Ravelry Pro Data and Excel: How to Make a Purchases by Month Chart

Hello!

A discussion on rav revealed that some designers would like to export data from Ravelry Pro to manipulate in excel and in particular, create a chart of Purchases by Month. Here I go through the steps to work up the chart yourself, and at the bottom of the page is a link to a dummy excel file you can use. If you use the dummy file, you can just pop your Ravelry Pro exported data into the Purchases tab, but going through the steps will help you figure out how to to it yourself and maybe get different data out.

  1. Export the data from your purchases page
    http://www.ravelry.com/stores/XXX/purchases

    export purchases data from ravelry pro
    export purchases data from ravelry pro
  2. Then open that in a new excel document. The date of purchase column is column A.
  3. You will need to use text-to-columns on column A to turn it into date format as just converting the data to “date” won’t work. Text-to-columns is on the data tab in my version (2010). Rename this excel sheet “Purchases”.
  4. On a new excel sheet, set up 2 columns as follows
    A B
    Month Purchases
    01/01/2010

     

  5. Call this sheet “Purchases per Month”. (January 2010 is an example. Best to use your first month with sales.)
  6. Put the following into cell A3, then copy and paste into the rest of column A until it shows December 2014. This formula adds one month per cell.
    =DATE(YEAR(A2),MONTH(A2)+1,DAY(A2))
  7. Put the following into B2 and then copy and paste it into the rest of the cells below it. This formula basically says “count all purchases where
    1. The “paid” column is not empty AND
    2. The date is greater than or equal to the first of the month AND
    3. The date is less than the first of the next month

    =COUNTIFS(Purchases!F$2:Purchases!F$10000,”<>”,Purchases!A$2:A$10000,”>=”&A2,Purchases!A$2:A$10000,”<“&A3)
    *Please note, this last formula only works up to 10,000 purchases, but OTOH, if you have more than 10,000 purchases, I can, for a small (teeny, weeny) fee, write a spreadsheet for you!
    **Sorry it runs off the page, but I don’t want to add spaces cos that will break the formula if the spaces are pasted too.

  8. And then to make the chart, just select the data in columns A and B on the “Purchases per Month” sheet and click on the barchart from the Insert tab.

Finally, here, for your downloading pleasure, is the mock_purchases spreadsheet.

If you use the spreadsheet, you will need to do the Text-to-columns thing in step 3) everytime you copy in the data from rav.

Advertisement

Zebra Chevrons in Slip-Stitch (or Mosaic) Colourwork

The Zebra Chevron Slip-Stitch Colourwork pattern is one of my favourite stitch patterns, and it’s surprisingly easy to work. I think you’ll agree it makes for a striking pattern, and all it is is stripes of knit sts with a few slip stitches thrown in.

Zebra Chevron Swatch
Zebra Chevron Swatch

To work this st, you work in stripes of colours, knitting 1 to 3 sts in the colour you are using this stripe, and slipping sts that you want to leave in the contrasting colour. Always slip purlwise, so no twist is introduced into the st.

Rnds 1 & 2: With colour A, [k2, sl1] 8 times.
Rnds 3 & 4: With colour B, [sl1, k2] 3 times, sl1, k3, [sl1, k2] 3 times, sl1, k1.
Rnds 5 & 6: With A, k1, sl1, [k2, sl1] 3 times, k1, sl1, [k2, sl1] 3 times, k2.
Rnds 7 & 8: With B, repeat Rows 1 & 2.
Rnds 9 & 10: With A, repeat Rows 3 & 4.
Rnds 11 & 12: With B, repeat Rows 5 & 6.

To knit it flat, work the odd rows as written, and then for the even rows, just slip (wyif) the slip sts and purl the knit sts of the previous row.

Here’s the chart:

Zebra Chevron Chart

zebrakey

The fabric produced when working a mosaic or slip-stitch pattern is much denser than plain stocking st. This is because you’re effectively working every row twice; once with each colour. The fabric is firmer, with less stretch, but it’s warmer too.

I have used this stitch pattern in an up-coming garment at the waistband. The geometric lines plus a little extra shaping draw the eye in at the waist, so if you’ve got curves, this is a great way to show ’em off. Sneaky peek:

Zebra Chevron Slip Stitch Colourwork