Ravelry fun day

For those of you who don't know, Ravelry is an online knitting & crochet community.  It's a bit like Facebook or My Space, but for knitters and crocheters.  It is the most fantastic resource, and it is completely and utterly free.  Created by Jess and Casey in Boston, Massachusetts just over a year ago, they've been building up their website and there are more and more people becoming 'beta testers' every day.  Basically, you go to www.ravelry.com, sign up and then wait a few weeks till you get the golden e-mail telling you your password. 

I don't know how to describe Ravelry, but it pretty much has everything on there that a knitter/crocheter could want.  First of all, there's your notebook where you can store information about your stash and where you bought it from, then you can share your projects with others (which becomes useful for others who can see what others are knitting in a certain pattern/yarn), organise your needles, your books. You can also load up information on what you've created and share photos with others.  It's a great way for others to get an idea of what a pattern looks like knitted up and can show you what items look like in different yarns etc.  Then there's the pattern finder, the yarn pages which will tell you everything you need to know about that hank of yarn you've had for ages and have been trying to use to no avail for months on end.  If that weren't enough, there the social side of things too where you can find like-minded knitters by searching a locality, joining a group or posting on the forums...

So what happened on the day? 

Local artist, spinner & owner of Charkha Yarns, Emma Price, spent the day teaching people how to spin.  Good fun was had by everyone who had a go.  Jane Harrison, who teaches workshops for us, brought along her knitting machine to demonstrate how easy they are to use (we are able to supply some yarn on cones now - let me know if you're interested). Local artist, Dorothy Hamer, has exhibited some original art work for sale too (and we're going to be adding more art soon!)

Literally loads of people turned up.  At our busiest, there must have been over 60 people throughout the whole building.  People who had met others via Ravelry met for the first time in person, other people came in for a browse. 

Lunch was provided by the fabulous Desire Catering.  The buffet was absolutely fantastic, and we will be using them for all our future courses etc.

The lovely Louisa Harding sent us some goodies for a raffle, the proceeds of £41 going to the National Childbirth Trust. We also had a baby jumper/cardi contest, which will go to Warwick Hospital. 

Photos to follow (they're on the computer at home!)