Firstie (and Transfer!) Friday

Welcome back to Firstie Fridays! This week, we’ll be featuring three more of our First Year students.

CN32

How did you find the Cup and what motivated you to give the Cup a try? I joined Ravelry just a few months ago when I got back into crafting after taking time off to study and work crazy hours. I was looking for some of the busier groups and noticed how many of them were linked to this ‘House Cup’ thing. I had a look and liked what I saw so leaped in both feet first.

What, in your own estimation, is your wackiest/most awesome project and why?I think my most awesome project is the one I handed into detention this term, a double bed size sock yarn blankie that used up over 6000 yards of yarn and was worked on and off for 10 years. I finally finished it, and that’s the bit I like about the cup. 

What characteristics do you love most about the Tower? How do these things impact and change or encourage you? It will encourage me to commit to and finish projects. I’ve promised that I will only start new projects for classes or other cup activities, and that I will spend any spare time working on the large number of WIPs sitting in my craft room. My attention span with my crafting and my willingness to finish stuff has not always been good and there are over 50 incomplete items, even having consigned 1/3 of the original total to the frog pond. You don’t want a full list of those do you? We would still be here next week.

What is on your crafting bucket list? What I’ve got planned for the future is more challenging stuff as well as easy bits and pieces. I want to become a better spinner and explore new techniques. I want to turn fleeces into jumper or bedspread quantities of yarn and knit them up. I want to learn how to spin something close to the yarns I can’t afford to buy so I can make all the stuff I really love, not just something a bit like them. So I basically want the world. On a plate. Bon appetit.

Barnowl (Kristi)

How did you find the Cup and what motivated you to give the Cup a try? I used to play in the Nerd Wars competitions, and kept seeing the HPKCHC referenced there. I’ve been a Harry Potter fan since I was enlisted to help read the books to a friend’s son years ago, so decided to give it a try.

What, in your own estimation, is your wackiest/most awesome project and why? I think my wackiest project is the Nightingale Wing Shawl that I knitted in Fyberspates laceweight. The Kingfisher colorway + the pattern created optical illusions, and I suspect that knitting it hastened my need for progressive lenses.

What characteristics do you love most about the Tower? How do these things impact and change or encourage you? I almost always sort into Ravenclaw when I try the various online quizzes. I spent some time looking through the House-specific forums when I played as a NQFY, and was drawn to Ravenclaw. I loved that y’all had Specialist Study threads for fountain pens, spinning, and JRR Tolkien.

What is on your crafting bucket list? Any number of Kieran Foley and Stephen West patterns, plus crocheting doily patterns without feeling as if my frontal lobes are operating on 10% power.

What is currently on your needles? More WIPs than I care to mention, plus a vest for Wool-Aid. Hoping to finish a Squall shawl for Detention!

Gardenmama (Martha)

How did you find the Cup and what motivated you to give the Cup a try? I became friends with our wonderful Auntie Eagle LASH, on another forum, She knows how much I love MKALs and invited me to participate in last term’s HMC. I’m also a Harry Potter fan.

What, in your own estimation, is your wackiest/most awesome project and why? I started out with crochet over mumblty-five years ago as a way to pass time during night shift “slow” periods on the wards and to decompress after shifts. From there a pharmacist friend, who was a prolific knitter, taught me how to knit. My most awesome project B.R. (before Ravelry) has to be the crochet fisherman’s baby blanket I made for a fellow nurse. It had cables, high ridges, low ridges, bobbles, and took over 5 months to make. Too bad I don’t have any pictures of it (this was back in 1986). Since then I think the most awesome project has to be the baby blanket I knitted, then tucked away. It now is in my grand-nephew’s bed. He has adopted it as his night-time lovey. I had found a great deal on some cotton yarn at Big Lots and made 3 of these blankets. (2 of them B.R.) The design was based on a stitch pattern book I liked and my memory of the crocheted blanket. My most sentimental project was a crocheted lapghan made for my grandmother (again B.R.) while hubby and I were stationed in Naples, Italy. The blanket was returned to me after she passed away. I then used it as my cover-up blanket for nighttime feeding after my son was born. When he was a little over 18 months he adopted it as his Dee-Dee, and couldn’t sleep without it. 20 years later, though tattered and held together by just a few threads, he still has it (thankfully it is tucked away and didn’t make the trek to college).

What characteristics do you love most about the Tower? How do these things impact and change or encourage you? All the awesome help and positive attitude along with holding me to goals and keeping me accountable for finishing projects. I love a bit of snark every now and then but drama I can do without.

What is on your crafting bucket list? Stephen West’s Vertices Unite however I am going to use worsted weight and make it a lapghan. (Transfiguration OWL??)

What is currently on your needles? Which ones? Which size? I suffer from both knitting ADD - oooh shiney new pattern, and startitis, so I have many WIPs. Currently though, I just bound off a soft bulky cowl for Quidditch, and have 4 pairs of socks (a sample knit, the SKA MOCK, and 2 for my on-the-go knitting (Monkeys and plain vanilla). Today I am casting on for my Charms O.W.L. I’m also probably going to warp the loom sometime in the next few weeks to weave a long-planned scarf (October class??)