Raving about Ravelry.com!

If you're at home as a result of the COVID-19 stay-at-home advisory and you're looking for something to do, we suggest getting creative! Many of our librarians and members of the community are into a variety of handicrafts, especially knitting and crocheting, and have been crafting up a storm these past few weeks. Even though you, dear reader, and our regular attendees of our weekly Thursday knitting circle are unable to visit the library and socialize with fellow crafters, we want to introduce you to a resource that might be of interest to you! Admittedly, it's not one of WPL's purchased databases but it's definitely a resource that our librarians use. It's called Ravelry and let us show you some of the cool things you can do with it!

Ravelry.com is a website designed for knitters and crocheters and all you need to create an account is a valid email address. Once you create your account and log in, the fun begins! One of the best things about this site is that you can find patterns for your knitting and crocheting needs. You can filter your searches based on on the availability of the pattern, whether they are for knitting or crocheting, what type of yarn you would need, needle or hook size, and a variety of other categories. We're fans of the free patterns but of course paying for patterns gives you more options.

After you select a pattern that you might want to make, you can add it to your library (this saves the pattern's page to your account), see photos and comments from crafters who have created or adapted the pattern, see information about the origin of the pattern, and discuss the pattern with other crafters.

There's so much to explore on this site so we'll let you get to it! 

April's themed knitting patterns for our weekly knitting circle would have been capes and ponchos. Here's the links to the themed projects we would have made at the knitting circle but you can certainly make them at home:

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/hugo-3

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/capelet-of-invisibility

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/minjia-poncho

If you make any of these patterns or any other crafts, message us a pic on Facebook or tag us on Instagram (both are @worcesterpubliclibrary)!

Looking for more crafting resources? Check out these crafty e-books!

Happy crafting and we'll see you at the library when we reopen!