How Many Miles Did You Knit?
Thanks to Amy Sheridan (AmySheri on Ravelry) for suggesting this month’s tip!
Ever wonder how many miles of yarn have flowed through your fingertips? If you record projects on Ravelry, it will do all of the math for you! (That’s a good thing, in my math-challenged world.)
At the top of your Projects page, click on the “Filter your projects” drop-down menu.
- If you wish, you can select type of craft (knitting or crochet) or leave “type” blank to lump them all together.
- You can filter by other attributes, such as looking only at the hats you have made (select Pattern Category/Accessories/Hat).
Clicking on “year completed” allows you to select one or more years. We’ll choose 2019.
This displays just the projects that I marked completed in 2019. Note the link at the bottom to “details.”
Data geeks rejoice! Ravelry gives you a project-by-project recap of start and finish dates, total yardage, and a bar graph that compares individual projects’ yardage. It tells me I knitted a total 8,251 yards in 2019. That is 4.688 miles of yarn!
Your personal choices will affect this data. For example, I decided to mark a project complete only after blocking and weaving in ends – and, yes, I’ve got a few WIPS that lack those last steps. Marking them “finished” in 2020 would skew my annual results, but I could choose an earlier ending date to more accurately reflect when the actual knitting was done.
It’s not a competition; knitting “more” does not mean knitting “better.” But it can be fun to see the numbers behind your heartfelt creations. For AmySheri, who says “I have been on a mission to knit from my stash,” the numbers can also help you track personal goals. Now, if I could just get myself to walk4.688 miles per day in 2020. . .
Ravelry Tip of the Month is an ongoing feature of our newsletter. Have a tip suggestion or a Ravelry question you’d like answered? Send your ideas to Sydnie Wauson at VicePresident@SanDiegoKnitters.com.
