I never would have imagined 17,000 people that are that interested in knitting could possibly be tech savvy enough to come across a website like that.

there are actually a ton of knitting bloggers

Mike

Just a quick thought.

“The site is still in private beta and has a long list of knitter-types desperate to get in - 17,000……..”. The way they have apparently been marketing their site kinda surprised me . Do you think it’s worth your/techcrunch team’s time to spend some time trying to highlight the marketing strategies these companies are following ?????

I think that would be enlightening to a lot of your audience………

Wow..17,000 people for a knitting social network? We are starting to see a social network for every vertical. I guess anytime you have a vertical you’ll have advertisers looking to access that aggregated community. I’d like to understand how big the TAM (Total Available Market) for knitting could be.

This Reminds me of the dotcom boom in 1999 where we had every offline retailing vertical going online. I hope these social networks don’t implode like PETS.COM or eToys.com. If this gets VC funded I know boom times are back!

Knitting isn’t ridiculous… I knit.

Uh oh, maybe I should have left that as a closet hobby.

@Karthik - Can you enlighten us on how Ravelry is marketing itself? I’m really curious now that you brought it up.

Chandra: My observations only: the first wave of Ravelry members were solicited from high-profile knitbloggers and knitting podcasters, thus ensuring amazing word-of-mouth in the community. (Do a blogsearch for “Ravelry”; you’ll see.)

The first members all received a handful of invitations, which they sent out. Demand immediately began, and hasn’t stopped, thus the 17k requests to date.

I’m in Ravelry now (just got in a few weeks ago), and I’m amazed at what an amazing tool it is, though I’m trying not to get sucked into the major timesuck that it could easily become.

omg, so many knitting blogs…
http://www.technorati.com/blogs/tag/knitting

lol - i knew it all along…the Quilting/Knitting revolution has just begun.

I worked in tech support for a regional Australian ISP about a decade ago, and even then the “crafty demographic” was small, but enthusiastic and surprisingly technically aware.

Don’t underestimate the internet awareness of intelligent older people with free time and spare cash. Of course, there are still enough people in their 20’s who knit (crafty SAHMs for a start) to make a decent sized niche market.

I agree with karthik. If there would be some light shed on their marketing, this would be a valueable post. Now I’m not sure why it’s here.

wow … I can’t wait for the RPS Social Network … LOL

Darin

17,000 !?! Who do I have to kill? :-p

Knitters of the world untie!

Knitting bloggers have always been one of the strongest contingents on MyBlogLog.

Besides, how much of this “shock” is really just unconscious tech-snobbery? If someone launched a social network for the “Make” crowd no one would bat an eyelash. The Internets went mainstream last decade, yo, so get ready to see Philatelr, Numismatst and CivilWarReenactr in short order

Hey - it’s Casey from Ravelry..

Ha. I’m surprised to see us here on TechCrunch. (You know, ‘knitting’ and all…)

Ravelry is the result two of us (one knitter and one coder) building something that we saw a need for. This isn’t a toy me-too social site - it’s a site for knitters and crocheters that has a social component. We’re pretty proud of what we’ve got so far and our users are having a blast.

There isn’t any marketing to speak of - people like it and they post about it on their blogs

Poor Quiltie! LMAO

OMG - Knitters are incredibly tech-savvy! Most have figured out that online yarn is cheaper and more varied that what’s carried in their LYS (that’s “local yarn shop/store” for you non-fiber freaks), and add to that the plethora of free knit/crochet patterns online… Knitting is a rather technical hobby, as more advanced projects require a solid understanding of physics, geometry, algebra, chemistry, etc. A rather profitable one, too, I should add - FINE yarn is far from cheap (avg $5-15 or more per ball). Many knitting stores are finding their way online with local events, sales, “yarn tastings” and more in an effort to capitalize on the online knit/crochet crowd - like my fav LYS, Unwind: http://www.yellowbot.com/unwind-burbank-ca.html

“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but sticks and string excite me.”

My observations only: the first wave of Ravelry members were solicited from high-profile knitbloggers and knitting podcasters,

There’s A-list knitbloggers? Wow I learned something new today.

Considering it’s the knitting podcasts that continue to kick our butts on iTunes, I’m not surprised. Every time I see a knitting podcast, I can’t help think of a quote by the great Pee-Wee Herman:
The mind plays tricks on you. You play tricks back! It’s like you’re unraveling a big cable-knit sweater that someone keeps knitting and knitting and knitting and knitting and knitting and knitting…

Casey - congrats

Eric - you’re right. Techcrunch readers interests are probably not a good proxy for the interests of the rest of America. A social media site around knitting should be no more surprising than one around chess, comics or online gaming, topics which don’t raise much of an eyebrow.

People are starting these social nets not to “innovate social networking” but because there is an audience who are interested. Wander down the magazine aisle at Barnes and Noble and expect to see a website dedicated to every topic where there is a magazine. Social networking/social media is becoming a feature of these content sites, and it makes as much sense to talk about “social networking” sites as a class as it does to talk about “message board” companies or “send to a friend’ companies since these too are now features that all content sites use (or should use).

