Raveller, know thyself. A blog contest.
Hi knitters!
[There is a contest at the end of this post. Keep reading.]
Like many of my knitting pals, I had been waiting for my ravelry invite for the past month. If you haven't heard of it, ravelry is an online knitting community with oodles of database capability. It encourages you to document every Work In Progress project, every yarn in your stash, all your Finished Objects, even all the books on your knitting shelf.
I love this sort of thing -- what librarian wouldn't? And I've tried several times before to catalog the stash. I started using Knitable to log my yarn and needles, once. Last summer, Mom and I made a spreadsheet of my knitting library... down to the names of the photographers and designers on every Dale Baby Ull pattern book. I tried to make my own photo pages for every project waaay back in 2004, using automatically generated web pages from some random photo software. None of this stuff worked -- it was not inter-connected, it was not webby, it was hard to keep up.
So ravelry is clearly for me. I put my name in for the beta in June. I was number #9667 in line. (N.B.: This means there are nearly 10,000 knitters cooler than me. Take that, Sin of Pride.) I was sure I would a-splode while waiting to be allowed into the fold. I've been tracking my progress in line like a UPS package.
July 30: * 2399 people are ahead of you in line. * 11874 people are behind you in line.
Janice and Mel were already in.
August 7: * 1615 people are ahead of you in line. * 13870 people are behind you in line.
Lisa, Cindy and Jeni were in.
August 18 * 1222 people are ahead of you in line. * 13870 people are behind you in line.
At bobaknit, Abigail and Annabelle were in. Everyone I knew was talking about ravelry, and their stash photos, their WIP catalogs, the cool linky links. GAH! I hate waiting!
Last night August 22: 25 people are ahead of you in line. 17877 people are behind you in line. [YIPES. 4,000 new signups in five days?]
So close! I hoped to wake up to find an invitation in my mailbox this morning.. but still ravelry needed to show me who was boss. The invite finally arrived at 11 this morning. And I'm in! I've posted two WIPs (Bambuzzled and Army Wyverns) and one FO (Shark baby!) so far. Y'all have already seen all the details about those projects, either in person or here on the blog.
Ok, but now I'm in, what can I do? It's a work day, remember. I'm not going to be able to post all of my stash photos for a long time. (Remember the stash vs the floor sander, last year? For ravelry to work, I gotta get all those yarns OUT of the bags and photograph and count them. It's gonna take months.)
I'm not even going to be able to catalog all the WIPs hidden in secret caches around the house. Gotta have good light, be able to find and photograph the WIP, find the dang patterns... Weeks, I'm sure.
So what the hell can I do? Books. I can do the books. I counted my knitting books this afternoon and decided that if all ya gotta do is enter a name to search on and click the picture to add it... I could document all my books today. Goody!
Well, it sort of worked. Ravelry's bookshelf is not yet compatible with the more *ahem* mature knittng library, such as the one here at Chez Spinnity. I put in some titles and other it just doesn't find. (Hellooo, Sally Melville has more than three books published?)
I managed to put quite a few books on my bookshelf. Then I used the bookshelf to look up a couple projects I am considering (Tomato Soup from No Sheep for you has 80 project entries in Ravelry. Bliss from Rowan 39 has 2. Maybe this is because you can't enter Rowan 39 as a book??). I can totally see the promise here and I am stoked.
But there are more books on my shelf that I can't enter, because they aren't in the database yet. And this is where the blog contest comes in.
Enter now to win 2 skeins of *very nice* sock yarn from spinnity's as yet undocumented stash by answering this question:
Now it's your turn. Leave a blog comment before midnight August 31 with your guess of how many knitting books are in Spinnity's home knitting library. The closest guess without going over, wins. If I don't know your email address, you might want to explain how I can contact you in your comment.
And by the way... you can find me on ravelery as spinnity
[There is a contest at the end of this post. Keep reading.]
Like many of my knitting pals, I had been waiting for my ravelry invite for the past month. If you haven't heard of it, ravelry is an online knitting community with oodles of database capability. It encourages you to document every Work In Progress project, every yarn in your stash, all your Finished Objects, even all the books on your knitting shelf.
I love this sort of thing -- what librarian wouldn't? And I've tried several times before to catalog the stash. I started using Knitable to log my yarn and needles, once. Last summer, Mom and I made a spreadsheet of my knitting library... down to the names of the photographers and designers on every Dale Baby Ull pattern book. I tried to make my own photo pages for every project waaay back in 2004, using automatically generated web pages from some random photo software. None of this stuff worked -- it was not inter-connected, it was not webby, it was hard to keep up.
So ravelry is clearly for me. I put my name in for the beta in June. I was number #9667 in line. (N.B.: This means there are nearly 10,000 knitters cooler than me. Take that, Sin of Pride.) I was sure I would a-splode while waiting to be allowed into the fold. I've been tracking my progress in line like a UPS package.
July 30: * 2399 people are ahead of you in line. * 11874 people are behind you in line.
Janice and Mel were already in.
August 7: * 1615 people are ahead of you in line. * 13870 people are behind you in line.
Lisa, Cindy and Jeni were in.
August 18 * 1222 people are ahead of you in line. * 13870 people are behind you in line.
At bobaknit, Abigail and Annabelle were in. Everyone I knew was talking about ravelry, and their stash photos, their WIP catalogs, the cool linky links. GAH! I hate waiting!
Last night August 22: 25 people are ahead of you in line. 17877 people are behind you in line. [YIPES. 4,000 new signups in five days?]
