Ravelry

I can not in all good conscience be a member of a community that will exclude so many while calling themselves "Inclusive" and state they are making it a "safe space". They exclude and hate anybody who does not agree with them. They do the same if you do not jump on the bandwagon with them right away. You have to walk in lockstep or be labeled a racist. I can not support the intolerance they are spouting.

Thus is THE place to find patterns, both free and otherwise, to get ideas and help with all your fiber arts questions, to keep track of your own work, etc. In addition, it's a vibrant community of knitters, crocheters, spinners and weavers from all around the world. The diversity is wonderful. Recently, there's been an exodus of some ugly minded people who can't stand the fact that they are not allowed to bully people of color, LGBT+ individuals, etc. on the site.

Ravelry has been a place for me since 2007 where I can learn anything to do with fibercrafts with the added benefit of lifelong friendships. I have friends from Rav where we've seen each other through hardships and milestones in life. Any patterns/yarn/fiber I can think of I can find or brainstorm with other designers to create. I tell every fiber enthusiast I meet" If you're not on rav, get on there! It will change your world"

While I didn't particularly care for their blanket labeling of certain people or their choice of political discrimination, my biggest ongoing concern with Ravelry has been the rampant pattern theft and distribution. This repeatedly harms designers like myself who create and sell unique knitting patterns. It has been an ongoing struggle for years of our designs being copied and shared as free patterns and the admins do nothing to properly penalize the repeat offenders. And the process to get our stolen patterns removed is very difficult and a slow process, sometimes impossible. This is completely unacceptable from a site who claims to support makers and designers, especially since they have no problem accepting the revenue from from site traffic, advertising, and our sales.