There's even a Lisp connection. Half those avatars at the bottom of the Ravelry blog post were made with wigflip.

Hi! I'm a member of ravelry- my FH sent me the link to your post. Just an FYI- the "Ravelraiser" is going to be a yearly event- on the anniversary of the creation of Ravelry.

Thanks for the comments! Interesting stuff both.

Ravelry is only a social networking site in the way something like Wikipedia would be a social networking site if you add user forums to it. It's the huge database of patterns, projects, yarns, and yarn stores that really draws people (though the forums do keep a lot of people entertained).

I think you underestimate the power of thousands of knitters who think Ravelry is the best thing since sliced bread. There's no way we're letting this one be "unsustainable".

I'm a member of Ravelry. I'd call it more a Knitters 'Resource' Network than a 'Social' network. It's much more than just a social thing. I've never seen anything like it. It's amazing.

I am also a Ravelry member and donated a few $$ during the Ravelraiser. Ravelry is so much more than a social network! It allows users to easily search through a huge database of patterns and tells you where to find them, to keep track of your yarn and find out what other users have done with that yarn. It is difficult to describe what a valuable asset it is to non-knitters. And it is free! So donate a few bucks to help support the continued presence of Ravelry? You bet! And I will do it again.

Hey Noel,

Someone linked you over on Ravelry so you might see a few knitters and crocheters popping in :) I just wanted to mention that the majority of our advertisers are also very active community members. We created our own ad network and priced it to attract tiny businesses (Etsy shops, local stores) in addition to the more medium sized ones.

Although we don't survive on donations alone, the community really is what keeps us running - Ravelers contribute money, advertise, edit our hundreds of thousands of pattern and yarn pages, share their projects, assist other users in a help chat, participate in the forums and run groups... We're having a great time.

Another knitter who found your site. There are thousands of us! Ravelry is not going to go away. Casey and Jess (the founders) had to literally tell people to stop donating, that they had enough for the time being for what they wanted. In fact, they used some of the extra proceeds to offset carbon emissions from the new server they bought. It's an AMAZING resource, database, tool, and idea.

"There are thousands of us!"

Yes, as in over 136,000 and growing everyday and the site is just a year old. I just had to stick that in there because I really don't think non-knitters know or even think of us as a force to be reckoned with [not that they ever think of us]. I like your "more thoughts on Ravelry". Thank-you for your comments. We get a little psyched when 'others' takes notice.

I think community supported social networks is a very sustainable model, at least for knitters :-) As another fellow raveller, I know how much hardships knitters go through, and as we are a very small community in the world, Ravelry is a great place to meet up and feel that there are others like you out there. We need the site to stay alive so what we do is to donate when there is availability, as simple as that!

Thanks for mentioning Ravelry!

The membership on Ravelry is so small because they're still beta-testing it.

Once it opens up, probably a large percentage of the 5 million knitters in the US and the 50 million knitters in North America will join. Not to mention people from other parts of the world.

One single bloging knitter raised hundreds of thousands for Doctors without Borders all by herself.

It would be amazing if you got a comment from each single 'Raveler'. We LOVE it and it grows bigger and bigger every day. It literally is the BEST thing I've come across, and I work for a software company.

Hey there!

Another Ravelry member here. I also wanted to point out that one particular member raised over $5000 for the AIDS Life Cycle in San Francisco on Ravelry donations alone. There's an awesome sense of community there, and the resources are phenomenal. They also have a little mini-mart where they sell Ravelry related items, which is usually sold out due to popularity. It's become extremely valuable to the fibre arts community, and is pretty close to being a household name.

Learn to play with string and come by and see us!

Knitter's are taking over the world. And Ravelry is our home base. Do you have any idea, how awesome this site is? That you can put in any pattern, and find that 300 people have knitted it as well, and what their problems/perks were about it? Casey and Jess need a Noble prize or something for coming up with this place! And if i have to donate money, to help them keep it going, then i will donate all the money i can scrounge up! RAVELRY ROCKS!!!! Power to the knitters!

another Raveler here--I think something that will contribute to the longevity of this "social networking" site (I too have problems with that description--it is only a fraction of what Ravelry offers) is that knitters, crocheters, spinners, and other fiber artists are engaged in a lifelong pursuit of their craft (and often get wrapped up in related crafts along the way). If Ravelry were merely a social networking site, it would certainly have a very limited lifespan, but the kind of networking we are able to engage in makes Ravelry almost indispensable to those of us who are a part of it. We are able to collaborate with knitters et al all over the world--we can ask each other for help with difficult projects or techniques, get inspiration from other crafter's projects, share info about good/bad retailers or products, find all kinds of patterns and yarns......It is a powerful tool, well designed and well executed. Long Live Ravelry!

Hi! Another Ravelry member here! And I think someone needs to say this--Ravelry has succeeded so well because it has killer-code. It works! I've never seen any other "networking site" so accessible, nimble and versatile. Kudos to Casey and Jess. Their model could be applied to virtually any interest group, and with equal success I think. But then *none* of us would ever get any useful work done...<rg>

Don't underestimate the power of knitters!

I think Jess and Casey are sitting on a goldmine!

I'm an old lady Raveler. All I know is point and click. But I love Ravelry. I'm on it at least an hour every day. Knitters are the best people.

"nimble code" s a great way to put it, commenter up there ^^. It is a really wonderful THING, Ravelry, no matter how you evaluate it.