The House Cup!

Well, it's Day One of Knitting and Crochet Blog Week, and the fine lady behind Eskimimimakes who has kindly organized the whole thing has also provided prompts for everyone this week. Today's prompt, The House Cup, has asked us to identify which of four houses (a la Harry Potter) we expect we'd be sorted into.

The four houses are Bee, Manatee, Monkey, and Peacock whose descriptions you can find here. Once I had a good think about it, I decided that the Sorting Hat would place me with the Monkeys, as the most important requirement of any project I undertake is that it has to challenge me. I also think that I'm intelligent and fun-loving, but that's kind of a tacky thing to admit about oneself. Anyway, yes, I like to be challenged in my knitting and I like unusual construction and learning new skills.

Just looking at my sock knitting projects, it's pretty clear that I have to have an interesting pattern. Even when I've knit a stockinette sock, the technique was a challenge (Anne Berk's intarsia in the round). There are multiple examples of lace knitting in my sock projects, most of which I think look more challenging than they actually were. I've also done plenty of cabled socks, including Bex, which I've done twice. (I can't even say how many green u-cable needles I've lost over the years - since they only come in a set of three sizes, I must have a gross of the pink ones and white ones scattered throughout the house!) I think the challenge factor gets upped on all these projects because I always knit my socks two at a time. It's not always the easiest way to do it, but I'm pretty sure that I'd be one of those people who suffer from Second Sock Syndrome, were I ever to let myself do one sock at a time.

So, there it is: I'm a Monkey. I think if we were talking about Hogwarts, this Monkey would end up in Ravenclaw House, mostly for the degree of difficulty of the projects I take on. I suspect that Manatees would end up in Hufflepuff House, since they're so easygoing and gentle. Peacocks, I think, would likely be Slytherins, not because they're evil, but because I would expect that cunning Slytherins would value the embellishments and sparkle that characterize the Peacock. I guess that leaves Gryffindor for the Bees, but I would say that Monkeys could be in that house too, since lace knitting without a lifeline requires a degree of bravery that I don't think Bees have.

Anyway, that's it for Day One. For Day Two, I'll see which of my projects is most appropriate as a Mascot Project. Until then, Friends!