Unraveled

With our super busy travel schedule, I am finally getting to sit down and write about the lovely event that was Knit Nation in London- we had such an amazing time!

Alice and Cookie were so well organized and such great hosts, the volunteers were amazingly helpful, the attendees and teachers were enthusiastic and we just felt so lucky to be included.

I wasn’t able to take any classes because I can’t knit due to injury (nothing drastic just repetitive stress) but Casey and I were able to join in the fun by going around the great Marketplace, giving our talk on Ravelry, and hosting a fun party on Saturday night!

We arrived a couple days early and got to visit the V&A (the amazing Victoria & Albert museum that was literally next door to the Knit Nation venue), had lovely afternoon tea with the tutors, Alice, Cookie and Katie from Hoxton Handmade, and explored the Marketplace as everyone was getting prepared for the shoppers!

After that, Casey and I worked a bit on our talk about Ravelry as we were curiously nervous about it- we have gotten fairly used to talking in front of people but since we were doing it on our own (without Sarah and Mary-Heather) and since people were paying to see us, we really wanted to do the best we could! It ended up going well, I think, since people told us they enjoyed it during the rest of Knit Nation. :)

(Thanks for the photo, mulene!)

Then it was on to the Ravelry party on Saturday night! Thanks to our awesome sponsors, we were able to host a really fun party and even got some really cute giveaway project bags:

The bags were a big hit with the partygoers- it was fun to see them try to find all the knitting and crochet items hidden in the image. Thanks again to all our party sponsors, we really could not have done any of it without you!

Qiviut: Loop and Ysolda

Cashmere: Kollage and Socktopus

Merino: Denise Interchangeable Knitting and Crochet, Gardiner Yarnworks, Little Knitting Company, The Knitter, Mrs. Moon, Skein Queen, Soak and Rohrspatz & Wollmeise.

Ysolda was kind enough to offer the use of her fun photo booth at the party- we all had a great time going in there and getting snapshots, even the bartenders! hah!

There are Julie, Adam and Sarah in their photobooth shots. Julie and Ysolda surprised us with that image layout with the special Bob/ Knit Nation image- such a fun souvenir! I was so happy that Julie and Adam got to join us at Knit Nation- she works so hard on our graphics for events and she finally got to see them in person.

Another person we were *so* thrilled to see in person was Velvet/Louisa, one of our wonderful and hardworking moderators of the main six!

Not surprisingly, she was so sweet and got lots of compliments on that shawl of hers!

If you were at Knit Nation and want a digital version of your party photobooth images, you can see all of them here. I am nudging Casey to put up a nice gallery but that is what we have right now! There are some pretty funny ones in there.

Thanks to everyone that came out to Knit Nation to see us, the party sponsors, the volunteers and of course Alice and Cookie!!

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It’s been an exciting summer here at Ravelry as we have worked with many of you to implement the new Ravelry search! The new search has a lot of great features, but it may seem a bit complicated at first.  While we wish that we could come to each of your houses and sit down with you to show you how to use it, unfortunately that’s just not a feasible option.  Instead, we’ve put together a new pattern search video for you to show you how it all works.  It’s the next best thing and doesn’t require you to straighten up the house or get out of your pajamas!  There are more search features than what’s included here, so we hope to have some additional videos that get a bit more specific for you in the future!

To view the video bigger, you can view it full screen by clicking the arrows icon beside vimeo in the bottom right when you mouse over the video.  If you don’t see it above, you can view it here.

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Casey and I are preparing to head over to the United Kingdom next week. It is our first time visiting the UK and we couldn’t be more excited! We have a few fun events planned for our trip, both in England and Scotland and in between, but first up is Knit Nation, organized by Alice and Cookie, at Imperial College in London!

This awesome knitting and spinning expo starts on Thursday and ends with our Ravelry party on Saturday night. There are classes with amazing teachers, our talk on Ravelry on Friday, booksignings and a really incredible marketplace!

Our party should be tons of fun! We are borrowing Ysolda‘s photo booth and have lots of room to spread out knit, hang out and get a drink. It would not be possible if it weren’t for our sponsors:

(Click on the logos to get more information about our sponsors!)

Please check out Knit Nation if you haven’t already and are accessible to London- there are class spots still available and Marketplace tickets will be available online until tonight at midnight GMT. (They will also be available in person for £8.)

For party details and to RSVP, please go here. There are no tickets for our party, to make it welcoming to all, but RSVPing will help us get a head count.

