So, at first I didn’t quite get what the big deal was with Ravelry. For the most part, I didn’t even really understand what the whole thing was and how it would be different from any other yarn/knitting forum and what could I get out of it that I couldn’t do on my own blog, but now I get it!
First of all, it’s really nice to have some standardized way to organize your projects, stash, needles, etc. I was already organizing it here, but it just was hard to keep everything up to date. Once Ravelry opens to the public I will probably put all my stash pages as links to my stash pages there and just keep my FO galleries. Oh, and on the stash pages you can indicate what you want to trade or sell and you can see what others are trading/selling. I actually contacted someone who had some Cotton Fleece in the Provincial Rose colorway that I need and she said she would send it to me…so that was pretty exciting (she was on vacation so I don’t think she’s sent it yet).
The other cool things are the pattern and yarn browsers. It’s really cool seeing how other people’s projects turned out and to see how other people used their yarn. You can browse and add projects to your “queue” for later knitting, which is great for someone who wants to knit almost everything she sees.
The friends feature reminds me a bit of livejournal, I’m not sure if I should just “friend” the people I actually know or if I should friend people who’s projects interest me. There’s been some discussion of making friend’s groups, so that should take care of that.
The forums feature is also promising, it’s still a little confusing to me, but I think it will be useful for when I have questions. There are also just silly, random threads like Ravelry LOLcats. 
I’m also excited for the upcoming designers features. I have a few patterns that I’ve put together that I would like to sell, but I’m just too lazy to put everything together here and deal with payloadz or other downloading features.
So, all in all, I’d say Ravelry was worth the wait! If you are on there, add me, I’m freshgroundknits
I just got my ravelry invite after sooooo long, and I think it is awesome too! It’s so nice to finally be one of the “in” crowd . . . lol!
I really like it too - I didn’t get what all the fuss was about either, but they’ve done a really awesome job with it!
Love your kitty & clap!