Some Squares

Hello:

I have finished the first row (plus one square not shown) for the Wedding Afghan I am making (ok, the half of the Wedding Afghan, as my daughter, Allifer, is making the other half).

For the Final Round of Quidditch in the Harry Potter Knitting/Crochet House Cup (HPKCHC) this term, we had to craft something with 450 yds in two weeks.  Well, since I need to make 15 squares, and each square is about 100 yds, I decided to make 5 squares and hook them together for my Quidditch submission.

We are making the afghan out of Caron One Pound in Espresso, Beige, and Taupe.  I know, I have already made 2 afghans using these colors, and frankly, after the second one, I was pretty tired of them, but they go together really well, and make a nice neutral afghan that will go in many rooms without clashing (I hope).

I have been putting the squares up here as I finished them, but I haven't shown you the last two that I finished.

I took the Spider Square 

that I designed last year,
put her on a brick wall and gave her

BABIES!!

So much fun to play with and expand on this pattern.

The other square is a bit wonky, I need to work with it a bit more to get it to lie flat (I might have to steam this one ... really that means melt it a bit), but I still love it.  Puzan brought me a photo of some crochet last Sunday, and asked if I could figure out the pattern.  It's a bit tough to see if the stitches are sc or hdc but I made this square using sc.  Anyway, for right now, I'm calling it "Drips."

I didn't ride my bike today, taking one day off, but hoping to get on the bike early tomorrow before I tutor and it gets hot.  Because it has been super hot here.  ugh!

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with new afghan squares.

O.W.L.

Hello:

I am on break this month.  Of course, this week is Spring Break up here for our schools, and my Godkids are on their Spring Break, too.  But, I am on break for the Harry Potter Knitting/Crochet House Cup.

The Cup is organized into 3 month Terms, with a Break month in between each Term.  I made so much stuff (still need to add up and post my yardage) last Term, that I really need this month off to relax.  Of course, I am still stitching.  Even with my visitors, I am finding time to knit and crochet. 

I have been working on charity baby hats, and on the 3 blankets I have in progress, but mainly, I am deciding on what will be my proposal for my next O.W.L. (Ordinary Wizarding Level Exam).  The Cup is full of opportunities for projects that must be completed in one month (regular class assignments), and even shorter projects (Quidditch), but there are also challenges to make items that take more than one month.  These are called Advanced Studies.  There are three types of Advanced Studies projects:  Order of the Phoenix Missions (should take 6 - 8 weeks), OWLs (should take 3 months), and NEWTs (Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Test) which are a combination of 2 OWLs and take 4 months.  There are eight different possible OWLs and if you finish them all, you are given the designation of OWL Mistress.    So far, I have completed 4: 

My first term (Fall 2012), I completed a History of Magic OWL.  I knit 3 pairs of socks, each sock representing a different famous witch or wizard.

 Coupling Socks to represent Professor McGonagall:

Bubbling Socks to represent Lily Potter:

And Snape's Stockings to represent... Snape.

The next term, Winter 2013, I completed a Transfiguration OWL.  The challenge was to "disappear" a huge amount of yarn, and I hooked an afghan.  It used over 3000 yds of yarn.

For Spring 2013, I used the OWL to hook two baby blankets for a baby shower that June.  This subject was Charms.  The challenge was to crochet 2 items in lace patterns using a minimum of 600 yds. each.

One of the things I love about the Cup in general, and the OWLs in particular, is that it pushes me to FINISH stuff.  When I have a real life deadline, like a birthday, or a baby shower, I always try to make the gifts part of a class or my OWL for that term.

I made another afghan for my Fall 2013 OWL.  That subject was Arithmancy, and the challenge was to make multiples of the same type of item.

For last term, Winter 2013, I did a NEWT instead of an OWL.  You have to have completed 4 OWLs to be eligible for a NEWT, and the NEWT has to include a subject you have already completed.  So, I did  DADA (Defense Against the Dark Arts) where I conquered the Cruciatus Curse by knitting two pieces that used mostly stockinette and garter stitch - very horrible stitches for me

and Transfiguration, where I disappeared a ton of yarn:

So this is all a big lead up to the OWL choice for this next Term, Spring 2014.  I want to use the OWL to push myself to make something I have been wanting to make and just never seem to get around to starting.  I am thinking of making Christmas Ornaments and Snowflakes. 

I have been wanting to make the ornaments from 55 Christmas Balls to Knit by Arne and Carlos.  I even checked the book out from the library two years ago, and knit 0.  Also, every year, I look at these beautiful crocheted snowflakes, and think, I'm going to make some for my kids.  And I make 0.  I test hooked a snowflake last night,  called Christmas in Paris by Deborah Atkinson.  Each arm is supposed to look like the Eiffle Tower.