You can also chat about all the fun happenings at Knit Nation in the KN group on Ravelry!

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At this point, we know that the Ravelry community is filled with amazing, enthusiastic people, but every so often there is an event on the site that just blows us away. The Search Party was definitely one of those events! It was overwhelming (in a good way!) to see how quickly the patterns were categorized, checked and re-checked, attribute definitions honed and discussed, and then the patterns were checked some more. During the week-long Search Party, 23,500 Ravelers categorized and assigned attributes to nearly 160,000 patterns. There were 1 million classifications/checks made to the database patterns. Just amazing!

We can’t wait to roll out and begin testing our new search later today! We think it’s pretty great and there is no way we could have done this without all of you – thank you so much!

Of course, we did have some lovely prizes to award to some very lucky winners! We announced the Search Party Prize recipients yesterday – in fact, there was kind of a party all day long on the For the Love of Ravelry forum. Here’s a quick recap of the winners and prizes:

The Designs by Romi prize went to , chrispindle won the Buffalo Gold prize, heather296 is the lucky winner of the package from Webs, The Loopy Ewe goodies are going to live with HeatherInPortland, and the Sweet Georgia Yarns basket has a new home with Beccak!

The XRX/STITCHES Knitting Expos prize was awarded to Sara6908, Kailiope won the goodies from Bijou Basin Ranch, the Rowan Yarns prize will be sent to marvelg, and cuppatea won the package from Eat Sleep Knit!

MagpieMabel won the package from Berroco, eweniquerzt gets to bring home the Louet prize, the Knitspot goodies will be going to gherkin, and wells201 won the Wollmeise discoball!

The Malabrigo winner is anglerfish, awesomegan is the lucky winner of the Namaste package, upandatom won the package from Schacht Spindle Company, and we’ll be sending a package of Ravelry goodies to knitter246!

Congratulations to all the winners, and a huge thank you to the companies that donated prizes for the Ravelry search party! We wish we could have given prizes to all of the Ravelers who participated – it has been really fun to work on this (enormous!!) project with the Ravelry community. We think that the new search is going to be the best prize of all – and we hope you agree!

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For a long time, we’ve been talking about improving the pattern information so that we can provide a better search and more ways to find patterns. We’ve been working hard on new categories and attributes, and we need you to help reclassifying patterns that are still missing information by using the Search Party Tool: http://www.ravelry.com/searchparty.

We know that going over the 166,000+ patterns in our database is going to take a lot of work, but we have some incredible donations from some fantastic companies to help reward your efforts! For every pattern you reclassify (that is not your own design), you will be entered for a chance to win one of the sweet prizes listed below. There are 17 amazing prizes with a total retail value of over $5,000, and each one is absolutely drool-worthy! Be sure to scroll down to check them all out – and a huge, huge thank you to our friends who so generously donated these wonderful prizes!

Prize #1: SweetGeorgia Yarns!

• 2 skeins of Superwash Sock in Tourmaline and Pomegranate (new for Fall)
• 1 skein of BFL Sock in Autumn Flame (also new for Fall)
• 2 skeins of Merino Silk Lace in Black Plum and Cayenne
• 2 skeins of Buttercrunch Silk in Saffron
• 5 skeins of Silk Crush in Goldmine and Marigold

Prize #2: Buffalo Gold!

• Buffalo Gold canvas/bison leather tote
• 2 skeins of Buffalo Gold Lux – Mountainberry colorway
• 2 skeins of Buffalo Gold Moon – Smoke colorway
• 100% Pure Bison Roving
• Buffalo Gold collectors mug

Prize #3: WEBS!

• WEBS Bamboo Interchangeable Needle Set
• Valley Yarns Pattern #327 Sojourner Cardigan
• Valley Yarns Valley Superwash DK in Blue Mist – 15 balls to complete Sojourner Cardigan
• Valley Yarns Pattern #301 Oriel Cardigan
• Valley Yarns Greenfield in Grey – 10 balls to complete Oriel Cardigan
• $50 WEBS Gift Card

Prize #4: The Loopy Ewe!

• 1 Namaste Newport Bag
• 3 skeins of Wollmeise Superwash
• 3 skeins of exclusive Sock Kit Club yarn
• 1 Della Q Travel Needle Case
• 1 Loopy Accessories Tote with knitting gadgets
• 1 Little Loopy Traveling Pal

Prize #5: Designs by Romi!

