Knitting Chat Room/Blog Awards

About.com recently released its 2013 Favorite Knitting Website/Blog Awards. It is called the Readers' Choice Awards. About.com asks its readers to suggest their favorites in several categories. Then it whittles down the top responses and asks its readers to vote again. In the end the finalists are based on popularity with About.com's readers.

This year one of my favorites walked away the winner: Knitting Paradise. Without any flashy bells or whistles this clumsily organized website, works to engage over 90,000 users to post questions about knitting, (think how do I do this, or what yarn to use for that, or how reliable is a particular online yarn shop) machine knitting, and announce events, exchanges and/or sales. Knitting Paradise is successful in large part because it is so simple to use. It encourages those with less than current technical skills to post questions or photos with ease and in most cases responses are very friendly and helpful. The website also lets you choose how often you want to receive a reminder to check in. I have dropped from daily because often the topics remain the same to just a few days a week. And best part, like so many other knitting self-help sites, it is free to sign up. The search function works very well so be sure to check it out before posting a question. Odds are your question has been answered several times in the past, at least that's been my personal experience.

And the runners up are Yarn Harlot, (Stephanie Pearl-McPhee designs, speaks, and writes about knitting in Toronto. I've been following her for years.), Singlehanded Knits (Melissa from Hawaii knits, spins, pod casts and blogs with just one hand!), Panopticon (Franklin Habit knits and designs in Chicago. He is also a very accomplished photographer.) and Wendy Knits (Wendy D. Johnson is a designer, author and self-proclaimed knitted sock lover from Alexandria, Virginia.)

So if you want to jump start your knitting website following or chat room participation activities, try following any or all of these sites. They are the best of all that is out there, for now.

BTW, one waffle's done. Top and bottom done, check; edge done, check; and appropriately stuffed, check. When I showed it this morning to a staff member her comment was, "I wondered why you were carrying a waffle around like that." Realistic looking, check! Just a few more waffles to make before I've finished.

One lonely waffle on the table :-(

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Flagel Knitting Files

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