Unraveled

It is a wonderful time right now to be a fan of crochet- and knitwear design. There are so many amazing designers producing beautiful patterns and the only downside is that it can be hard to keep up with your favorites. Today’s tip will cover how to subscribe to a search and be notified every time one of your favorite designers publishes a new pattern.

First, visit a designer’s page and use the add to favorites button to add them to your favorites.

Next, visit the favorites section of your notebook. From there you’ll filter down to your favorite designers and use the advanced search link to go to a search for just their patterns.

Finally, you create a new saved search and make sure to select the subscribe checkbox.

And that’s it! From then on you’ll receive notifications of new results in that saved search – there will be a little blue dot next to the magnifying glass in the dropdown whenever there is a new result for any saved search. You can click on the magnifying glass to see a listing of all your saved searches and how many new results each one has.

My short-term memory is not the greatest. It’s not uncommon for me to have seen a pattern I loved and only remember the name of the publication I saw it in but not which issue, or maybe just what the cover looked like. Today’s tip is how I use Ravelry to find those patterns.

My first step would be to use the magnifying glass search from the top navigation, and enter the name of the publication. A publication can be a book, a magazine, a pamphlet – some grouping of patterns put together by the creator. I can click on any of those results and be taken to the page for the publication.

The publication page will allow you to look at the patterns in the issue, as well as linked projects. Additionally, it has links to two places we want to look – the periodical and the publisher. The periodical is the magazine itself, and the publisher is who creates the magazine. In some cases they’ll overlap completely, but in others the same publisher can have multiple periodicals. Publishers can also have other kinds of publications, for example a yarn company that produces patterns for their yarns organized into pamphlets.

The periodical and publisher pages look the same –  there is a listing of every of all the publications, grouped by year. I can scroll down the page to peruse the covers and see if any of them jog my memory. I can also click that search patterns button at the top of the page and be taken to the advanced search for this periodical/publisher – all the results will be pre-filtered to those within the listed publications. From there I can page through or use additional filters to find what I am looking for.

Try this trick to help your foggy memory, or to see if the publishing house that put out your favorite knitting or crochet book has any other titles you’ll love.

I love the Ravelry advanced search. I use it to find patterns to match my stash, plan my projects, and find beautiful inspiration. It took some time to learn the best way to find the results I am after, so today I am sharing my favorite tip to improve your results.

Don’t use the search box.

For most of the searches you want to do on Ravelry, using the filters to the side of the search is going to give you more targeted results that using the search box. Why? For patterns, the search box looks at pattern title, designer name, source name, and then the notes from linked projects. To search by the information that a designer has entered to describe their pattern you need to use the filters.

Some Examples

Here’s a link to the search pictured above – using the search box to look for a child’s cardigan. Of the first four results, two of them are not written as cardigans and one has no child size written. They probably show up because someone has made a cardigan/child-sized version and wrote about it in their project notes.

Here is a link to the search pictured above – using filters to look for a child’s cardigan. The first four results are now all cardigans and if you click to look at the patterns they all come in child sizes.

There are a lot of filters available, and even I don’t know all of them off the top of my head. I try to peruse them as a drill down into a search, to remind myself of my options.

When Should I Use the Search Box?

There are a few cases where the search box is your best bet. If you know exactly the name of the pattern or designer you’re looking for, then the search box will pull it up. Things like holidays and characters are not attributes designers can add to their patterns, so if you want to find patterns related to a holiday tradition or a fandom the search box is excellent.

I hope this helps to make your searches go more smoothly!

Hello! One of my favorite eye candy features we do is looking at what Ravelers from a specific country are making. This time I thought it would be fun to explore what is on the hooks and needles of our New Zealand members.

First we have these gorgeous soft neutrals. From left: KiwiSJ’s My new winter hat, KrisCnz’s Cosy onesie #2 & #3, and solly-k’s Beeswax cowl.

Next up, some delightful animal projects. From left: annettle’s Cockatoo, AlannaPenk’s Maia’s Kitty Hat, and Lianhua’s Nico’s Lion.

Finally, these beautiful garments. From left: MichelleHe’s Florrie, BellaTheSpider’s The Man With No Name, and suellnz’s Sous Sous #3.

