveaways, plenty of Hello! username buttons so that we can identify each other, and a really, really great time.  Families are welcome!  (After 2 hours, there will be a cash bar.)

It is going to be chilly on Saturday night and this is an outdoor party so make sure you bring your woolies!  We are going to have heaters and tents but please come prepared!  Think of it as a way to show of your latest FO. ;)

All of this fun would really not be possible without the help from our generous sponsors!

Quiviut Sponsor: Yarnmarket.com

Cashmere Sponsors: Namaste, Fabulous Yarn, Socktopus, Martha’s Vineyard Fiber Farm, and WEBS

Merino Sponsors:  Bijou Basin Ranch, Schaefer Yarn, Dodge Creations, Knitch, Knitting Out Loud, Creatively Dyed Yarn, The Loopy Ewe, Sixth & Spring Books, and the Tsock Flock Club 2009.

We are so thrilled to team up with these great people this year!  Thank you so much, sponsors!

For the first 400 attendees, we will have special Ravelry Rhinebeck party giveaway bags, with some goodies from our sponsors.  We’ll also have some DellaQ zip pouches and mini Soak wash samples.

Lunchtime Ravelry Meetups:

We also have 2 meetups planned during the day on both Saturday and Sunday from 12 to 1 pm.

The location for the meetups is shown on the map below- it is a shaded field up the walkway from the author’s tent.  If it is raining, we do have a backup – we’ll meet in building D, on the end of the building opposite the haunted house. (Doesn’t look like we’ll need to worry, but please do note the backup location!)  Come and meet your fellow Ravelers and get a Hello! username button.

For more information about the Ravelry festivities at Rhinebeck this year, check out this thread in the New York Sheep and Wool group.

Be sure to wear your Ravelry shirts, bags and pins around the festival, some vendors are offering a discount to Ravelers!  (Every little bit helps, right?)

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Jess, Casey and I went to the Taos Wool Festival on October 4th and 5th; it was a beautiful weekend in the mountains, filled with friendly people (and lots of dogs)!

Thanks to everyone who gave us such a warm welcome, set up the Ravelry booth (with the beautiful handpainted banner), and came by to say hello – we’ll see you next year!

For more pictures, check out the Flickr sets that Jess and Mary-Heather made. If you have pictures from the Ravelry booth or meetups at Taos, please add them to the Ravelry Events Flickr pool!

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Wow – so much has been going on with Ravelry, and we have some really busy months coming up! There will be lots to share in the weeks to come; here in the US, the weather is starting to get cooler, our hooks and needles are more active, and Ravelry keeps on growing and changing every day.

2008 Ravelympics

The 2008 Ravelympics were a huge hit! Thousands of Ravelers from around the world participated and had a fantastic time. It was a great way to end the summer. Some stats:

• Total FOs (not stash/yarn): 6764
• Countries participating: 56
• Total frogged projects (hey, it happens to all of us): 104
• Yarn used: 1,996,255 meters (over 2 million yards)

You can check out the FOs by browsing the Ravelympics Finish Line – it’s inspiring!

To commemorate the 2008 Ravelympics, we decided to make a special edition pin featuring our mascot, the glorious Bobicus Maximus (designed by Raveler OctagonFudge).

These pins are available in our Ravelry Mini-Mart, and we’re donating 50% of the proceeds to the Special Olympics. They have been selling fast, but there are still lots left. So far, we’ve sent $1,000 to the Special Olympics, and we’d love to send more… so if you think you want a pin, go ahead and get one! Ravelers have been posting pictures of their pins (many displayed with their Ravelympics projects) in the Bobicus Maximus Pins in the Wild thread in For the Love of Ravelry.

The Taos Wool Festival and New York Sheep and Wool!

Fall festivals are coming up, and we are so excited. Some breaking news about a couple of upcoming events:

We’re going to be at the Taos Wool Festival on October 4th and 5th, and planning mid-day meetups each day. So far we’ve found (and posted in) Taos Wool Festival threads in the Ravelry groups New Mexico Knitters, Taos Wool Lovers, and Colorado Knitters – stay tuned in the New Mexico Knitters thread (that’s the largest New Mexico group); we’ll keep it up to date with more information as soon as we have it. It’s just beautiful here in New Mexico; I’m really looking forward to showing off “my” new state – and “Ravelry West” home base – to Jess and Casey.

We can’t wait for New York Sheep and Wool – the third weekend of October! Recently, in the Ravelry Rhinebeck! group, we announced the official details for the Ravelry party that we’re having on Saturday night. With the help of some fantastic, generous sponsors, we’re going to have food, drinks, music, lots of space for crocheting and knitting, and giveaways for partygoers at the Elks Lodge in Red Hook, NY, from 6:30 pm – 11:00 pm on Saturday, October 18. The Official Details thread has the for the address (and a link to a map) and more details as we have them. We’ll post another announcement right here on our blog, too.

Last, but most certainly not least…

…it was Casey’s 31st birthday this Tuesday, September 16! Happy birthday, Codemonkey!

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