Firstie Friday!

Welcome back to Firstie Friday! Today we get to meet two more of our fabulous First Years! 

LadyJhia (Candy)

How did you find the Cup and what motivated you to give the Cup a try? I found the cup through friends in Heidi Nick’s group. Gardenmama, eternalknitter, kneedleart, and Heidi, of course. They were talking about their cup projects and after a while I got curious about what all the cup was. I went and looked around for a while and found I like it. I liked that it was not more work, but a motivation to help keep me a bit more on track. I also found that I had a lot of Rav friends who were already part of the cup… and I soon made more, too.

What, in your own estimation, is your wackiest/most awesome project and why? Wacky I don’t know. I tend to do much more practical things, really. The most awesome to date is still my Linear Progression and Linear Celebration socks. They are color work that are inspired by my study/curiosity about lines and how they work in knitting…. and also for the Celebrations, my love of beads. That pair has a LOT of beads, but they are places in such a way not to make any part of the sock heavy or saggy.

What characteristics do you love most about the Tower so far? How do these things impact and change or encourage you? The people and the interactive… constantly interactive structure of things. There is never really a long wait to get help if you need it, encouragement when that is needed, or a kind word. Everyone wants to be there and is there for the fun or it, not the competition so much, and it shows. Having support for things I would like the ‘attempt’ is always a good thing. Understanding there are different ways to look at things too. For instance, I was totally brainlocked when the prompts for this month came out. Folks offered ideas and support until I.. and others… were able to take a less literal look at the words and see the concepts. I think that kind of thinking, once developed a bit, lets me as a designer stretch to new things.

What is on your crafting bucket list? Tambour beading or a close cousin called Kantan. It’s beautiful and detailed, which suits my nature.

What is currently on your needles? Socks, lots of socks. I always have socks on the needles. I also have a scarf that needs to be finished. I sometimes do minis (yes, elf and/or ornament sized), mittens and sweaters, but for the most part I do socks. I do want to open things up a bit, but there are just so many amazing socks in my head that I am not sure that will happen all that soon.

Skittle02 (Liz)

How did you find the Cup and what motivated you to give the Cup a try? I found the Cup when I first joined Ravelry, right after I began knitting. I saw a beautiful arm-knit blanket on a Facebook post & wanted to give it a try. After I made my first arm-knit blanket, I decided I wanted to try regular knitting with needles. I had crocheted a bit as a child & I also saw a post for these gorgeous Dragonscale Fingerless Gloves that I wanted to make, so I re-taught myself to crochet at the same time as I began teaching myself to knit. My Gramma is an avid sewist who also crochets and has great love of crafting, which is where I believe I get my love and ambition for crafting as well, although I don’t sew. So after I learned to cast on, knit, purl, and bind off, I started with YouTube videos of different stitch patterns, made my boyfriend & I each a pair of slippers than decided I wanted to learn more!! So I joined Ravelry & started looking up different patterns and groups and what not. The first thing I knit (other than the slippers, which were really mostly a square sewn up) was a knit hat from a pattern I found on YouTube for Hermione’s hat in the Godric’s Hollow scene in the Deathly Hallows movie. I have loved Harry Potter since I was about 12 years old (again, my love for reading is something I get from my Gramma as well, for she bought me the first 3 HP books). I feel like I grew up with Harry, Ron & Hermione. The books used to come out in July & I would always have them preordered for my birthday & my best friend & I used to stay up until midnight then walk to the local bookstore to get our books as SOON as they came out! I still read the books fairly often, I read the whole series over again just last fall. So….. when I started looking for patterns & for groups on Rav, I wanted to find more HP inspired patterns & when I found the Cup, I was really amazed at how intricate and complex the group seemed to be. It seemed like it would be a great community for me to join, as it combines two of the things I have come to love the most, HP & crafting.

What, in your own estimation, is your wackiest/most awesome project and why? My Gramma is also very involved in all sorts of various activities, groups and committees in the community and her and my late Grandfather helped build their local senior center. So with that, she organizes lots of events and what not there; they often receive donations of yarn of all sorts. She sorts them out, sells the full skeins and needles and she donates the rest of the yarn (often times full garbage bags full). So she started giving me these yarn scraps to practice with. She then asked me to learn how to knit hats for 18” dolls for a charity she organized a few years ago where her and 15-20 of her friends buy 18” dolls similar to American Girl Dolls (she absolutely loves American Girl Dolls) then sew together a tote bag & 9 different outfits for 100 dolls every year to be donated to little girls (typically those in foster care or in situation where they don’t have steady homes and often may be forced to move at a moment’s notice, hence the need for the totes & the ability to keep the dolls & their outfits in a ready-to-go-at-a-moments-notice for these young kids sometimes end up losing everything, especially toys). These hats need to be finished by November & so far I have made roughly 35… leaving me about 65 to go. I switch between knitting and crochet, as I tend to be quicker at crochet but I really prefer knitting. After much practice though, I have taught myself to “flick” instead of “throw” which has made me a lot quicker at knitting than I was when I began (and even when I was throwing, for I never really had a good “set-up” to throw so I always had to take my hand off the needle, grab the yarn, wrap the needle & pull through & repeat. With flicking, I wrap the yarn just right around my wrist & am able to feed the yarn around the needle without ever letting go which saves more time than I would have thought possible).

What characteristics do you love most about the Tower so far? How do these things impact and change or encourage you? As I am still fairly new to knitting (I began teaching myself back in December) I figured the community would be a great way for me to learn (I don’t know any RL knitters) & to help motivate me to learn more & continue on my journey as a knitter (and with crochet as well). I spent last term as an NQFY & was amazed at how helpful everyone was. I knit my first sweater (top-down seamless) & would often turn to the different Houses as well as the NQFY thread to ask questions & people were so friendly and so helpful. I honestly think there are a few different projects I would have given up on in frustration if it wasn’t for some of the amazing people in this group & I am beyond thankful to have found this group. I also tend to get a bit “click-happy” and I joined a bunch of groups that seemed fun/interesting/helpful as well as another HP group but honestly. Haven’t spent much time in any other group as everything I need is all right here. I was actually sorted in Ravenclaw in this other HP group but I am a little ashamed to admit, their group didn’t hold my interest nearly as well & I actually feel bad I don’t think I’ve been back since I was sorted… which makes me feel a bit guilty, but I admit this to you for I feel it speaks volumes about the greatness of the group we have here. :)

What is on your crafting bucket list? Oh my Goodness, what a loaded question! There is just so much! My boyfriend’s mom has a blanket her Grandmother knit her & it is just so beautiful! I have never yet found anything like it, it is made out of 4-5 consecutive different stitch patterns running up the blanket in columns, a center stitch pattern & then the same 4-5 patterns again (its symmetrical). There are cables & brioche stitches among several other knit stitch patterns but it is all knit in 1 piece. I think that is the ultimate knit blanket. I’d also like to knit a big comfy sweater out of bulky yarn using a “template” rather than a pattern. My most current bucket list challenge is to knit a shawl using beads, which I plan to submit for a Mission this term.

What is currently on your needles? As of right now, I have a Frilly Skirt for my friends daughter, a Sun Kissed Neckwarmer, a Love the Winter Hat, a Two by Two, and an 18” doll hat on my needles & an 18” hat on a hook. Plus a few other various projects that have been tossed aside for the time being as I just keep starting more….. lol