Ravelry vs. The KnitBlog

I have long been suspicious that Ravelry would be the death of the knitblog. The other day I was looking at my list of blogs for new posts and realized just how many of those blogs had not been updated in a really long time. I've know for a long time that I should delete most of them, but I just couldn't seem to give up on the idea that my virtual friends will return someday. Now it seems that Bloglines is shutting down and I need to move all my knitblog RSS feeds to my Google reader, so I will probably finally give up on all those long quiet blogs.

Why has my list gone from 15 active blogs to 2 or 3? I think for most knitters Ravelry gives you what you need with less of a consistent time commitment. Don't get me wrong, I love Ravelry. It is a HUGE improvement over googling around trying to find someone who made a particular pattern and blogged about it. The tools, organization, and community are something that I would not give up now that I am used to it and I use it all the time. However, I find that I blog much less in part because I spend my "free" time on Ravelry instead. The problem is that you just don't communicate the same way on Ravelry as you do when blogging. A blog is a sort of soliloquy that you can make as short or as long as you desire, as personal or intimate as you dare, and as silly and off-topic as you feel moved to be. Crazily, you then allow the general public to read and comment on it. You get to know people more intimately, as if you are reading their thoughts, and it's so much different than the type of dialogue you get from Ravelry, FaceBook, or Twitter. Perhaps the knitblog will revive, but I fear that it is on the way out.

On to actual knitting. Back in August while in Santa Barbara for a wedding, I bought some fantastic new yarn to make a baby sweater. It is Punta Yarns South American Cotton Space Dyed in a beautiful soft lavender:

I am planning to make the 5 hour baby sweater in a newborn size for the new baby. With RJ, the 0-3 month size took quite awhile to grow into, and even newborn sizes were big at first. So, against all the advice I am going to make something very tiny, because if this little girl is anything like her sister she will be pretty small and will definitely need at least a sweater and several hats when she is born in late December/early January.