Join the Club!

So last week, I took a plunge that I've been thinking about for a long time.  I created a Ravelry group for my design business!

I hesitated for a long time - I was concerned about over-committing myself on the internet; after all, I already have a blog and a Facebook business page that I sometimes feel like I have a hard time keeping up with.  But I finally decided that if I could find a couple other Ravelers that I trust to kelp me moderate the group, then it would take the pressure off a little.  I also used to wonder if I created a group, would it just be me and a couple other knitters virtually hanging out together in our deserted internet club house, but over the past 6 months or so, I've had enough people suggest to me that I should create a group that I figured that there would at least be a handfull of willing members.  

So color me surprised when I created the group last Thursday and within 24 hours it had more than 80 members!  It's fun to me to know that so many Ravelry members that have been so encouraging to me, who have helped me in so many ways, and some whom I have been able to help, are all in one place chatting with each other and sharing a little about themselves.  It reminded me of a wedding in a way, where people from all sorts of aspects of your life come together in one room for a big party - you've got your family there, your childhood friends, college friends, work colleagues, and then all of your groom's people all there together.  A lot of the people who have joined the group have worked on different test knits for me, but there are also people who have encouraged me on Facebook, some whom I have started corresponding with through Ravelry on a more friendly level, some people who have just knit some of my patterns, and some people who have joined because they have enjoyed either reading the blog or some of the things I've written on Ravelry.  One woman wrote me a nice note saying that I helped her with a sweater she was making a couple years ago and that she joined the group because of that.  

I'm glad I finally went ahead and did it.  It'll be really nice to have a place where I can host knit-alongs for some of my patterns.  I'll have a place to show off new releases and things that I'm working on.  People have already posted some photos of projects that they've made from my patterns for the other group members to see.  And it's been fun to see what people are writing to introduce themselves.  Even if I've chatted with a person over a time span of 6-8 weeks during a test knit, I don't necessarily find out much about them personally, so I've enjoyed reading the details people have shared about themselves.  I think it'll also be nice to have a forum where people can ask questions about patterns and, rather than type the same response to 5 different people asking the same question over e-mail, there will be a place on the web I can refer them to where I've already answered the questions that they're wondering about.  

So if you haven't noticed it yet, the Trappings and Trinkets Ravelry group can be found here.  Join us, introduce yourself, and use it as a place to meet a group of lovely knitters and keep up with everything that's going on in my little world!