In the beginning there were blogs, (actually I think LiveJournal came first but this phase skipped over me). When I started knitting in the late 1990s the world was a very different place. Berroco was around of course, but we’ve changed too, keep reading for a brief timeline of some of the highlights of knitting in the 2000s:
Milestones in 21st Century Knitting:
2000 – Clara Parks writes the first Knitter’s Review
2001 – Berroco’s KnitBits Newsletter begins, issue #1 written by then Design Director, Margery Winter
2002 – Knitty is born! The first issue came out in fall 2oo2, since then they have been the first to discover so many amazing designers – it’s impossible to list them all.
2003 – Mason Dixon Knitting begins and we will never think of dishcloths the same way again. Also, many more knit blogs than I can list here begin at about the same time. A good friend refers to this blog-boom as “the Blog Class of 2003.”
2004 – Paid pattern downloads – Rogue wasn’t the first PDF download, but its popularity set the stage for the rise of the Indy Designer. Also, Knitters Without Boarders, is born as a response to the tsunami disaster on December 26th 2004. It continues to fundraise for Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders. To date, knitters have raised $1,102,556! Behold to the awesome power that is the global community of knitters.
2005 – Podcasts…Brenda Dayne and Cast On may not have produced the first-ever knitting podcast, but they put them on the map. Also, Berroco launches the Ultra Alpaca line.
2006 – What becomes the Ravellenic Games begins here.
2007 – Ravelry changes everything. Berroco Design Studio has its first blog post…Norah gives us a little backstory in her first post.
2008 – The premier issue of Twist Collective launches (with a beautiful pattern by our Alison Green!)
2009 – Sock Summit happens. Berroco’s first YouTube video paves the way for our Learning Center and the How-To Video Library.
2010 – Vlogs (video blogs) start replacing podcasts. The Aidez pattern is released. There are currently 3615 projects for Aidez listed on Ravelry and it is still going strong.
And that’s just the first decade! I’m sure I’ve missed lots…please share your knitting milestones and favorite events of this century in the comments below.
Happy Knitting!
I didnt pick up yarn until 2004, and I started my learning journey on Craftster .org. Everyone on the site had a Blogspot about their yarn crafts, with random pictures from projects and daily life. Eventually people moved to ravelry and facbook, and craft blogs became “pro”. I miss those early blogs when intentions were simple and personal. I learned a lot from those little blogs.