PE4 - Ravelry Pattern Search

In my post PE1 - Ravelry I did a review of Ravelry.com as a whole. Today I'm going to take a closer look at the pattern search function that they offer. As part of my Relevant and Innovative Learning Scenario, learners will be using the advanced pattern search to find patterns that would be a good fit for both the yarn they have available as well as their current level of knitting skill.

I wanted to do a test drive so I based my search on the assumption that I wanted to knit a women's sweater in my size out of a worsted weight yarn from a pattern written in English. When I plugged in these five requirements the search returned 538 patterns!

I obviously needed some more help to narrow it down so I added more search requirements such as type of sweater (I chose a cardigan), pattern source (I chose the options of in My Library or Free) and design elements (I chose a shawl collar). With these new additions I narrowed down my findings to 6 patterns.

In order to pick out the exact pattern I would like I looked at each sweaters pattern page. On this page I can look at several tabs full of information such as details (yarn used, needle used, where to get the pattern and guage), yarn ideas (substitutes used by other knitters), projects (other knitters who are making this sweater) and any blog posts or forum comments that mention this pattern. 

In my learning scenario I hope students will be able to narrow down their search to 5-10 patterns and use the information in the tabs to narrow that down to 3-5 that they will share with a group of knitters to help them decide what pattern would be best for them.