Coming to you today with a quick tip for navigating all the fun you’ll find over in The Knitalong Hub!

I always find there’s a bit of a learning curve when I encounter a new or updated system … it’s like you have to build up muscle memory to know where to click to achieve what you want! I’ve had the benefit of hanging out at The Knitalong Hub since we started testing it last autumn. I realised the other day that I’ve developed some muscle memory when it comes to quickly navigating around our online forum and that it might be helpful to share that with those who are newer to the site!

The Knitalong Hub is simply organised. At time of writing, there are six main categories (How The Knitalong Hub Works, What’s New, Members’ Lounge — that’s only visible if you’re signed in!, Knitalongs, Our Books and a Topic Archive). In each of the categories, you’ll find pertinent topics for discussion — so, unsurprisingly, in the Knitalong category at the moment, you’ll find a topic for discussing our March Confident Knitting knitalong!

So here’s the screen you visit knitalong.acknitwear.co.uk, and my quick tip for navigating pertains to the Topics and Categories menu, top centre:

You’ll find this menu no matter where you are in The Knitalong Hub – a shining beacon that can get you back to home base! When I’m catching up in The Knitalong Hub, I tend to read a topic, then just click on “Categories” up top to get me back to the main page of the Hub, so I can decide where I want to head next. (Depending on the length of the topic, you might have to scroll to the top of the page to see the Topic/Category menu!)

But the Categories button also has a cool drop-down menu. So if you’re say, catching up on folks’ progress in the folded hem topic and then want to head to the Members’ Lounge, you can click the small triangle next to Categories to reveal a dropdown menu with each category.

What about the Topic button, you might be wondering? Clicking on that brings up a list of all the topics in The Knitalong Hub, in order of most recently posted in:

I personally find this view less helpful for how I use The Knitalong Hub … my brain likes to see the Categories where there are unread topics. So for me, easily navigating The Knitalong Hub mostly meant remembering to click on Categories from the top menu, not Topics … initially a bit counterintuitive since Topics is on the left. But you might love the Topic View if you want to quickly see where people have been chatting most recently.

In summary: There are lots of ways you can navigate The Knitalong Hub. But if you want the shortcut for quickly getting back to “home” on The Knitalong Hub, clicking Category is key! The Category menu appears at the top of every page on The Knitalong Hub, you just might have to scroll up to see it. Hope you find this tip useful … and if you have a question about using The Knitalong Hub, pop into the Help topic or feel free to ask in the comments!