Whenever I get PDD (project deficit disorder) with my knitting, I like to crawl instagram for ideas, inspiration and just to oogle other people’s yarn.
Sing with me; “Oh instagram… How I love you, you are my favorite, my most favorite…” Okay. I admit it, my singing voice may have gone way of the cassette tape. Even still, instagram is my favorite social network to discover and relish in all that’s going on with friends and trends. Most of my instagram feed anymore consists of the dogs or the yarn. And food. I love food. Almost as much as yarn.
Find it with a #hashtag
Hashtags have become an important part of social media, not just for knitting but for finding things and promoting yourself, your interests or your business and I love a good hashtag (or three). But if you’re new to hashtags or instagram or even twitter you may not know that a hashtag is like the card catalog at the library; they can help you find exactly what you’re looking for.
This isn’t a complete list, not by far, but these are some of my favorite knitting hashtags to use and search for on instagram (and twitter too!)
- #knitting
- #ravelry
- #knittersofinstagram
- #knitstagram
- #yarn
- #handknit
- #wool
- #kal (stands for knit along)
- #yarnporn
- #knit
- #instaknit
- #knitted
When should you use hashtags?
Ugh, knowing when to use hashtags has become a sore spot in my professional soul. Hashtags at first seemed like a “fun” thing and I love a fun hashtag. I even love to make up fun hashtags. However, social media being what social media is – hashtags have become over-used and abused.
I personally use my knitting hashtags for three reasons: I want you to find me, I want to find something else, or I am being my usual snarky self and having fun with hashtags (you could probably even create the hashtag #funwithhashtags. Heck maybe someone already has. I don’t know.)
I try not to use more than three knitting hashtags in any picture – this way people can re-tweet easily if they use them on Twitter (but that’s a post for another day in another place). If I want to use more, I use the comments portion of instagram; this also leaves space on Twitter and Facebook and keeps the status from looking cluttered or overwhelming.
[Tweet “a hashtag is like the card catalog at the library; they can help you find exactly what you’re looking for.”]
Even on those days when I don’t have time to knit, I love checking instagram to see all the soft, vibrant, squishable yarns that fellow knitters are currently creating with. Giving someone a <3 for their beautiful yarn or creative work is awesome instagram karma too because I hope they’ll check out what I’m knitting and give me a little knitting instagram love too. I can’t tell you how many amazing knitters, designers, dyers and spinners I’ve discovered because of a few well searched knitting hashtags too – I love seeing my instagram feed grow with new yarns and project ideas!
What knitting (or even crocheting) hashtags do you follow or use on Instagram? I’d love to discover more!
Great post! I picked up a couple useful tidbits. =) I also use hashtags that are relevant to our specific website, like #clickinstix or #grammasknittedgifts. I was super excited when I got our Instagram account setup and found a couple of customers already using those hashtags! 😉 A few more general hashtags that I like are #knittingaddict, #knitter, and #makersgonnamake.