RavelryReviews 510

Ravelry is welcoming and open, and their policy banning support for white supremacy is not new.

For those who say, "but politics doesn't belong here!" I say that the arts have been political since there were artists. Pay attention.

That said, it's really pretty easy to avoid political discussions, if you're careful about the groups you join. And there are thousands of groups, for just about anything you can name. I suspect at least some of the bad reviews are coming from non-members, despite the rules against it.

Come check us out. Ravelry is, hands down, the best fiber arts community on the internet.

I was a member of Ravelry for several years. I used the site to find patterns, and sometimes yarn. I did not join or post to any forums, and I did not store any project pictures or data there. Imagine my surprise on the morning of 6/23/2019 when I learned that I was now considered to be a white supremacist because I happen to support the current President of the United States! Per their loose, ever-changing definition of "hate speech," items such as "F**k Trump" and other derogatory things are okay, but American flags, "God is Love" hats, and other patriotic items are called hate speech. Even questioning their policy is hate speech, in their eyes. Although it was said that conservative members could stay as long as they didn't mention Mr. Trump, conservative groups and members have been actively hunted down and removed or suspended. Businesses and designers that don't openly publish support for Ravelry's censorship are bullied and harassed, especially on Instagram. Ravelry's white management claims to want a safe, inclusive environment for all. However, their actions and words display the very bigotry and hate they claim to be against. Some of the people broadly labeled as white supremacist are in fact members of the "marginalized groups" they pander to; some don't even support Mr. Trump but in fact stand against Ravelry's blatant acts of censorship. This site used to be okay, but now is so full of hate and hypocrisy that I cannot recommend it to anyone.

Ravelry is the best place online to find patterns. Being able to search for a pattern by yarn weight, or type of garment, is a life changer. The forums are diverse, you can likely find a group for anything you might want to discuss. My only real complaint that since I've joined Ravelry, I've bought more patterns than I'll ever be able to knit in my lifetime.

The people that have recently been down-voting the site are doing so because Ravelry will no longer allow people to post anything in support of white supremacy.

From its inception, Ravelry has been an amazing tool for the fiber crafting world. As the years go by, Jess and Casey and their intrepid team have created an increasingly powerful place to help corral yarn and fiber and needles and purchased patterns and my crafting library, to document my own projects with detailed data on what exactly I used and did for each piece, to search for yarn shops when I travel, to follow particular designers or yarn dyers, to connect with people from around the world on various common topics. I have made friends on Ravelry that, years later, I've been able to meet IRL; we've shared pieces of our lives so much that honestly, they're extended family. Ravelry is an amazing place, and I love that they've made it a safe space for minority and discriminated groups.

Ravelry is a fantastic site for knitters and crocheters! They have the widest variety of available patterns and I love that you can see so many projects for each pattern, which means you can see what the pattern looks like in a wide variety of colors on a lot of different body types.

The site has long had a policy against hate speech and has, as a result, banned support, via patterns, ravatars (the picture you choose to represent you), and posts, of a presidential candidate who regularly engages in such speech. For pretty well any other knitting content, this is the place to go.

I've used Ravelry for many years, as a place to improve my knitting and crochet skills, to learn spinning techinques, to find patterns, reviews on yarn, and information about vendors. I have also made many dear friends over the years, as the forums allow groups for other interests - such as chicken raising, vegan cooking, and local groups. I originally joined to participate in a sock knitting competition (SockWars), and it's become my favorite online destination. The databases work very well, and are easy to use even for members who are not data gurus. I attached a pic of a sweater I knit from a pattern I found on Ravelry (free, knitting, seamless, baby, and worsted were my search filters).