30 Day Knitting Challenge Day 30: What’s your name on Ravelry? If you don’t have a Ravelry account, why?

Surprise! I’m madgeface on Ravelry but my designs are under my real name because I couldn’t figure out how to do it any other way. Before Ravelry, I was active in the Knitter’s Review forums and I remember feeling like joining Ravelry was a betrayal. But I found my knitting group and all of the forums and had a ball. I’m not as active in the forums as I used to be; a lot of my friends who were active have had circumstances change and they no longer have the time to keep up their previous posting pace. I also feel like I’m still searching for the right group; some of them are really prickly and I’m afraid of saying the wrong thing, but the vast majority just don’t hold any interest for me – I’d rather knit or put my energy into this blog or Instagram or Twitter or any number of other things.

Ravelry definitely changed what and how I knit. Before Ravelry, I picked patterns out of books and Interweave Knits or Vogue Knitting and occasionally online. Now, Ravelry’s pattern and yarn databases are invaluable for finding projects. I almost always research a pattern and look at other people’s project on Ravelry before I start knitting. Or I start with the yarn and see what other people have made with it. In turn, I try to include helpful information in my pattern notes.

Wow. The last day of the 30 Day Knitting Challenge! I’m going to publish a page later with all of the questions linked to my answers so it’s easier for me (and you, but mostly me) to look back on them all. If you made it through all 30, kudos to you! And if not, here’s an easy achievement for your Friday: