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Lir Shilton loved to crochet, and she especially loved creating designs to share with other makers. But crochet patterns vary significantly depending where you are in the world—and not just in translating centimeters to inches. Was that a British double crochet or an American double crochet? Did the directions mean to work the decreases 5 times or 5 more times? Which of the 9 sizes did this direction apply to? What color was A?
As Lir described her frustrations to her husband, Saar Oron, he asked the simple, obvious question: “Why is it like this?” With a background in building online communities, he wondered why there wasn’t an app for designers to present patterns and for crafters to consume them in a more user-friendly way. Sometimes it takes a newcomer to ask the question everyone else has stopped asking.
Along with a developer, the pair formed Ribblr, an online community and pattern platform that supports projects in knitting, crochet, and sewing. Patterns on Ribblr allow you to hide unused sizes, cross off completed rows, change colors, and change measurements and instructions to your preferred regional settings. Users can join groups in the site’s forums for support and track projects there. Although the company is based on creativity through technology, they draw one line firmly: the projects on Ribblr must be human-created, not made with AI technology. (Lir even wrote a song about it!)
For the month of August 2026, Long Thread Media and Ribblr are hosting a Market Day Challenge: Create a booth presenting your handmade crafts (at an actual crafts market or an imagined setup), submit a journal entry with a photo of your booth, and enter for a chance to win 50 Gems that you can use to purchase patterns on Ribblr.
Links
- Ribblr
- Market Day Challenge, the August 2026 Ribblr/Long Thread Media collaboration
- Download the Crocheted Peddler’s Pack, Golden Hour Bag, and Bay Leaf Bag free as PDFs or visit Ribblr’s digital platform to claim them
- Hear Lir perform her song about Ribblr’s AI policy
This episode is brought to you by:
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