One question that pops up a lot when we talk about knit-alongs is “What do I have to do to join the knit-along?” And the answer is—not a whole lot! We try to keep it as easy and low-key to join in the fun, so keep reading for the very few steps that you need to take to participate in a Berroco knit-along.
We just announced our Marsh + Mallow Knit-along so I’m going to walk you through the process of joining that knit-along.
First, read through the blog post to get the important details. For the Marsh + Mallow KAL, you need to know the start date (May 1), the patterns being used (Marsh or Mallow, both free knitting patterns), the yarns being used (any Berroco DK-weight yarn—we have specific suggested pairings for the patterns in the blog post), and where we’re going to be chatting.
All of our Berroco knit-alongs have a dedicated thread in our Berroco Lovers group on Ravelry. Ravelry is a totally free website—you do have to create an account to use the features, but there are so many features and they are all free. Ravelry is great because it not only has a fabulous discussion section where you can find other crafters who like similar things to you (such as yarn companies, authors, tv shows, or who live in the same part of the country as you) but it also has an incredible pattern library—and if you purchase patterns through Ravelry (including Berroco patterns), they live in your Ravelry library so you can easily find them anytime you need them. But for the purpose of the knit-along, you need to sign up for your Ravelry account, and then head to the Berroco Lovers group.
To get to the group, you can either click any of the links where we say “Berroco Lovers group”, or click on the Groups tab in the top of Ravelry (I’m using a desktop computer for this; if you’re using Ravelry on a mobile device, it might look a little different).
Once you’re in the groups tab, search for “Berroco Lovers” and our group should come up. The main group page looks like this. Make sure you click that “Join this group” link that will appear in the top right corner (mine says “Leave this group” because I’ve already joined the group).
You can see in this example that the Marsh + Mallow Knit-along is at the top of the thread, with a little green arrow next to it. The arrow means that the thread is “stickied” or that it will always show up at the top of the page. If you click on the “Marsh + Mallow Knit-Along” text, you’ll be taken to the last place that you read in that thread. If you haven’t yet read any of the thread, you’ll start at the first post. If you’re all caught up, you’ll go to the very last post.
That thread is where all the discussion is taking place, and I’ll have another blog post in a few days about how to get the most out of posting in Ravelry, but I just wanted to get you started with the basics of Ravelry groups for the knit-along.
The Marsh + Mallow Knit-along is also taking place on Facebook! This is our first time hosting a KAL on Facebook in addition to Ravelry, so even I’m working out all of the kinks to it. But it’s pretty easy to join us in that group as well.
You will need a Facebook account to join—it is free to join Facebook. Once you’re there, you can find our group by going to the Berroco page and clicking on “Groups”
Click on the “Berroco Marsh-Mallow Knit-Along” link to join the group, and that’s it, you’re in!
In a few days, I’ll have another post exploring some of the ways to use Ravelry to really get the most out of the knit-along experience, but in the meantime, come join us on either Ravelry or Facebook as we get ready for our Marsh + Mallow Knit-along!