Okay - I have been on Ravelry for 1 week now and I MUST say that KH is hands down my FAVE place on the web. I appreciate Ravelry and have been trying for 1 week to figure it all out. Infact, I have a couple of questions. Is there a way to search the patterns on ravelry that are linked to and FREE? Also, any tips or tricks a newbie should know about Ravelry?
BTW - I joined the KH group on Ravelry! I tried out their forums and once again: No one can beat KH!
Patterns - ok, click, on say, hats. A few pages of most popular come up, but at the top left, there is a link that says something like “browse all hat patterns” click on that. On the left hand side of the new page has all sorts of search options. Only knit. Only Free. What weight yarn.
Oh, actually, if you just click the patterns tab, there is a link that says “try the pattern browser” and takes you right there - I hadn’t noticed before.
HTH
I think most people are in agreement that KH is a great social knitting site. Ravelry is great for finding patterns and checking out reviews of yarns. I also love that I can look up a pattern and see who is making and how they’ve changed it and how they liked it. It’s also great for keeping track of your stash, your books and needles. I love that I can find patterns and then select them as favourites and then I can access them on any computer. It’s also great to be able to check out the patterns from a particular book you’re thinking about buying. That’s what I did before I bought [U]Fitted Knits[/U]. I looked up all the patterns and I liked the majority of them. I also like that some of the groups on Ravelry are specific. I just joined the Jane Austen group on Ravelry- you can get specific there. But- it is NO substitute for the close-knit (pun intended) group at KH.
If you use Firefox or Safari as your browser you can put a “Ravel It!” button in your bookmark bar so that anytime you come across a pattern you really like it adds it to your ravelry queue. I love that feature.
I’ve found myself overwhelmed over there. I like the site but dang I could spend hours there. I wish I had more time to sort things out and investigate.
I really enjoy both sites - for many of the same reasons listed above. KH is my all-time favorite since I found it first and you all are simply the BEST! I love the knitting videos and find the forum a fun place to peruse. I like Ravelry for the patterns - and I LOVE the fact that you can find a pattern to use with your stash too. I also enjoy seeing what other people have made, what books they have/use/enjoy, etc. It’s a big site with a lot to offer - just use what appeals to you - a lot of folks only use certain parts and maybe ignore the stash part or the library part or whatever they don’t find useful.
to find just free patterns. go to this part of the site, on that page, you should click on (a white box will surround the ones you choose) ‘knitting only’ or ‘crochet only’ or neither, then ‘only free’ It will give you all the free patterns already listed in ravelry. You can further narrow you search by yarn weight, fiber or over-all ravelry rating.