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Commodifying Leisure and Improving Its Social Value: Knitters’ Conspicuous Production on Ravelry.com

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The Social Meaning of Extra Money

Part of the book series: Dynamics of Virtual Work ((DVW))

Abstract

Surprisingly, interest in knitting has grown over the last decade with the emergence of a wide range of new informative resources and markets on the Internet. This chapter focuses in particular on the use of the dedicated web platform Ravelry as a social network market. Ravelry’s database acts as a boundary object and brings together people situated on a long continuum between consumption and production. But what appears to be a major change for knitters are devices encouraging the commodification and showcasing of personal achievements. This new media tends to transform a domestic craft that is the object of intimate transactions into a socially rewarding form of conspicuous production, and makes knitting a particularly attractive activity for women who are looking for a satisfying work-life balance.

Now, I can work while keeping my world in order.

(Celia, 40 years old)

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Craft Yarn Council Website. https://www.craftyarncouncil.com/know.html. Accessed 10 February 2019.

  2. 2.

    Farhad Manjoo, “A Tight-Knit Community. Why Facebook can’t match Ravelry, the social network for Knitters.” July 6, 2011, Slate. http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2011/07/a_tightknit_community.html. Accessed 10 February 2019.

  3. 3.

    Note that Ravelers have to create a project page to be able to rate a pattern, but rating is not compulsory. The “most popular” is also “weighted to prefer recently popular things” as noted in a 2013 post from Ravelry’s developer and owner Casey Forbes on the forum: https://www.ravelry.com/discuss/for-the-love-of-ravelry/2478208/1-25#2. Accessed 10 February 2019.

  4. 4.

    “2012, a Ravelry year in review!” January 2013. http://blog.ravelry.com/2013/01/11/2012-a-ravelry-year-in-review/. Accessed 10 February 2019.

  5. 5.

    This argument contradicts the views of many users we spoke to earlier, who said they reward free access to patterns by posting photos of the finished garment.

  6. 6.

    Ravelry’s forums, “Sales by category, 2013–2015.” https://www.ravelry.com/discuss/designers/3337981/1-25#21. Accessed 10 February 2019.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. EXPERICE, Paris 13 University, Villetaneuse, France

    Vinciane Zabban

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  1. Vinciane Zabban
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Correspondence to Vinciane Zabban .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Université Grenoble Alpes, CNRS Sciences Po Grenoble, PACTE, Grenoble, France

    Sidonie Naulin

  2. Paris-Dauphine University PSL Research University, CNRS, IRISSO, Paris, France

    Anne Jourdain

Appendix

Appendix

Table 2.1 The interviewees mentioned in the chapter
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Zabban, V. (2020). Commodifying Leisure and Improving Its Social Value: Knitters’ Conspicuous Production on Ravelry.com. In: Naulin, S., Jourdain, A. (eds) The Social Meaning of Extra Money. Dynamics of Virtual Work. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18297-7_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18297-7_2

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