Knitters are more tech savvy than you’d think. They’re also younger ;o) I’m a knitter - I’m 35 and have been messing with ‘puters and the ‘net since…well since the Apple IIe was considered high-tech and IRC was only heard of by major geeks. I understand that most knitters aren’t in the same tech-ballpark as I am but still…we’re not all sitting in rocking chairs knitting baby booties (or crocheting doilies), either.

Hello muggles! Welcome to the world of tech-savvy knitters… there’s lots of us out there. Personally, I’m working on my PhD in computer science. Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it, please.

I think it’s important to note that Ravelry is not solely or primarily a social site. I do enjoy the social aspect of it, but I am using it mainly as a central location to track my progress on projects and catalog my yarn, patterns, books, etc. It’s also a reference for yarns to use with certain patterns, patterns to use with certain yarns, etc.

Ravelry is marketing itself by word of mouth it seems ( as in we’ve all posted about it on our blogs) and it does seem funny how knitting has been a good five or six year trend…oh, wait I’ve been knitting and crocheting since I was 9–guess that would be an 18 year trend for me! Its a wonder I could learn both how to knit AND use a computer…tricky knitters

Hey Arrington. Maybe a little less pejorative language next time? Not everyone is as interested as you are in news from tech startups, but we still try to treat you and your work with respect. How about returning the favour to hobbyists of different stripes, eh?

this was actually a topic at the sd bar camp!

hmmm…knitting not so farfetched. remindes me of all the useless lanyards i wove as a kid at summer camp. This site may be on to something. I would expand to other content popular with the knitting demographic say, cats and chocolate and maybe rename to Ravelry, Cattery & Ecstasy…

Wow. Knitting may be “ridiculous,” but no moreso than video games, music, sports, or sports cars. You’re creating web 2.0 and other new technology for the WORLD, not for yourselves. You wouldn’t bat an eye at social networks based around video gamers or hockey fans. Women make up over half the world and over half of Internet users.

There’s a reason most women don’t use hot tech sites like Digg — these sites are geared towards men and the userbase is hostile towards women. A quality Digg-clone geared towards women would be a huge hit and yet still nobody has successfully created one (except bad knockoffs that pander with topics like “coupons!” “cleaning!” “fashion!”). Every new web company that has broken out from being a “hot tech company” to just a “hot company” (like MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, Photobucket, etc.) is geared just as much towards women as men. There are plenty of other hot companies and blogs that are geared more towards women than men (like Etsy.com, TMZ, Gawker, etc).

If working with tech is your job, ignore women at your own career peril.

No offense taken! I am a beta tester for Ravelry and it is truly filling a need. I only hope that the makers of the site make a fortune off of it.

And as for them recruiting A-list bloggers, I am definitely NOT a-list. I’m just a knitter.

I’ve been on the net since 1991, and one of the first email lists I joined was a knitting list. It had hundreds of messages a day back then, rivalling the SF lists that I was also on. So yeah, knitting has been on the net pretty much since the beginning.

For A-list knitbloggers — check out the Yarn Harlot, at http://www.yarnharlot.ca. She’s the one who organized the knitting olympics, raised over $320,000 for Doctors without Borders, and seems truly genuine and nice (and of course she’s Canadian).

There’s an enormous sense of community and supportiveness in the knitblogging community.

I’m a knit-blogger - I have been for about 1 1/2 years. I also am on Ravelry and I think it’s wonderful (user id: theknittingpatch) - Also, I work in the tech field as an analyst and a trainer. We knitters are definitely savvy!

knitters rule.

Am I correct in assuming that most knitters are women? We should get techcrunch readers together with knitting bloggers. Maybe some sparks would fly. or something.

Not sure about sparks… string maybe. Or is it yarn? Yawn.

Given some of the web 2.0 stuff thats gotten funded, I’d say a lot of the techcrunch type crowd knows how to spin a good yarn as well…

17,000 isn’t really that surprising when you consider the millions of people who knit. I bet there are more knitters online than people interested in Web 2.0, for example. It’s always easy to forget we’re the niche here

Still, not surprising when you consider the size of comparable communities in, say, fishing, horseriding, hunting, etc.

Knitters have made items with binary, morse code, or other messages of a “geeky”/”techy” nature involved, there’s a pattern out there for Space Invaders socks, I’ve seen an awesome fair isle (that’s one way of knitting symbols, colorful patterns, or pictures into your items) hat with Storm Troopers on it that I’m going to graph my own versions of with a variety of Star Wars and other “geeky” subjects . . . . not that I need to prove knitters are tech saavy, geeky, or anything . . . . . . . but now I may have some of you interested in asking any knitters you know to knit a scarf with a “Matrix” pattern, or a hex code message that says “All your base . . . (etc.)”. Hee hee!

There’s nothing wrong with the ladies and gents who may perhaps sit in rockers sometimes, knitting booties or crocheting doilies; that’s as “valid” as knitting a video-game based hat or socks!