• a 2011 membership to the Designs by Romi Pins and Lace Club, Romi’s Choice option – includes 4 quarterly shipments of custom yarn, shawl pin and new shawl pattern
• 7 Small Shawls eBook subscription
• 3 skeins of sock yarn

Prize #6: Rowan!

• 1 bag of Rowan Pure Silk DK in Damson
• 1 Rowan Classic Reminisence
• 1 copy Rowan Winter Gifts
• 1 Amy Butler bag

Prize #7: eat.sleep.knit!

• $200 eat.sleep.knit gift certificate
• eat.sleep.knit T-shirt
• Vine Bolero pattern
• 5 skeins Ravelry Red colorway of Malabrigo Silky Merino (enough to make the largest size of Vine Bolero)
• eat.sleep.knit mug with scarf pattern on the back and a skein of our exclusive colorway of Malabrigo to make the scarf
• 1 12 oz bottle of the Ravelry Unleash scent of SOAK Wash

Prize #8: Bijou Basin Ranch!

• 4 skeins of our Bijou Spun Mountain Treks 50% Pure Yak/50% Prime Alpaca
• 2 ounces of 100% pure yak roving – perfect for spinning or thrums
• Finally, 2 Bijou Spun patterns designed specifically for Mountain Treks and Bijou Spun roving: thrummed mittens for your hands and a hooded scarf for your neck and head

Prize #9: XRX/STITCHES Knitting Expos!

Winner’s choice – either the “Works” package from STITCHES Knitting Expos, redeemable at any STITCHES Knitting Event in 2010 or 2011, and which includes:

• Opening Day & Opening Day Lunch
• 21 class hours
• Fashion Show & Fashion Show Dinner
• The Student Banquet
• …and of course access to the Market all weekend long!

• Or, in the event that the winner would not be able to travel to a STITCHES Knitting Expo during this time, the winner’s choice of $300 worth of XRX books!

Prize #10: Berroco!

The entire 2010 Berroco Design collection, which includes:

• Comfort Afghan Book
• Norah Gaughan Men
• Norah Gaughan Volumes 6 and 7
• Spring/Summer 2010: Booklets #292, 293, 294, 296, 297
• Fall/Winter 2010: Booklets #298, 299, 300, 301, 302, 303
• Plus! A $200 (retail) Berroco yarn credit!

Prize #11: Louet!

• Yarn and pattern for our Gems Light Worsted “Ribs on Diagonal Pattern” (your choice of Gems Light Worsted color)
• 2 14 oz bottles of SOAK in the scent of your choice.
• $150 of Louet North America Spinning Fiber of your choice of over 150 handspinning fibers to make whatever type of yarn or felted project you like

Prize #12: knitspot!

• the les Abeilles shawlette sample, knit by Anne Hanson in Briar Rose sea pearl, which measures approximately 19 inches long x 50 inches across the top edge.
• a $50 gift certificate to the knitspot pattern shop to be emailed to the recipient at time of award

Prize #13: Wollmeise!

• A Wollmeise Discoball! 15 skeins of either Wollmeise Twin (80merino/20pa) or Wollmeise 100% merino superwash, dyed especially for the winner in her choice of any of Wollmeise’s colorways. Have them all dyed in the same colorway for a sweater or cardigan, or each skein dyed in a different colorway – it’s the winner’s party!

Prize #14: Malabrigo!

• Two bags of Rios, the all new superwash worsted yarn from Malabrigo – one bag in the Ravelry Red colorway, and the other in a surprise colorway from Malabrigo. The winner will have the chance to try the new yarn before it is available in stores!

Prize #15: Schacht Spindle Company!

The total Get Started Weaving Kit and Caboodle:

• a Schacht Cricket Loom with a full complement of reeds (5-, 10-, 12-dent)
• a pick–up stick
• a copy of Weaving Made Easy and Time to Weave.

Prize #16: Namaste!

• Monroe bag in Hollywood Pink
• Wallet in Hollywood Pink
• Mini Clutch in Peacock
• 15″ Cozy in Eggplant
• 8.5″ Mini Cozy in Eggplant
• Buddy Case in Red
• Binder – Red

Prize #17: Ravelry!

• a Ravelry hoodie
• winner’s choice of large Ravelry tote bags from the minimart
• winner’s choice of small Ravelry project bags from the minimart
• 1 bag of Louet Gems Light Worsted Merino in your choice of any of the Ravelry colorways
• 1 bottle of Unleash Ravelry SOAK Wash
• a sweet assortment of Ravelry buttons, stickers, and drinkware!

