Another thing I like about Ravelry:

It gives one the chance to have the self-soothing properties of online shopping without actually, you know, SHOPPING. I've been spending moments here and there browsing free-pattern sites, or browsing Ravelry for patterns in books I already own and adding all the ones I love and would like to make to my queue. So now I have an immense queue and I may never (realistically speaking) finish everything on it, but it makes me happy to browse through patterns and "buy" (add to my queue) and then look at a "virtual stash" of projects I want to make.

And I'm doing self-soothing behavior today because I'm grading a couple of exams that...well, I can't think of anything polite enough to say, other than that I'm getting frustrated because I sit here in this office for 12 hours a week and no one ever comes by...and then on the exam certain individuals leave whole great swathes blank (and I know it isn't the exam or me, because other people answered the questions just right). And I'm bracing for a lot of frustration from those people when the exams get handed back. And I don't know what to do - obviously I'm not a HORRIBLE teacher or everyone would be failing. And the certain individuals do seem to be people prone to skip class, or to do the assignments (which feed into the exam) with a lick and a promise at best...so adding to my queue makes me feel better. And I don't have to "hurt" my credit cards in order to do it.