A little bit of free time for me, so I’m crocheting a scarf for my brother, who lives in Ohio. His part of the world got about a foot of snow last week. And unsurprisingly, I am going there at the end of this week for spring break. I moved to L.A. for the weather, so the midwestern weather deity sticks it to me at any opportunity.
So snow. And a scarf for my brother. And some time for a quick look at one of my favorite social network sites, Ravelry. It’s a beta, and for lovers and practitioners of knitting, crocheting, spinning and dying, it’s heavenly. Even the ads are great – they’re usually for some beautiful hand-spun, hand-dyed, and/or hand-painted yarn. Yarn porn.
It might seem curious to have such a large community (approx. 50,000 active members) agog over old-fashioned needle arts, but knitting especially has come back into its own in recent years as a “hip” activity. There are a lot of people taking up the needles for the first time. If they’re like me, they don’t really know anybody else who knits (or crochets or spins). I am a beginning crocheter, and I know only one person who also crochets – she’s the mother of a friend of mine from Ohio. My mother was a talented seamstress, but she never knitted or crocheted. One of my grandmothers crocheted, but she has been dead many years. Crochet used to be a domestic art passed down in the family, when families were co-located. That’s just not how it is anymore.
None of my family is in California; I don’t know my neighbors; none of my coworkers crochets. So I, like many others, turn to the web to find tutorials on specific crochet stitches, information about yarn and patterns, and a way to connect with fellow yarn-obsessed folks. Ravelry is one of the many websites stepping in to fill that void, and it does a great job of it. Sign up for the beta if you knit or crochet.
If only I could do something more complicated than this all double-crochet scarf that I’m working on, that’d be heavenly too. My ability to concentrate and the dearth of available time don’t permit it. Right now looking at Ravelry reminds me that what I need more than anything is my spring break.
This is super interesting! I wonder if niche social networks are going to be the next wave? The start ups that are creating sites that aggregate all of your/your friends’ social network activity would be that much more lucrative, I think.