Anyway, there’s been some good comments here, after some of the . . . well, unkind ones, that are accurate, and great.

Also, Casey and his wife only just started working on the thing full-time; until recently, it’s been up half-through the night, after work, on weekends. I’m AMAZED he’s done as much as he has on it, and still had a full-time job. Amazed at all Jess’s work, too.

Great, now I can move forward with my social networking site idea for the basket weaving community. I should get funded easily.
fz

Ravelry is, to put it modestly, manna from heaven for knitters. However, I think Michael Arrington has it completely backwards as to what the central concept of Ravelry is. The true value to many of us is not the socializing aspect (although the way they’ve incorporated this feature is wonderful) - as much as it is that Ravelry is a centralized, searchable database of knitting information and online repository for data about personal projects, progress, and supplies.

Most of the members already have blogs when they join, and for whatever it’s worth, a sizable contingent of the knitters there are in their 20’s and 30’s, running the gamut from grad student to professionals (groups for knitting attorneys and doctors have already been formed) to new moms.

As for women/men, if I had to guess, I’d estimate maybe 10% to 15% of knitters are men.

Knitters and knitbloggers are not all women. For example, check out The Panopticon and his links. Knitters ARE an extremely congenial and supportive community, many members of which also happen to be, at one extreme, seriously geektastic and, at another extreme, just techknowledgeable enough to show off pictures of their passion and surf other sites for ideas and pretty knitting. Ditto on the widespread influence and huge readership of the Yarn Harlot. Also, two Fridays ago a knitalong (KAL) called Mystery Stole 3 with about 6600 members temporarily broke Yahoo groups trying to download a pattern clue at the same time. Knitter power! Pick up some pointy sticks, visit a local yarn store for tips and new friendships, and join the fun!

Not my scene.

Jason
1daysports.com

Not my scene.

1daysports.com

Thanks for your piercing insight, Jason. That comment was almost as valuable as this one.

Ravelry is something that enables me to work more efficiently and to design things more efficiently. I am a knitting pattern design, who originally was headed for a chem e degree in college. I was first in my state in math in high school. I am super tech savy. Our first computer was “portable”. My dad is a class A computer nerd. He and his computer are attached at the hip. I got to play with an 8086 as a kid and learned how to write simple programs for fun. I was confused when I went to junior high and they did not have computers. I even got to play on the internet in the late 80s.

I have always been one of the few computer nerds in my groups, so it was logical that I started looking for stuff online. This eventually lead me to knitting blogs and I realized that a blog would be a great tool to catalog my art. This created a community for me.

Ravelry has enabled knitters to share more details in a concise manner. Thanks to Casey and Jess

I love Ravelry. I brings my inner geek and librarian together in a lovely knit centered frenzy. The fabulous people who designed it have done so with such insight, care and attention to detail it is a thing of beauty.

I spent most of last night cruising through my flicker photos to find knitting to post about. I feel so prolific!

Thank you Ravelry.

Thank you.

Ravelry is for more than just knitters. It began with knitters and crocheters in mind, but it is open to anyone pursuing a fiber art medium who needs a place to catalog their supplies (yarn and tools). I knit, weave, spin, sew, dye fabric and yarn, (and I’m college-educated as well as quite computer savvy to boot). When someone is heavily involved in the fiber arts as I am, they will amass an extraordinary amount of yarn or raw fiber and develop what I call an arsenal of needles and hooks. I can’t possibly keep track of this on my own; what Ravelry has done is to make it easy for me to accomplish this task. That it allows me to partake of some networking and socializing with other fiber nuts is a side benefit.

One of my favorite methods for choosing yarn colors for a project is to gather several yarns that complement each other or share some color similarities (such as different variegates that all have a blue in them) then base the color changes on a Fibonacci sequence. Oh—I’m sorry—over your heads?

ok knitters. time to go back to your blogs. and knitting. play nice.

Many of the commenters here have made excellent points about the number of tech-savvy people in the online knitting community (aka the knitternet), and about the nuklber of knitters who are men. John Dalton also points out that not all of the 17,000 people in Ravelry are in North America. And not all of them are young. I’m a New Zealand/Australian woman in her mid-fifties who has a tech-based job. I have been knitting for more than 40 years, and I’ve been using the internet for socialising for more than ten years, not always with knitters. I’ve had a knitting blog for 3.5 years. It doesn’t pay to make assumptions about people based on their age, gender or hobbies.

M-H - If you think about the fact that I posted about this, you’ll understand that I think this is important. You are not a regular reader of this blog, so you don’t know my sense of humor. As such, you too should not make assumptions.

If you can’t make fun of yourself, don’t worry. I’ll do it for you.

Ravelry is really fun! I have been beta testing for about 2 months. It fills in all of the gaps that blogging leaves….its not just comments, its deep stash conversations and detailed project info. My knitblog started as a record of my knitting projects and then the social aspect evolved….but Ravelry does both of those things BETTER for me!

Beware knitters. We are tech savvy. We run your IT departments, your libraries, your labs. We are your friends, sisters, brothers, mothers. Do not make fun of what you do not understand!