Finding inspiration

With our Hap KAL underway, there's a lot of discussion in the shop and in the Ravelry thread about pattern ad yarn choice. Sometimes the best ideas come from looking at other people's projects, so here's how to go looking for it! We're starting on the Ravelry home page, where you'll find the patterns link in the green banner along the top of the page. Click on that and you're brought to the main patterns page, the one that you use for finding a pattern. We're going to use it for something a little different, though. The default pattern page gives you the most recent patterns, but we're interested in something else - we want to look into the thousands of projects that have been uploaded through the years. So we're clicking on "pattern browser and advanced search". When you get there, ignore "patterns" and click on "projects". This search is going to look at Ravellers' project pages. There's several ways to sort projects: you can look at the most recent ones first, or you can find those with the most helpful notes, or that are rated easiest. How many times a pattern has been favourited is a reliable indication of how gorgeous it is, so let's look at that, by selecting "most favourites" under "sort. And since we're looking for Hap KAL inspiration, let's put "hap" in the search box. When you click on the search button, this is what you get: sixty pages of gorgeous inspiration, with thousands of projects to enchant you! Click on one, and you'll find what pattern and what yarn was used, and the project notes can be absolutely invaluable. Since you're just searching for the word "hap", you might get a couple of false positives - for example, there's (a completely adorable) scarf that comes up because it was made in memory of an Uncle Hap. This is why tagging your own projects carefully is a good thing, because it makes your cherished work easier for other people to find and admire. Have fun! Browsing favourited projects is one of the best ways of spending time on Ravelry!