Estimated reading time: 11 minutes
Estimated reading time: 11 minutes
Here, I’ll explain how to use Ravelry to find a specific knitting pattern, as well as pattern ideas and inspiration.
What is Ravelry?
First, you should know that Ravelry is a website created in 2007 by Cassidy and Jessica Forbes. It currently has over 9 million members. Ravelry is an endless source of information that brings together users, designers, dyers, shops, fibers, and more.
Signing up
Signing up is free! You’ll find knitting patterns in French, English, and many other languages. On Ravelry, you’ll find free or paid patterns.
But let’s get back to signing up. Here are the sign-up steps in images:
- Go to ravelry.com.
- At the bottom right, click Join now
- Enter your email address, then click send me a sign-up link by email.
- You’ll see a notification telling you that your sign-up link has been sent!
- Go to your inbox—an email from ravelry.com will be waiting for you. If you can’t find it, check your spam folder.
- Click the link (in English, in blue) at the bottom of the email.
- You’ll be taken to the Create your account page. On the first line, enter a username (your account name). On the second line, add a password of at least 7 characters. Confirm your password on the third line.
Search for a specific pattern
After you’ve finished signing up on Ravelry, exploring the site is the best way to get familiar with the platform. You’ll discover tons of information: patterns, yarns, designers, shops, and more.
Here’s a quick way to search for a specific pattern, in images:
Warning! Here, it’s important to enter the exact name of the pattern. For example: 3 color cashmere cowl
How do you buy a pattern?
Once you’ve purchased the pattern, download it and print it. Keep in mind that once you’ve bought a pattern, you can always find it again and reprint it from your library.
Please note that when you buy a pattern, it’s for your personal use. Sharing a pattern would be a copyright violation! A pattern requires many hours—sometimes weeks or even months—of work from the designer for design, creation, testing, editing, rewriting, and final publication. Plus, when you buy a pattern, you support the designer—and when we support them, they’ll create more, to our great delight! Considering all the work behind a pattern, in general, they’re worth the price.
Sidebar and search filters
In this sidebar, you can search the Ravelry site. On the first line of the search bar, from left to right, there is:
- Patterns;
- Yarns;
- Community;
- Support;
- Advanced search.
In the second bar, you’ll find:
- Patterns;
- Projects;
- Designers;
- Sources;
- Fibers;
- Yarn shops;
- Brands;
- And more!
On the left side (see above), you have the search filter bar. You just need to check the filters you want to apply. You’ll find, among other things:
- Technique (crochet, knitting, etc.);
- Category (clothing, accessories, etc.);
- Availability (free, paid, etc.);
- Attributes (construction, design elements, shapes, etc.);
- Weight (the type of yarn used for the project);
- Yardage in yards or meters (If you’re not sure what to make with the amount of yarn you have, you can enter, for example, how much yarn you have. The patterns that appear mean you have the required amount to make that pattern. Pretty great, right?);
- Fiber content (merino, cotton, linen, silk, yak, etc.);
- Needle sizes (in mm or US, depending on what you want to use);
- Difficulty level (very easy, easy, intermediate, etc.);
- Language (French, English, German, etc.);
- And even more search options!
Search example
In the last image (see above), the search filters are in the yellow circle. The search results are in the pink circle. So there are 3,322 results across 70 pages for our search. If you want fewer options, add filters; if you want more, remove some! You can also do a very simple search—for example, check only accessory ➡ neck/torso ➡ shawl to search for a shawl pattern.
For the language filter on Ravelry, don’t stop yourself from using a pattern in English, even if you’re a French-only speaker. There are many more patterns in English than in French (see the result of our search example below): 3,325 results in English vs. 166 in French.
Also, you should know that patterns written in English use abbreviations. Once you know what an abbreviation means (the stitch to work) and how to do it, that’s it—you understand and know how to knit in English! If you’re not confident, a helpful tip is to find a pattern written in both French and English, print both versions, knit using the English one, and if you get stuck, check the French version.
Does an English pattern still intimidate you?
Subscribe to our newsletter and get our free English/French glossary. It includes clickable tutorials to learn how to work different knitting stitches, if there’s a stitch you don’t know how to do.
Unfortunately, I’m a French-only speaker, but I knit 95% of my patterns in English.
Why?
The writing is more standardized in English than in French, I have more options (more choice), and finally, I find it easier to knit from patterns in English.
Visit the Ravelry website—it’s the go-to reference!
See you in the next article! We’ll cover what’s next for using Ravelry!