WOW, right?! We are so grateful to all the donating companies for giving such amazing prize packages for this! We can never get over the generosity of this industry and the people in it – thank you, thank you.

As with all big Ravelry updates, we’re talking about this in For the Love of Ravelry – you can chat with us and other users in our thread for general discussions and chatter; if you need help choosing a category for a pattern, we’re talking about that in this thread. We’re going to be drawing the winners throughout the day on Monday, July 19 – the same day our brand new pattern search (that you are helping create!) is released on the site!

We hope you have fun with this huge reclassification project – we couldn’t do it without you! Good luck – we’re already looking forward to seeing who the lucky prizewinners are!

A few months ago, Elizabeth from Squam Art Workshops wrote me an excited email asking for some photos of Casey and myself to use in a new project.

“I wrote your story as a fairy tale and I think you are gonna love it!”

Experience has told me that when Elizabeth writes you, don’t ask too many questions and just give her what she needs. The result is always the same: she will surprise you with something wonderful.

I have a feeling that this journal book will be no different. I hope that you check it out and get a peek at the rejeuvenating, calming, exciting and educational experience that is Squam Art Workshops.

Wow! We had such a wonderful whirlwind of a time at TNNA – we all got back last week but have been working hard to go through our photos and catch up on email (ha) so that we could share about our week with you all!

At January’s TNNA show in Long Beach, we started thinking about ways that we here at Ravelry could participate more with the show. We really wanted to focus on two things: enhancing the sense of community that is already there within the industry at the show, and finding a way to share the excitement with all of our users.

The Ravelry Ice Cream Social on Friday night got the ball rolling at the show. Held just after the fashion show, we took over the Hyatt Lounge and a private dining room, and thanks to our sponsors, we had unlimited scoops of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams (YUM – it’s truly the best) and plenty of drink tickets for all. Casey even came up with a Guinness and dark chocolate ice cream float. ;) Jeni herself came to the party, which was extra fun – she got a lot of yarny love!

About 600 people (and Bobsolda!) attended the party, and we didn’t even run out of ice cream! (The scooper RJ was a real pro – my arm would have given out in no time.) Thank you so much to everyone who came, and special thanks to our sponsors – we could not have thrown this party without your sponsorship help!

Our Banana Split Sponsors were Rowan and Ysolda Teague.

The Waffle Cone Sponsors were Buffalo Gold, Knitter’s Magazine, Malabrigo, and Namaste.

And our Single Scoop Sponsors were Bijou Basin Ranch, Classic Elite Yarns, Dream in Color Yarns, Kollage Yarns, Lantern Moon, Skacel, and St-Denis!

Thank you so much, sponsors! We really appreciate your help – we just love working with such great companies!

The ice cream social was a great way to kick off the weekend, but it was Saturday on the show floor when the real business of TNNA began. The summer trade show is when companies bring out the new yarns, patterns, designs, and notions that will be available in stores for the fall. Retailers from around the country come to check out the new products and place order for their shops. There was such a positive feeling to this show! Exhibitors were happy, retailers were busy, and everyone was chatty and excited to be there.

Before the show, we worked with TNNA and got permission to set up a special website for the show – helloTNNA.com. Throughout the show, Sarah, Jess, Casey, and I posted photo and video updates from the convention center. Since TNNA is an industry-only trade show, we thought the Hello TNNA site would be a fun way to share the show happenings with interested folks around the world. We got permission from everyone who participated (thank you so much to you all! We wish we’d had the time to post from every single booth!) and had a great time asking the exhibitors to show off their new goodies for fall. The companies in this industry are so creative – we were blown away by all the new products! You can still browse the Hello TNNA site (and archives) if you want to check out anything you might have missed – and check to see if it will be in your local shops!

Each TNNA show gives us so much inspiration. We’re just full of new ideas for Ravelry! (Which is great, because we definitely have a lack of ideas and things we already want to do… ha.) Getting to spend time with our friends in the industry is so encouraging, and one of our favorite parts of these twice-yearly shows. We can never take for granted how lucky we are not only to have such a wonderful community of users but also to work in such a creative, supportive industry. Yay yarn!

If you’d like to see more photos from TNNA, check out Jess’ set on Flickr! We also started a Hello TNNA Flickr group; if you attended the show and would like to share your photos, please add them to the pool!

