Firstie Friday!

We have two more bios this week for our fabulous Firsties!

MotherofFlagons (Sarah)

How did you find the Cup and what motivated you to give the Cup a try? I taught myself how to knit about 14 years ago after my daughter was born. She got more mobile though, and just as she was getting more manageable and starting school I had my son. As such I have not knit in about 13 years. A lot has changed since then! Since I’ve realized that I DO have the time and means to knit again now, I’ve been busy absorbing the humongous Internet knitting culture that has sprung up since then! The House Cup is a typical example of something that seemed completely daunting at first but really is totally manageable once you get used to it.

What, in your own estimation, is your wackiest/most awesome project and why? I’m proudest of the fingerless mitts pattern I came up with ages ago. I now regret my use of Lamb’s Pride yarn, but I gave a few as gifts back then and everyone loved how they fit. I totes forgot the pattern though. 

What characteristics do you love most about the Tower so far? How do these things impact and change or encourage you? I love how nice everyone is in the Tower. I’m still hoping to thoroughly click with someone! I really appreciate how the mods take care to answer nearly every post and make everyone feel important. I’m new to Rav and generally shy at first, so it really helps to have some reassurance that I belong here.

What is on your crafting bucket list? I have a Fade shawl on my bucket list…I don’t have a perfect colorway yet. And I want to do a lot more with colorwork in general.

What is currently on your needles/hook? I am married to my Zorzal shawl at the moment. Just this evening, I took a picture of it and noticed a hole. In garter stitch, what the heck!!! It was seven or eight rows down, but I tried to fix it. Unfortunately, I dropped an adjacent stitch in error before I dropped the right one. Fixing that mistake ended up making it quite confusing to fix the original mistake, and now it looks a bit wonky in that vicinity. It’s only a small area, and I’m not ripping back 350 or so live stitches to fix a boo-boo eight or so rows down!

WordLily (Hannah)

How did you find the Cup and what motivated you to give the Cup a try? I’ve been aware of the Cup for a number of years but I was intimidated. Last term, early on, I became aware of a couple closer Rav friends who were members, and when they both encouraged me to participate as a NQFY to check it out, I joined the group. When I got the PM from Hagrid, I took a little deeper look around, and decided to actually play. So I submitted a few classes, both that month and the next. I put my name down to be Sorted, not really expecting to be. And here we are!

What, in your own estimation, is your wackiest/most awesome project and why? I think my wackiest/most awesome project is probably my Bamboo Headboard. Why? It’s entirely one of a kind; it uses all different kinds of yarn, much of it reclaimed but also collected over many years in pursuit of such a project; I had the idea and I brought it to fruition, even though it took more than a year; and it’s at least as great as I imagined it would be; I finished it more than 3 years ago and I still use it and love it.

What characteristics do you love most about the Tower so far? How do these things impact and change or encourage you? I love the Tetris threads! And the spreadsheets! And the AS thread! And my dorm, and my Big Eagle! I love that it’s basically impossible for me to be adrift and lost if I don’t want to be, and that if I want to push myself, there’s plenty of encouragement for that, too. I’m hopeful that these things will help me reach new heights of epic-ness in my crafting, rather than settling for mediocrity that leaves me unsatisfied with myself.

What is on your crafting bucket list? Off the top of my head: 
• Persian Dreams 
• A Kieran Foley wrap or a few 
• A fully stranded sweater 
• A handspun (hand-dyed?) sweater

What is currently on your needles/hook? 
• Levenwick in Donegal Tweed 

• Simple Skyp Socks for my dad in Cascade Longwood Sport Stripe
• Coal Creek Trail in Clara Yarn Shetland 2.0

I also have some wool millends I dyed spinning up as a 2-ply gradient on my CPW, and some Spunky Eclectic yak/merino on my Jenkins Delight spindle.

Another big welcome to the Tower. We're happy to have you!