Working out Kinks and Fingering Yarn

Ravelry is a very popular website for yarn crafters. You could call it social networking for people who love yarn. Besides the social networking aspect of Ravelry, it’s a nice way to keep track of your projects and find patterns.

I’ve been using Ravelry almost since I started knitting. Navigating the Website with a screen reader can be frustrating at times but most features are accessible. I still find Ravelry well worth the effort to learn even if there are a few unusable areas.

Ravelry has a lot of interesting features. In your notebook, you can add a project and keep track of the needle size and yarn you used. You can also make notes about the project to share with other people. You can search for patterns on Ravelry and narrow your search by different categories: yarn weight, yardage, gauge, free or paid pattern, etc. You can join groups to find people who are doing the same project as you, people who live near you and people who just share the same interests. You can set up a store to share patterns for free or to sell using PayPal. I’ll describe almost all of the features with more detail in later posts.

Today I want to tell you how to sign up for Ravelry and get started with your profile. To sign up for Ravelry you have to request an invitation. Ravelry is still in beta so you can’t just sign up. The best thing about using the sign-up link in the invitation e-mail is you don’t have to deal with a captia.

Directions for Signing Up

1-      Go to www.ravelry.com

2-      Use your screen reader to find the Username form field. Arrow down until you find the words, “Join Now” and press enter.

3-      Find the form field and type your e-mail address. Then tab to the “Send Sign-up Link” button and press enter.

An e-mail with a sign-up link should arrive within minutes. When I signed up years ago it took a few days to get the invitation. Ravelry is much faster with this now.

When you get the e-mail just click on the link inside. This will take you to a page where you can choose your screen name and password. This screen name will be your public persona on Ravelry so don’t pick anything you don’t want everyone to see. Once You’re signed up the next page will list some of the features on Ravelry with tips for getting started. If you want to view or edit your profile just click on your screen name. It’s usually the only heading on the page so it’s easy to find. On your profile page click on the link that says “Edit Your Profile.”

I’ll post more detailed tutorials about individual features of Ravelry soon. Once you’re signed up you can find me on Ravelry as Crystal6207.