Transcript for

Episode 96:

How to Use Ravelry to Make Better Projects with Your Handspun

When I think back to when I started to knit again in 2009, after having not knitted for about twenty years, one of the things I remember clearly was discovering Ravelry, and just being amazed that it existed. I was just awed by it. It seemed in that moment to bring together everything that was great about the fiberverse and everything that was great about the Internet: an online space that provided so many resources, just for us.

For many reasons, mostly having to do with my own mental health, I stopped hanging out socially on Ravelry about ten years ago, but I've continued to use and appreciate the site as a pattern database and every time I use the advanced pattern search I marvel at it anew. It is a fantastic resource, especially for handspinners. In this episode, I'm going to talk about three ways I use Ravelry to help me make better projects with my handspun.

Hello there darling Sheepspotter! Welcome to episode 96 of The Sheepspot Podcast. I'm Sasha, and my job is to help you make more yarns you love.

The first thing I want to talk about is Advanced Pattern Search. If you go into the pattern tab on Ravelry, just the search box the words "or used Advanced Search." If you've never tried this feature, prepare to have your mind blown. This feature allows you to search patterns and filter for things like yarn weight and yardage (as well as by many other things). This makes it perfect for finding a pattern for handspun, and I use it all the time when I have a skein of yarn I've spun with no particular use in mind and I want to make something out of it.

Here's exactly how I do this when I want to knit something for myself:

I choose a category, like "vest" or "cowl." I set the craft to "knitting," and the age or size to "adult." I usually check several values for yarn weight. If I haven't made a swatch, and I think the yarn is probably a DK, just by eyeballing it, I'll check sport, DK, and worsted. I know I'm going to swatch at some point and that will tell me whether this yarn is going to work for any patterns that I'm interested in. If, on the other hand, I have made a swatch, I'll skip the weight and put in my gauge. Yes! You can search by gauge! Finally, I'll put in my yardage.

There are a zillion other categories you can use to filter your search and I encourage you to play around with them. For example, I'll sometimes limit my search to favorite designers or to patterns I already own.

The second tip I want to share with you is that I always set the "sort by" dropdown at the top of the page to "most popular." And I do this because when I'm knitting with handspun, which may be quite different from the designer's suggested yarn, I feel like I'm introducing a big enough variable that I want to be sure that the pattern has been really well tested by having been knit by a lot of people. I also rely a lot on other knitter's project notes, and the more people who have knit the pattern the more useful project notes there are apt to be. I know that my yarn is the only yarn like it in the world, so I don't worry about seeing my project on everyone at Rhinebeck in the exact same yarn.

Finally, here's the last tip. This one has been an absolute game changer for me in certain situations, especially when I'm working with handspun that has been spun from multicolored braids and is thus going to produce a fabric that has bands of horizontal color. I click on the pattern to go to the pattern page and then click on "projects." This takes you to a page with the projects that have been knit with that pattern. If you scroll all the way down to the bottom of the first project page, you'll find, on the left hand side, a link to the projects folks have knit with that pattern and handspun yarn. It will say X handspun projects. Click that link to see just the handspun examples.

Here's what I'm looking at: the interplay between the stripes in the handspun and the stitch pattern. I want those two things to play nicely together. And, usually, if I'm working with a yarn with lots of busyness with respect to color, I try not to pair it with a busy stitch pattern, something I'll come back to in the next episode.

So, I've talked about the marvels of advanced pattern search, which is absolutely worth investigating if you've never played around with it. I've talked about knitting patterns that many knitters have knit before you, so you'll know the pattern has been well-tested and you can get the benefits of other knitters' project notes. And finally I've told you how to can filter the projects for a particular project to see only the handspun projects.

I would love to know: do you use Advanced Pattern Search! Are you perfectly fine knitting patterns that have only been knit a few times? And did you know about the "filter by handspun" trick? Come on over to The Flock, Sheepspot’s free online community for inquisitive hand spinners. There's a discussion thread there devoted to this very episode, where you can share how you use Ravelry and discuss this episode with other listeners. I'll link to that thread in the show notes, which you can find at sheepspot.com/podcast/episode96.

That's it for me this time. I'll be back next time with episode 97, about handspun projects gone awry, called "When Handspun Attacks." While you're waiting for the next episode, carve out some time to spin something! You know it will do you good.