Sunday, September 16, 2007

Ravelry Reverie

I have to admit that my inclusion in the party that is Ravelry has changed a few things around here at the manse. Most noticeable is the new subject matter influencing the "conversations." The topics still include the yarn and the knitting...there are just some new directions.

Note: I put the word, "conversations" in quotes because I live alone and I'm pretty much just talking to myself or the cats most of the time. I find that there is a big difference between not expecting an answer and being surprised when you don't get one. It is, in fact a clinically significant difference. I am nothing if not ever-alert to the status of my own mental health.

Here are a few examples of the types of chatter going on these days:

(while updating my projects) I'm supposed to know when I finished these socks??? Omigod!! I have no idea... I'm going to have to fake it. Will anyone know? What if they find out that I threw a metaphorical dart at the calendar? Will my invitation be revoked?

(while cruising around seeing what others had in their notebooks) Yeah, right. I'm going to catalogue my stash. Sure. Right after I organize the spice cabinet. Or get a spice cabinet. Look. Here's some poor fool that got suckered into photographing all her yarn. That's just ridic...wait. This is actually sort of helpful. I should do this. I could change the lives of yarn purchasers everywhere just by posting my stash. I am an influencer of trends, here! Where's my camera??? Where's my stash??? Who left all the yarn just laying around all willy-nilly? Heads are going to roll!!

(upon seeing that I had a new friend) I dunno ya...but you're my friend!!! Welcome to my world! Can I come to your house? Will you make me lasagna? You seem like a nice new friend!

Now this next one is my personal favorite. You'll have to imagine the high-pitched, sing-song voice that fairly drips with creepiness:

(while forlornly checking my message box waiting to see if anyone has picked me for their friend) Whyyyyyyy wontchoo be my fweeeeeeeeeeend? Pweeeeeeez be my fweeeeeeeend! I wanna be oo fweeeeeeeeeeend! Hellooooooooooooo....fweeeeeeend?

That one sent the cats scampering to parts unknown and they are normally fans of my high pitched cooing voice. In my defense, it was late and things had gotten a bit silly. It is also entirely possible that my eyes were spinning a little bit as well.

My basic strategy with the friend-making is this: Since pretty much anyone who ended up in my inbox was there in response to my pathetic plea for pals, if you "friend" me, then I'll "friend" you right back. It's the least I can do. When you are blatantly begging for people to make sure that you're not left watching the coats and purses at the party, you show a little of the gratitude when they rescue you from your solitude. Plus there are some wicked cool people there!

I'm not really finding the whole experience to be the time-sucking black hole of diversion that many people are reporting. I'm not one for seeing a job through in one sitting if it can be avoided. If you are ever in need of brain surgery and you happen to see me scrubbing in, you may want to contact your insurance provider and see if there are other facilities they would consider for this procedure. It is highly likely that I will drill down to your frontal lobe then suddenly feel the need for a snack.

So what I'm really doing is fiddling around for a bit, uploading pictures, entering books or whatever, then wandering off to do something else for a while. It's ten minutes here, twenty minutes there...it has probably added up to a great deal of fiddlin' time, I suppose. But I've certainly made time for the activities of real life. I've eaten, shopped and talked on the phone. I petted and fed the kitties. I even slept. And I'm not missing an episode of Doctor Who or Torchwood for any website, no matter how long I was on the waiting list.

As proof of this, I remind you of my declaration last Thursday. I stated that I would, come rain or Ravelry, knit or spin this weekend. Further, I would post a picture. I didn't spin. That poor sock yarn that is so close to being finished can be heard sobbing from loneliness in the dark of night. But I've found that if you spin when you're not really "feeling it, " you don't really get the yarn you want. Best to not spin.




But, by gum, there was knitting!
Gotta have something to put up on Ravelry, after all.
SA

19 comments:

sheep#100 said...

Yeah, it's all about the Ravelry these days...anyone want to talk about something else? Like maybe how the Mets are doing?

Anonymous said...

Okay, so I was all set to write something when I noticed my verification word "rnmdown". Who? Why? What did they do to me? Was it so bad that I really need to rnmdown?

Sorry, I got a little carried away.

Ravelry - whatever you're doing seems to be working; you've got quite a bit up there already, and your friend list is growing pretty darned fast! :-)

Anonymous said...

Thank you for friending me.

Ronni said...

Thank you for friending me back. I need all the friends I can get over there. I find Ravelry to be a dangerous place at times. It's much too easy to find new interesting projects over there. Kinda like how one can learn new interesting things from the paper encyclopedia or dictionary on one's way to learn the specific thing one is looking up. It's very easy to slip into a wander mode that adds to one's queue super-fast.

Teri S. said...

I'm intrigued by your new projects...is the plummy one your handspun? Are you going to attempt some lace somewhere in there? Enquiring minds want to know!

Anonymous said...

Yea for knitting! Your projects are looking great and the colors are so pretty.

Brandie said...

Go to ravelry ... you should have a little note from me =)

Leigh said...

When it comes to Ravelry I've just been minding my own business on the outside, taking in the opinions of others. So I enjoyed your post. Perhaps I could find some time if I didn't have those 2 cat blogs...........

Anonymous said...

I'm still a little confused about the purpose of the friends thing at Ravelry. Once someone is my friend and vice versa, then what? Do we get to look at the secret parts of each other's stash? Do we set up virtual knit nights? Arrange to go drinking at the virtual pub? Oh, wait, there isn't one.

Lorraine said...

Details, girl, details! What's new on the needles?

debsnm said...

OK, I admit it, I'm ever so slightly OCD, with just a bit (or more) of ADD. Ravelry has been endlessly entertaining - to the point that it's all I did at work one day last week. The OCD part? I went through the list of groups - every. single. one.
And joined about a ga-zillion of them. I'm a little freaked out by that. The other thing? Asking people to be my friend makes me feel kind of stalker-ish. I dunno, maybe it's just me??

debsnm said...

I forgot to mention - the sanity check is a pretty regular thing in my little world, too.

Cursing Mama said...

I've found myself able to resist the Ravelry too - sorta....sometimes....occasionally. You may come to my house and I will cook you frozen lasagna - I don't make the stuff from scratch because I don't have that much time, what with the Ravelry and all.

Anne P said...

Ravelry. As if we all didn't have enough in our queues already.

Although, actually..... that's a great motto. I might have to copywright it. I gotta go find you when I'm there tomorrow.

The Kelly Green Rogue said...

I don't find it a time suck, but I do love it! the best thing about putting in your yarn is that you can see what thigns other people made with it, because one always needs more patterns in their to-knit queue :)

Donna Lee said...

I am still not feeling the urge to join. I don't know why not, everyone else seems to. I guess it's one of those things that,sigh, if you have to explain it, it's not worth it,

mehitabel said...

I have friends (real, skin friends!) who adore Ravelry. I like it, but it's not taking over my life. Not yet. But just w ait till I have that gigantic yard sale and get the stash(es) thinned down to a manageable 2 or 3,000 line items...

Unknown said...

I'll totally make you lasagna! I'll even whip up my family's "secret family recipe", straight out of the freezer section.

Denise said...

Well, I would certainly 'friend' you if I could but I still have a bit over 3,000 folks ahead of me in the queue as of today...