So close! I hoped to wake up to find an invitation in my mailbox this morning.. but still ravelry needed to show me who was boss. The invite finally arrived at 11 this morning. And I'm in! I've posted two WIPs (Bambuzzled and Army Wyverns) and one FO (Shark baby!) so far. Y'all have already seen all the details about those projects, either in person or here on the blog.
Ok, but now I'm in, what can I do? It's a work day, remember. I'm not going to be able to post all of my stash photos for a long time. (Remember the stash vs the floor sander, last year? For ravelry to work, I gotta get all those yarns OUT of the bags and photograph and count them. It's gonna take months.)
I'm not even going to be able to catalog all the WIPs hidden in secret caches around the house. Gotta have good light, be able to find and photograph the WIP, find the dang patterns... Weeks, I'm sure.
So what the hell can I do? Books. I can do the books. I counted my knitting books this afternoon and decided that if all ya gotta do is enter a name to search on and click the picture to add it... I could document all my books today. Goody!
Well, it sort of worked. Ravelry's bookshelf is not yet compatible with the more *ahem* mature knittng library, such as the one here at Chez Spinnity. I put in some titles and other it just doesn't find. (Hellooo, Sally Melville has more than three books published?)
I managed to put quite a few books on my bookshelf. Then I used the bookshelf to look up a couple projects I am considering (Tomato Soup from No Sheep for you has 80 project entries in Ravelry. Bliss from Rowan 39 has 2. Maybe this is because you can't enter Rowan 39 as a book??). I can totally see the promise here and I am stoked.
But there are more books on my shelf that I can't enter, because they aren't in the database yet. And this is where the blog contest comes in.
Enter now to win 2 skeins of *very nice* sock yarn from spinnity's as yet undocumented stash by answering this question:
Just exactly how many knitting books does spinnity own?Before you enter, you may want to know what counts in the total?.
- Each title count once. Duplicates don't add to the total.
- Only books count, not magazines or staple-bound pattern brochures from the yarn company or macrame owl leaflets.
- Only KNITTING books count, not crochet, spinning, weaving or color theory books.
- Books in a foreign language count.
- Books *about* knitting, like Yarn Harlot" and history of knitting are in.
- It's books I own, not books in the house. I included 2 books being sent by Amazon today.
Now it's your turn. Leave a blog comment before midnight August 31 with your guess of how many knitting books are in Spinnity's home knitting library. The closest guess without going over, wins. If I don't know your email address, you might want to explain how I can contact you in your comment.
And by the way... you can find me on ravelery as spinnity
posted by spinnity at 8/23/2007 03:09:00 PM
18 Comments:
I wouldn't even know where to start.
Well, since I have not been to any of the Spin-Ins, I am at a bit of a disadvantage. I guess I should have learned to spin!
I hate to break it to you, but I was on Ravelry in May, thanks to Cookie and Kristi inviting me back when they were giving invites to members. Just so you know I didn't put all that stuff in there in a week or so. :)
I'm going to guess 287. (I have been at one of the spin-ins but I didn't gander at the knitting books.)
I have seen the vastness that is the library. My guess is at 134. Can't wait to find out what it really is. Welcome to the club! :)
123
So jealous! I am #500 on the list as of today. :(
I will guess 98 books. (I doubt I'm right, but if I am and you need to contact me I'm Sarah from the Bella Knitting blog, and a former Boba knitter. I will come back someday, but the baby is a demandypants.)
This comment has been removed by the author.
It's going to be a loooooong time until I get on ravelry. I didn't know about it until mid July. As of today, 7043 people are ahead of me in line and 10988 people are behind me in line.
Anyway, the books...I guess 113.
I have about 30 knitting books, so am going to suggest 60. However, looking at other guesses I suspect that a library of 30 books is rather modest!
I have not even signed up for Ravelry - I think that makes me super-uncool.
I laughed when thinking about how many knitting books you might have. I haven't actually seen them all but speaking as a fellow book lover and collector- well- it gave me a good chuckle.
Okay. I am going to guess, 233.
Oh man, just looked at Ravelry and you have the Alice Starmore books I would love to have! Too cool.
My guess is... 187.
Incidentally, I closed the window on a Babe spinning wheel today and thought of you, whom I have never officially met but probably seen at Bobaknit. Your Spin-Ins intrigue me, I would like to subscribe to your newsletter! :D
235 books. KnitFlix knows how to find me.
Ishould have paid more attention when we were cataloging last year. I'll guess a zillion. Mom
hmmm, I could only imagine the sheer quantity since my ravelry invite is a few days off, but I'm going to conjecture around 159. Yeah for randomness.
I'll guess 119. -Jennie (around the corner)
My guess would be 96 Cause I am a book ho and that's close to whatI have in my stash.
Ok, here is my offical guess at what sounds like an impressive library of knitting books...190. I am basing this on the fact that I know you are a book collector and also what others who have glimpsed the collection have guessed. I am probably not right, I never win things like this!
So, I'm just reading this as a "hey welcome to Ravelry" blog-peek, after updating the google mappe of open knitting sessions, and without having looked at your ravelry bookshelf and knowing your prize deadline has long passed, I'm gonna guess 274.
I'm still likely not to put my books on Ravelry. I've spent the time getting them in over at LibraryThing, where I was an early lifetime member. I'm lazy enough to only want to catalog things once, and now that a better catalog exists than my attempts to recapitulate WorldCat in Excel at home can safely be set Aside.
Are you gonna tell us the count as of the date of your contest? Insomniac book cataloging minds want to know.
grins,
Ruth
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