4KCBWDAY1: H-2-Moo

Here we go, I'm taking another step towards blog socializing and taking part in Eskimi Makes' 4th Annual Knitting & Crochet Blog Week.  We'll see if I'm able to post each day, but I'm going to start strong with a one out of one.

For this first day, our assigned topic is 'The House Cup', and Eskimi wants to know, if there was a magical sorting hat for crafters, what would it discover in our noggins about how and why we craft?  Essentially, what's our style?  She came up with four pre-defined houses, but we're free to construct one of our own.  If you want to read all of the descriptions, she's got them all in this post on the daily topics.

I think I could spend a little time in each house, summering in the House of Bee as I buzz through the daily spinning of the Tour de Fleece, while dabbling in the opulence of the House of Peacock when I'm feeling particularly sparkly.  But I think, in crafting and in life, I relate most to:

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 gasped when I saw this, because manatees have been a favorite animal of mine ever since we learned about them in elementary school.  There's just something about these sea cows that has always intrigued me.  They are so sweet, friendly, and slightly curious without being particularly extroverted.  I like to think I relate to that, as opposed to resembling an actual sea cow.

Manatees have also been described as "gentle and slow-moving animals" by the Save the Manatees group.  This could also describe my knitting style.  While my mom can whip up a project in a few evenings on the sofa, I'm much more likely to plug away a few rows at a time for several weeks.  Here's another oddly accurate description of manatees and me: "they are semi-social, somewhat solitary animals. They sometimes gather in small, informal groups, but they have no leader or real herd structure."  I don't have a regular knitting group, but I take advantage of joining my mom's when I can, and I love my Ravelry friends dearly though we rarely meet in person.

And while it seems a majority of my knitting is done for others in swaps, what I love in my own knitwear, along with the look of it, is the coziness.  Fingerless mitts, cowls, and shawls keep me warm every day in my overly air conditioned office. When it comes to fibers, I have a particular love of the softest and squishiest, like alpaca and merino a la Malabrigo.

I also aspire to another description from Save the Manatees: "Most of their time is spent eating, resting, and traveling."  Just add in some knitting!

Stay tuned for further discussion of my manatee knitting ways and other fun topics in the coming week.  And for more posts, use the tag '4KCBWDAY1' in the search engine of your choice.