Organize and Conquer

What in the world did knitters do to organize everything in the days before Ravelry? There are over a million members now, yet every once in a while I meet someone who has never heard of it. Jess and Casey, thank you so much!

Because there is so much to learn about Ravelry, I’ve been approaching it gradually–adding projects first, then stash, and now, I’m adding my library of knitting books and magazines. I’m learning that the more I put in, the more I can get out of it. I just love all the built-in tables that make linking projects to the yarn used and the pattern used super easy. You can even indicate that the yarn used for a project is in your stash and once the project is completed, you see the remaining yarn amount in your stash. The pattern table is easy to search by yarn weight or by amount of yarn needed or any number of variables.

Other features to love include a project queue and favorites so that while browsing you can easily come back to that pattern later. I organized my queue, which was getting out of hand, by creating categories and then adding tags. Did you know that once your knitting books and magazines are added, you can then easily add the patterns you want to knit from it to your queue? No more going back and rifling through all your magazines and books to find that pattern you intended to knit!

Recently, I added a non-electronic approach which was inspired by the contagious zeal of that organization diva, Kelley Petkun, on one of her early podcasts. I recommend those podcasts highly when you need some get up and go energy. I needed a way that I could easily see all my UFOs–no, I won’t say how many–and everything needed is together in one place to just grab and go!

I ordered these great little vinyl carrying bags and if they were just a bit bigger, I could zip them. I like that I can fit one in my handbag or knitting bag. The pattern, yarn and needles are already in the bag. If the pattern is in one of my books, I make a copy for the bag.

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