There are places I’m always going to when I search for how-to’s, inspirations, and the like. And recently I’ve looked around and found some more that I didn’t even know existed, or how vibrant they were.

Ravelry is of course top of the list of what I go to on a regular basis. If you haven’t heard of this yet and you do yarn crafts, check it out. Even if you don’t want to use the notebook feature (keep track of your project progress, yarn, books, etc), it’s a great place to find patterns, look up a pattern you are thinking about making and see what other people have done with it (what yarn, colors, alterations, etc). Oh and then the flip side of that, you can look up a yarn and see what people are making with it to get ideas for your next project. Then there are the groups – local groups, knit along groups, etsy shop groups, foodie fiber groups, tea lover groups, swap groups, destash groups. If you can think of a possible group, it probably already exists.

Instructables is another great place to find user submitted how-to’s. Everything from how to crochet to how to make a lego flash drive.

Etsy Forums is a great place for etsy sellers. I like the forums, but the teams are fun too. Both are great seller support tools. Combine your ideas and experiences with other sellers. Ask questions about how to take better product shots or  when is the best time to list new products.

I just found the Post Punk Kitchen this week and love it. I can’t help myself – food porn, vegan food porn is a huge weekness for me. And there are many other things on there too. The Basement is all things diy and the Punksbay is swap, sell, buy used things.

And some other great communities to check out:

Craftster

Craftzine Community

Get Crafty – I just found it (even though I’ve had the book for quite some time) and it seems to be dying out, which sucks because it looks like it was really cool. Still a good place to find ideas and resources.

So what forums do you frequent? What do you like most/least about your online community?

I’ve been kicking around the idea of starting a forum of some kind… let’s just say I were to… at some unknown date in the unknown future, what would you love to see in it? what common forum thing would you love to see go away? not craft leftovers specific either, just handmade in general.

Well, that’s it for now. I’ll see you all either later or tomorrow!

Happy Crafting!
Kristin

ps – don’t forget to send in a postcard for the giveaway, just two more days!