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Last Thursday, we had a really nice visit with Yarnmarket and got to meet some local Ohioans! We usually are so busy when we come to Columbus for TNNA in June that we fly in and out pretty quickly, so this was quite a treat!

Deborah and Alex from Yarnmarket were such great hosts- they let all of us run around their (omg yarn up to the ceiling!!) warehouse and hang out in the lovely showroom and office.

They even invited the great people from Della-Q, Kollage Yarns and Denise Needles to come show off their products and hang out with us all.

We wished we got more photos but apparently we were too busy talking with all the Ravelers and enjoying our sandwiches. Thanks so much to Yarnmarket and to all the Ohio Ravelers who came out to see us!

If you are in the Pickerington area, definitely stop by and see Yarnmarket! They have a nice showroom to sit and knit, with couches and lovely yarn to touch. Info here!

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Casey and I had an amazing time at the beginning of June when we traveled up to New Hampshire for the Spring session of Squam Art Workshops. We relaxed, hung out with new and old friends, and had fun learning new crafty skills from the amazing teachers!

We also had a little table at the Squam Art Fair- we brought some yummy cake and beer to share.  We were in great company, the vendors were just incredible. My only regret was that I didn’t bring enough cash ;) Thanks so much to everyone who stopped by to say hello to us- next year we will bring a little more cake!

Thank you so much to Elizabeth and all of her helpers!

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Jess and Casey are having a great time at the Squam Art Fair! Sarah and I holding down the fort, and we’re all getting excited as we get ready to travel to Ohio next week – we’re heading to Columbus for the TNNA (The National Needlework Association) summer trade show. We always come home from TNNA with so many ideas for making Ravelry better for all of us! This year, we know we’re going to have an extra fun time – we’re hosting two events in Columbus: a party at Yarnmarket’s store and an Ice Cream Social for TNNA attendees and exhibitors. Want details? We got ‘em!

Thursday, June 10, 6:00 – 9:00 PM: Ravelry at Yarnmarket

Deborah from Yarnmarket graciously invited us to have a party in her shop, and we really can’t wait! This is a great chance for us to meet some folks in the local knitting community while in town for the trade show. This evening is open to all (with RSVP – space is fairly limited) and is sure to be a fun time! If you’d like to attend, please email Deborah at ravelryATyarnmarketDOTcom (just replace the AT and the DOT with their regular email symbols). She’ll be able to put your name on the list while there is still room, confirm your place, and set you up with directions to the shop!

Friday, June 11, 8:30 – 11:30 PM: Ravelry Ice Cream Social at TNNA

The National NeedleArts Association (TNNA) hosts industry-only trade shows in Columbus each summer, giving us the chance to see what is coming next in the fiber world and get caught up in a whirlwind of activity and people and lovely new yarns and designs. We are so lucky to be in an industry full of so many creative, talented, passionate, and just plain nice people behind all the companies we love to support, and we thought it would be great fun to start off the weekend with a bang meeting and networking with our fellow convention-goers… over yummy ice cream! After all, Columbus is the hometown of Jeni’s Ice Creams (otherwise known as the fuel of the Columbus TNNA show. Seriously. We may or may not eat it multiple times a day when we’re in town… ahem).

The generous support of our sponsors helped us to turn our fun (and perhaps slightly silly) idea into reality:

Banana Split Sponsors:

Rowan
Ysolda Teague

Waffle Cone Sponsors:

Buffalo Gold
Knitter’s Magazine
Malabrigo
Namaste

Single Scoop Sponsors:

Bijou Basin Ranch
Classic Elite Yarns
Dream in Color Yarns
Kollage Yarns
Lantern Moon
Skacel
St-Denis

Thank you so much, sponsors – we truly appreciate having the support of such fabulous companies!

The Ravelry Ice Cream Social at TNNA is going to be held in the foyer (across from the bar) of the Hyatt Regency Columbus, just after the TNNA Fashion Show. We’ll have drink tickets, music, plenty of room to hang out and meet with your fellow TNNA attendees and exhibitors, and lots of delicious Jeni’s Ice Cream! It’s sure to be a great time – if you’re coming to TNNA and would like to attend the Ice Cream Social, please RSVP on its Ravelry Events page. We think this is going to be a very memorable industry soiree!

We’re really looking forward to this trip: meeting lots of Ravelers, brainstorming new ideas for Ravelry, and lots of ice cream sounds like the makings of a pretty fantastic week. See you soon, Ohio!

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