It has been less than two weeks since we announced the Project Challenge feature and we have been so thrilled with the response. We have 25,000 Ravelers participating. You’ve pledged to complete 296,420 items and have 20,987 of them finished! Today we’re going to cover some frequently asked questions.

I can’t see the challenge tab in my notebook, where is it?

The challenge tab is in the projects section of your notebook, to the left of the organize tab. If you are on a mobile device these tabs may be hidden behind a button with a picture of 3 dots.

I declined the challenge but changed my mind and want to opt back in. How do I do that?

Here’s a link! It will bring you to the challenge page and from there you’ll be able to choose to participate.

How do I make my queued projects show up on the page?

If you edit any item in your queue you’ll be able to add a finish by date to that item. If the finish by date is within the current year it will show up on your challenge page.

How do I make my in-progress project show up on the page?

We’ve added a new finish by field to projects. You’ll see it in edit mode, and like for the queue, any item with a finish by date in the current year will be part of your challenge.

How do I make a finished project show up on the page?

Once you change the project status to finished, and set a completed date within the current year the project will be counted towards the challenge.

I marked a project as finished, then unmarked it and now my progress is out of date.

The database can take a little while to catch up, but it will and your count will be accurately reflected within a few hours.

Can I change my challenge number?

Sure! At any time you can use the link at the top of the challenge page to update your goal and we will recalculate your progress.

I make a lot of projects during the year and don’t want to make project pages for all of them. How can I make the challenge count them?

The challenge only counts finished project pages in Ravelry. One option is to set your goal to be the number of project pages you’ll complete, knowing that each page represents multiple projects.

Is there a central place I can view all the project challenges or my friends’ challenges?

Currently no, there is not. You can view other people’s challenge tabs by visiting their notebooks, though.

I hope all of this information helps you personalize your challenge! We have gotten so many wonderful suggestions about this feature and will definitely be adding to it throughout the year. If you have more questions or just want to chat about it we have an active thread in For the Love of Ravelry.

Many Ravelers like to set personal goals for projects to complete in a year – the number, type, using only stash – and actively discuss it on the site. Now you can track these goals in your notebook and check up on your progress!

As of today, in your notebook you’ll see a new tab called challenge. You can enter a goal for the year or opt out, which will remove the tab from your view. After you have set your goal the tab is a home for your challenge –  the projects you have completed this year and the ones in your queue with a deadline in the current year stay up to date to track your progress. You can change your goal at any time, there is no deadline to sign up, and if you opt out and decide later to opt back in, visit the link in this post to join in.

We’ll keep adding to it throughout the year, so keep checking back for more goodies! Happy New Year and Happy Raveling to all of you in 2018.

There are lots of reasons to enter a project into your Ravelry notebook – to keep track of information for yourself, to add notes to help others, to bask in your accomplishment, and to have it recognized by others. One of the ways others can compliment your work is by marking it as a favorite, which puts a little heart on it. I know I’m not the only one who finds those hearts exciting, so today’s post is about how to acquire them.

Basics

One of the most common ways for a Raveler to see your project is to see it when researching a pattern, on a project gallery page like this. These basic steps ensure your project will be seen on those pages. (Here’s a great post on adding a project, if you want to review that.)

• Link your project to the pattern. When you enter a project, if you used a pattern make sure to enter it in the pattern name field and click the link icon to choose the correct one to link. This will ensure your project shows up on the project gallery page.
• Enter an end date for the project. The default sort for projects on these pages is end date, and projects without one are sorted last. The first few pages of a project gallery are the most visited, so make sure you don’t miss your time in the front.
• Upload photos. We only show projects with photos when you first visit a project gallery page. To see photoless projects you have to specifically choose that filter. We’ve also noticed that projects with photos have more hearts on average; Ravelers are more likely to favorite a project they can see. (Photo uploading blog posts here and here.)

Make It Searchable

The project gallery isn’t the only way a fellow Raveler might stumble across your project, it might come up in our projects advanced search. Here are some ways to make sure your project shows up in appropriate searches.

