Surfing the Net for Knitters

Pat Shorten

Plshorten@yahoo.com

Surf’s Up:

What is the Internet?  The Internet is thousands of computers in hundreds of countries linked together by telecommunications.   The Internet is not a single entity and it changes frequently.  This course will describe how you go to specific web sites, search the Internet for information and read list servers.  There are web sites out there with hundreds of free patterns, lessons on how to knit specific stitches and even complete discussions walking you through knitting an entire sweater.  We will not be discussing your personal connection to the Internet.  You can access the Internet in local libraries or Internet cafes if you do not have a home connection.

 

Grab your board and come on in.  The water’s great!

Where do you start?  Once you open your browser you will come to a default web site.  This site was installed with your connection to the internet and can, if you like, be changed when you get more comfortable with your web browser. 

Within your Internet window there will be a long narrow rectangle, labeled “address”, located at the top of your screen. An address is the location of the web site.  You can simply type in the address of any web site, hit enter and go to that web site. Remember that you must type the address correctly because your computer will not guess what site you want to go to.

Try this web site: www.zenknit.com  Now click on “links”…you’re now surfing the web.  You can choose to go to any of these web “links” simply by clicking on them.  A web link is a connection from one web page to another.  In this document they are underlined while on web sites they are typically a different color and when you move your cursor over them a hand appears.

 

Finding the right bathing suit:

OK, now that you’ve been to a few web pages what you really want to do is find specific things that interest you.  You need a Search Engine, a web site that searches other web sites to find information pertaining to your area of interest.  My favorite is www.google.com.  Type the google address in and go to that web site.  At google.com there will be a rectangular box in the middle of the screen with a blinking cursor and in this box that you will type in key words.  Typing in “knit” results in 885,000 sites being found and is really too general to be of any help.  If you are interested in knitting a Wonderful Wallaby sweater you could type in “Wonderful Wallaby” in quotation marks and come up with 124 sites that sell the pattern, discuss knitting it or show pictures of finished sweaters.  Basically, to narrow the search, use descriptive phrases surrounded by quotation marks.  My favorite baby gift is the five hour baby sweater; can you find that?  I actually like the one that Lorrain Major reworked.  In order to find Lorrains pattern I would put "baby sweater" & "Lorraine Major" (in just that way) on the search line.  This returns just 12 sites and the first one is her pattern.  The quotation marks force the search engine to look for the exact phrase and the ampersand tells the engine to look for both phrases within the same web site.

 

Are there other surfers in the water?

A wonderful way to find out what other knitters are thinking about, knitting and discussing is to sign up for a knitting related list serve. This is a special address that people can write to and the message gets bounced out to everyone on the lists email.  The knitlist is perhaps the biggest knitters’ list serve out there. Go to www.knitlist.com, click on FAQ’s and you can read about this list and decide if you want to subscribe.  There are about 4,000 members of this list and many of them write daily.  There is an option to receive the list in digest form which means that a number of the messages are grouped together in one message and sent to your email address.  This is useful if you only read your messages once per day or don’t want to receive many individual emails.

There are also lists for sock knitters, ample knitters, charity knitters, baby sweater knitters, Fair Isle knitters, and just about any other specialty.  If you have a fairly specific interest there is probably a group of knitters out there discussing it and helping each other.

 

Riptides and other dangerous currents:

A word of warning about hoaxes: Anything that seems to be “too good to be true” probably isn’t. On the Internet you are likely to meet people from all over the world.  Occasionally someone out there will try to cheat you.  Pop-up windows offering to make your computer run faster or protect you from viruses will appear when you visit some sites.  You will get bogus offers in your email.  When I get email from people I don’t know, I simply delete it.

The Internet is a wonderful place to learn things and meet new people so don’t be put off by the fact that there are a few sharks in the water!

 

Surfer Lingo:

Back (an arrow symbol) is a navigational button that takes you to the last page you visited.

Home (house symbol) is a navigational button that takes you to the default web page.

Bookmarks allow you to return to a site.  Find “favorites” on your tool bar (the bar across the top of your screen), pull it down and click on “Add to Favorites”.  The site you are on is now saved to your favorite’s folder and you can go back to it by simply opening your favorite’s subdirectory.

Address A “www” address indicates a URL or universal resource locator.  Several different endings can be on an address and indicate different things.  A .org is an organization, .com is any business, .pa(any state abbreviation).us is the state home page, and .edu is used by educational institutions.

Email is a message sent to you or from you through an Internet mail program.  Email addresses look like: JaneKnitter@yahoo.com