I remember when I used to live-blog yarn projects with great glee on Ravelry. That feeling of excitement when I started chaining... Uploading pictures to document my process. Recording every detail. I LOVED working with yarn and that activity has given me the greatest rewards, not the least of which is a number of deep connections and great community relationships.
Recently I started going to a yarn group again. On Monday I brought a sizable chunk of my late aughts/early teens magazine stash to the group. It was so much fun to revisit those publications with friends and have that feeling of wanting to make so many different things. I was, again, amazed by the creativity of the craft. The patterns were varied and imaginative. Truly inspiring.
Ravelry is a different place, now, but much of it is the same and feels like home. I am trying to establish a regular Ravelry habit. To that end, I went through my account to do some cleaning and organizing. It felt like cleaning out an attic. 🙂 I visited many of the different areas - cleaning up cobwebs, discarding once-loved relics, and rediscovering the value in what I have.
Here's what I did. I deleted all of the groups that were no longer active. After finding a couple of boards that were of interest and still percolating, and I organized my forums to have those pop up first. To make my first looks appear fresher and inspiring, I renamed my projects and tagged them using a new tagging system. I also applied that to my pattern section so I can create bundles. In this way, Ravelry can look a bit like Pinterest, which would be good for me. Finally, I cleared up my queue to things that don't make me feel guilty, and also to things that I would like to work up quickly with yarn I already have.
That's enough for now. I have been enjoying these exercises and remembering. I am glad.
