Breaking up with Ravelry

Some months ago, Ravelry launched a new version of the website, without notice, and seemingly without user testing. 

Due to a combination of factors (spacing, colour use and contrast), this website redesign has been reported to cause eyestrain, migraines, and epileptic seizures. It is also unusable with some screen readers. Ravelry's website remains largely unchanged; it is still causing health problems, and the owners have yet to offer any hope of significant changes to the website appearance.  

Some people cannot use Ravelry at all, some can use it for a very limited time only, before experiencing significant issues. This has forced many of us in the yarn world to realise just how dependant we were on Ravelry, and to make changes to our online spaces.

I have previously used Ravelry links throughout my blog posts, without labelling them as such. I have begun the process of editing these links; removing or labelling the links as appropriate. At the time of writing, there are still Ravelry links, without warnings, on older blog posts. 

I have removed pages from this blog, that listed patterns and linked directly to Ravelry without warning. I had a number of free patterns that were available on Ravelry: I have since discontinued the patterns through my Ravelry Store. They are a few years old, and I intend to review these free patterns before making them available again through a non-Ravelry source. 

My patterns are still available for sale through Ravelry, for those who are able to use the site. They are also available through Payhip and Lovecrafts. Links for everything are available through my Linktree here.