• Use the title, notes, and tag fields. When searchers enter free text into the search box, those fields are among those searched. I’ve used search terms like the name of a favorite TV show to find fan projects, techniques to find example projects, and holidays to find seasonal projects. (And here’s a blog post on helpful pattern notes.)
• If your project isn’t from a pattern, add a pattern category to it using that field on the project page. This allows your project to show up when a category search filter is used.
• Fill out your yarn info. The specific yarn used, yardage, and color family of the stash entry are all searchable fields that can pull up your project if that information is entered.
• Fill out the project page as much as you can. The following fields on your project page are all searchable: needle/hook size, colorway name, start date, finish date, pattern rating, project status, and project happiness.

Make It Seen

The final recommendations for getting hearts are all about getting your project seen, both on Ravelry and off.

• Share your project with relevant groups. You can share your projects with groups, and they’ll show up on the group projects tab (like this). Note that many groups have rules about what projects can be shared, look out for and follow these. Many groups also have FO threads where you can post about your project. I often share my FOs in the relevant threads in the groups for the yarnie and the designer.
• Make your project public. You can use the share this button on your project page to make it visible only to other Ravelers, to those with a link, or to the public. If you make it public you can link your project across the web using a handy short link and non-Ravelers will be able to view it (only members can give hearts, though).

I hope these help you get all the hearts you desire! Happy Raveling!

I love doing color-themed eye candy and when I checked our past ones I couldn’t believe I have never done my favorite color, pink! So, today’s eye candy is a celebration of recently completed projects in the color pink.

First up, my current favorite shade, the pale peachy millenial pink. From left: chloealexa’s First Moonstone Wrap, cgsf’s Orian, and AllAboutAmi’s Braided Cable Beanie.

Next up: some projects that include multiple pinks. From left: paxcheun’s Dotted Rays, jceythompson’s Frida Crown Fascinator, and GLW1234’s Little crochet bird .

Finally, some pink sweater. From left: maligana’s Pink light pullover, baabaayaya’s Autumn Raglan, and KayHopkins’ Cascade Locks.

I found these patterns mostly by searching for projects in the color family pink. Those projects were all made from linked stash with a color family selected, which made them show up in that search.

We just got back from the NY Sheep and Wool festival in Rhinebeck, NY, where we had a wonderful time. The only disappointment is that it was so warm that many lovingly crafted Rhinebeck sweaters had no audience to admire them. So, today my eye candy will celebrate a few of these beauties.

I thought this trio was so pretty. From left: AnnaW’s Irish Coffee, craftychristyn’s Old Gold Sweater, and molliebatmit’s Psych.

These sweaters are just as stunning from the back as the front. Clockwise from top left: SportyGranola’s Rhinebeck Sweater 2017, jkld11’s Rhinebeck Stag Head, kniterarian’s Forest Fiesta, and CosmoComposure’s Cant Miss Me Sweater Dress.

This final set I loved because the wearers just look so happy! From left: fischtail’s Ommegang, MicheleinMaine’s Sazerac, and OnEdge28’s D is for Danielle.

If you, like me, want to see more projects that couldn’t be worn at the festival check out this link – it’s projects with the word Rhinebeck in the text or tags.

Today’s tip is an improved feature – our new photo uploader for pictures in your notebook and on pattern and yarn pages. With the new uploader we have simplified the existing tasks of uploading your photos as well as adding enhancements like captions and personal preference settings.

Uploading

The new photo uploader can be found on notebook items as well as yarn and pattern pages; click the photos tab to open the uploader. Once it is open you have the option to upload from your device, any linked accounts such as Instagram, Google Photos, or Flickr, or enter a URL for an image. After selecting a photo can now click on where in the order you want it to upload. On a computer you can also drag and drop in a photo directly from your desktop.

Photo editing

As before, you can drag and drop your photos into any order you prefer. If you want to delete or recenter a photo, you can mouseover on a computer or tap once on a mobile device to see those options.

Captions

In the photo above you’ll notice there’s a pencil on that hover menu for photos. If you click on that a text field will open where you can enter a caption for your photo. You can go back and caption any existing photos in your notebook, or just decide to do so going forward.

Settings

At the far right of the photo uploader you’ll see a settings tab. This is where you can choose whether you prefer new photos to go to the top or bottom of the list by default, whether to open the caption text box after each photo you upload, and whether you’ll want to store separate caption and copyright fields for your photos.

Enjoy the new photo uploading features. I look forward to seeing the lovely results  across Ravelry!