Ravelry.Com: Augmenting Fiber Craft Communities and Social Making with Web 2.0
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Ravelry.com: Augmenting Fiber Craft Communities and Social Making with Web 2.0 A thesis presented to the faculty of the College of Fine Arts of Ohio University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts Hannah R. Thome May 2018 © 2018 Hannah R. Thome. All Rights Reserved. 2 This thesis titled Ravelry.com: Augmenting Fiber Craft Communities and Social Making with Web 2.0 by HANNAH R. THOME has been approved for the School of Art + Design and the College of Fine Arts by Samuel Dodd Lecturer of Art History Matthew R. Shaftel Dean, College of Fine Arts 3 Abstract THOME, HANNAH R., M.A., May 2018, Art History Ravelry.com: Augmenting Fiber Craft Communities and Social Making with Web 2.0 Director of Thesis: Samuel Dodd Ravelry.com is a social networking website for fiber crafters, launched in May 2007 by Jessica and Casey Forbes. The Forbes’ main goal had been to help makers who were previously frustrated by the insubstantial, inconsistent fiber craft information on the internet. One decade later, the site has spawned a sizable niche community of over seven and a half million dedicated members. In 2017, I surveyed over three hundred members of Ravelry.com to glean information on crafting trends within the twenty-first century. From their answers I investigate fiber arts in contemporary spaces of social making. I put my research in dialogue with craft theory, digital production and gendered craft research to explore how fiber crafting has arrived at its current incarnation. According to my survey respondents, Ravelry.com has evolved to fulfill multiple purposes in the lives of crocheters, knitters, spinners and weavers. 4 Dedication To my friends and family, especially my mother. 5 Acknowledgments First, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my advisor, Samuel Dodd, for his enthusiasm, encouragement and advice. I want to thank the entire Art History department at Ohio University, especially Sarah Grabner, for the continued support. My last thank you is to the Ravelry.com users who participated in my survey, without whom I would have no thesis. 6 Table of Contents Page Abstract ...........................................................................................................................3 Dedication .......................................................................................................................4 Acknowledgments ...........................................................................................................5 List of Figures .................................................................................................................7 Introduction .....................................................................................................................8 Chapter 1: Digital and Physical Spaces of Making ......................................................... 16 Chapter 2: The “Patterns” Page Reflecting the Uses of Ravelry.com to Members .......... 36 Chapter 3: Crafting as Resistance—Another Function of Ravelry.com........................... 49 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 60 Figures .......................................................................................................................... 63 References ..................................................................................................................... 71 7 List of Figures Page Figure 1. “Ravelry.com Login Page.” ................................................................. 63 Figure 2. “Ravelry.com Shop: Ravelry Button Pack.” ........................................ 63 Figure 3. “Ravelry.com Forum post: Ravelry Study” .......................................... 64 Figure 4. “4943 Ravelers are online.” ................................................................. 64 Figure 5. “Eye Candy: Pink.” ............................................................................. 65 Figure 6. “Groups Page.” ................................................................................... 65 Figure 7. “CAL- Crochet A Long.” .................................................................... 66 Figure 8. “Ravelry.com Patterns Page.” .............................................................. 66 Figure 9. “2017 superlatives.” ............................................................................ 67 Figure 10. “Road Trip Planner.” ......................................................................... 67 Figure 11. “Patterns Matching ‘harry potter’ search query.” ............................... 68 Figure 12. “Pussyhat Patterns: Projects Spotlight.” ............................................. 68 Figure 13. “Pussyhat Project Patterns Page” ....................................................... 69 Figure 14. “The Pussyhat Project Knit Pattern.” ................................................. 70 8 Introduction The login page of Ravelry.com showcases the sites light-hearted identity and ease of use, as well as referencing inside information for crafting community members (Figure 1). On the left of the screen, stylized cartoon animals play in a mountain of magenta yarn, which peaks and descends before running along the length of the webpage. The color of the yarn pile visually matches and therefore draws the eye to the circle of the Ravelry logo in the top right. The circle image before the logo name with two overlapping marks is most likely the abstraction of a yarn ball with knitting needles. It also may be a circle around a stylized letter “F;” for the Forbes husband and wife team who created Ravelry.com. Ravelry.com is a website driven by involved users who create and spread fiber crafting content, thus fulfilling the definition of Web 2.0.1 Due to the organic nature of fiber crafts the study of historical knitting and crochet objects is limited to deteriorated socks, cushions, and some primary writings.2 Ravelry.com displays one community’s connection to material fiber culture in the early 21st century. Members of Ravelry.com define the site as an accessible, organized, digital record keeping space. Ravelry.com also continues the historical crafting trend of community-building through physical making. 1 As suggest and defined by Darcy DiNucci, "Fragmented Future," Published by Print magazine. (1999): 1- 3. Author posted PDF on website: http://darcyd.com/fragmented_future.pdf. Jonathan Strickland, “How Web 2.0 Works,” 28 December 2007, HowStuffWorks.com. https://computer.howstuffworks.com/web- 20.htm, (accessed 17 February 2018) and David Gauntlett. Making is Connecting, the Social Meaning of Creativity, from DIY and Knitting to YouTube and Web 2.0. Cambridge: Polity Press, (2011). Print. See later chapters for more discussion on this topic. 2 See Richard Rutt’s A History of Hand Knitting Interweave Press, 2nd part. edition (June 1, 1989) for more on the spread and practice of knitting from when it is believed to have started to modern times. 9 Any person may start a Ravelry.com account, needing only a pre-existing email before choosing a username and password. There are many features of this site that only someone with a Ravelry.com account can view, including but not limited to: forums, groups, messages, and members’ projects. The simple login page does not mention much information other than the username, password, login, and join now! boxes, next to which is a small description of Ravelry.com as “a free site for knitters and crocheters.” The animals on the login page are symbolic, referring to objects, skills, and stories from within crafting society both online and in the physical world. On the top of the yarn pile is a sheep. Sheep are the most widely and publicly recognizable creatures associated with hand crafts like knitting and crochet since yarn was traditionally made of sheep’s wool. Today, the most affordable crafting yarn is machine-made acrylic yarn. However, hand-spun wool from a variety of sheep breeds has created a niche consumer market, which Ravelry encourages by being a specialty online presence. Below the sheep are Angora rabbits, one of the oldest types of domesticated rabbits valued for their soft, wooly fur. The short, fluffy fibers of the Angora rabbit require skill to spin and the size of the animal means the fiber is rarer. Angora rabbit yarn would be considered a luxury yarn and newcomers to fiber hand crafts may not know about or be able to afford such yarn. The next animal on the Ravelry.com login page is an alpaca, a small South American camelid also kept for its fiber. The other representative images are of a bison and angora goat, both which are involved in (usually high-end) yarn production. 10 The final animal, a Boston Terrier, is the Forbes’ long-time pet and mascot of Ravelry.com. Named Bob, he is often featured in official website merchandise and has his own Ravelry profile page (Figure 2).3 Ravelry users even celebrate April 11 as “Bobmas,” not just because of the furry mascot but also because that was when Jessica Forbes “dreamed up” the idea for the website.4 Sadly, on July 11, 2017 a post on the front page of Ravelry.com (usually featuring a Ravelry-dedicated blog post called “Eye Candy”) announced Bob had passed away. The post expressed condolences to the Forbes couple, included photos of the dog in question and had crafting patterns to honor Bob, such as dog toys and Boston Terrier stuffed toys.5 Analyzing the website “Ravelry.com” (hereafter Ravelry or Ravelry.com) will further the study of fiber