KCBWDAY1 The House Cup

On my ramblings through the internet this past weekend, I happened upon Knitting and Crochet Blog Week. I've been meaning to get back into blogging, but what really snagged my attention was the topic of the first day of posting:

Day One (Monday April 22nd): The House Cup. A bit like Harry Potter, but not quite, this year’s Knitting & Crochet Blog Week is split into 4 houses. Don your favourite knitted or crocheted hat and let it guide you to which house you will be in.

We all know that my favorite kind of crocheted hat is the Divine Hat, but for this exercise we have 4 options.

House Option 1:

The House of Bee: Bees are busy and industrious, but can flit from one interesting project to the next as bright and shiny things capture their interest.

At the beginning of April I decided to tackle my WIPs.  Being methodical, I first went to Ravelry to search through my WIPs and Hibernating projects, and I found 90. Now granted some I never actually started and some are done and I just need to seam them up, but OMG. So this month I decided to tackle a bunch of WIPs. So far I have frogged 2 projects, completely finished 2, finished the knitting on a 3rd, made good progress on a 4th, and managed to only cast on 2 new projects. Net 2 less projects.  That's pretty good for me, for 3 weeks.  I still have a lot of work to do though!

House Option 2:

The House of Manatee: Manatees are gentle, calm and cuddly. Relaxed and unflashy they represent the comfort and soft side of knitting and crochet.

I don't think  I'm a Manatee.  I love to add beads to a project, or make it larger to use up every last skein.  I overthink ever aspect of most of my projects.  Relaxed and laid back is soooo not my knitting style, even though I think most of my FO's are "gentle, calm and cuddly." Next!

House Option 3:

The House of Monkey: Intelligent and with a fun loving side, Monkeys like to be challenged with every project presenting them with something new and interesting.

I love challenging projects.  I love doing charted lace patterns and crazy cables and figuring out new techiques.  If I'm working on a simpler pattern, I will almost always modify it to acheive a better FO.  For example: adjusting yarn/needles/gauge, beading as many shawls as possible, creating detailed spreadsheets of stitch-counts and yarn used to determine the maximum numbers of repeats I can add to a project without running out of yarn.  

On the other hand, not every project I do needs to be a challenge.  I do love making the same old hat patterns over and over again.  Although, I now usually limit Divine Hats to crocheting on the subway (when following a pattern is a bad idea) or at the movies (where crocheting in the dark is its own challenge).  So hmm, maybe I am a House of Monkey.

House Option 4:

The House of Peacock: Peacocks take something good and make it brilliant. Buttons, embellishments and a bit of sparkle prove that perfection lies in the details – like a Peacock's Tail.

I do like beading my projects but I don't usually make lots of things with embroidery, or embellishments, or finishing work. And I have a firm no-blocking stance.  House of Peacock, I don't think I'm a good fit for you.

Hmm. House of Bee is clearly the winner for me currently, but I'm trying to combat the overwhelming number of WIPs and the Project ADD that make me such a great fit.  Hopefully by the next KCBW I will be more firmly in House of Monkey and on my way to House of Peacock, and that might be a good goal to work towards and blog about for the next year.  Anways, for now, I pledge allegiance to the House of Bee!

And it looks like I am in good company - according to the poll on the Eskimimi Blog, 57% of knitters and crocheters who voted are also in House of Bee with me.