There are so many beautiful snowflake patterns on Ravelry for free, and what's more, I'm sure that as I start making them, I will start designing my own.  Same thing for the Ornaments.  There is an option for Care of Magical Creatures where you Hatch an Egg or a Clutch of Eggs and craft items that are inspired  by the creature(s) you hatched.  So, I'm thinking that I will hatch a Frost Dragon, or some type of similar creature and the snowflakes and ornaments will represent the time of year, and perhaps the breath of the creature.  I just need to figure out how many is a reasonable amount of each to make. I have to remember that I will be knitting socks for both Sock Madness AND Tour de Sock during this term.  The socks will be turned in as class assignments and also most likely for my Order of the Phoenix Mission.  I want to be able to finish the OWL successfully.

This should be the push to get these done WAY before Christmas.  I am getting excited.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with the Eiffle Tower in mercerized cotton.

New Month

Hello:
It's a new month so that means new class prompts in the Harry Potter Knitting Crochet House Cup (HPKCHC) Group on Ravelry.

The last few days of each month are always crazy in the House Cup.  I had all 8 classes finished with 3 days to spare, when I got a great idea for a different project for one of the classes I hadn't turned in yet.  For Magical Menagerie (the classes in September were based on shops in Diagon Alley), you could either make something to help care for your magical pet, or make a magical pet.  I had finished 4 hats and a crocheted cowl that I hadn't turned in yet.  I planned to turn them all in, except perhaps one, to Potage's Cauldron Shop.  The prompt there was to choose a cauldron, and craft something that had the cauldron's traits.  My hats and cowl were all easy beginner projects, so fit the Pewter Cauldron.  Then I thought I would turn in 1 hat as a bag for a toad, or some other silly pet thing, to the Magical Menagerie.  But, Saturday night, I got this great idea to hook a hippo.

I bought this great pattern last summer to make a hippo out of crocheted shapes, like pentagons, hexagons, octagons, etc.  It is such a clever bit of geometric engineering, I just had to get the pattern.  I was using worsted weight yarn, though the pattern calls for fingering weight, so my hippo was going to be fairly big.  I just couldn't get it finished on time.  It had to be submitted to a class by midnight, Pacific Time, on Monday, September 30.  Ugh!!  I finished all but the head.  No good photos, though, so I can't show you what it looks like until tomorrow.

It made me a crazy person all day Sunday and Monday, though.  All I did was make these little pentagons, etc.  I mean it.  It was all I did.  We had pizza for dinner.  I could tell the Doc thought I was insane.  And then I didn't finish in time.  But, I still can turn it in for a Quidditch project, thank goodness, because all of that work should count for something!

What did I finish up in those last few days?

I finished my Hidden Hearts Socks by Jeannie Cartmel, in SweetGeorgia Yarns Tough Love Sock in Boysenberry.

I am not sure I like the heels.  They have a short row heel.  That isn't really the problem.  It's the lace that is at the top of the heel.  The heels seem rather short on top, and this puts lace in a place where it will rub inside the heel of the shoe.  I like my heels taller.  There is no pulling on these socks to fix where the heel ends.  The solution would have been to do a few rows of stockinette at the back of the leg before starting the lace pattern.  I think that would have worked.  Or, this heel is not a good heel for this type of pattern.  Anyway, I'm not sure how wearable these socks are, which is too bad, because I think the yarn is beautiful, and I do like the lace pattern.

I mentioned that I had finished a few hats.  The first hat I just improvised as I knit it.  I am trying to stash bust, so I used a bulky weight brown Lions Brand yarn that I had in my stash.  I was going to do a seed stitch and a cable, but I decided that the yarn was too thick for this, so I stuck with a rib alternating with seed stitch sections.

The second hat that I made was a variation on the Turn a Square hat by Jared Flood.  I used some yarn that Colleen generously donated to our group.  She can't use wool yarn in her charity knitting, so when she gets donations that include wool, she often brings the wool to the group.  I snagged a few balls of Cascade 220 in various solid colors, and some unnamed variegated which I think is Berocco.  Instead of having 4 corners for decreases, I had 5 making the shape of the top of my hat into a pentagon.

Another little variation I put into this hat was that I added 5 purls spaced around the hat to divide it into the sections.  I  used the first purl to hide my color changes.

I really like how this hat came out.

The cowl for this class was from a pattern from Interweave Crochet.  I had one skein of sparkly acrylic that was part of a gift exchange last term in HPKCHC.  I had to make the cowl much thinner than the one in the magazine, as I didn't have a big skein.

Three easy and relatively quick projects.  Lots of yards used, so I hope lots of bonus points.

O!  I almost forgot to say that the  best part of finishing up these classes is that I won the drawing in September Solid Socks for the purple Hidden Hearts socks.  I will get a skein of sock yarn by GrittyKnits as my prize.  Yay!  more sock yarn for me.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet as a WINNER!

Fiber Friday's ROAR!

Hello:

It's starting, our gorgeous sunrises.  One of the things I love about living this far north is that as winter approaches, the sun rises later and later, and lazy person that I am, I can watch the sun rise without having to get up early to see it.  The above photo was taken at 6:50 am. 

So, Lions took over the table today at Fiber Friday. 

Ha ha ha, my fellow Gryffindor, Zillalatte, joined us at Crossroads in Bellevue for some knitting.  We have chatted both in the HPKCHC thread and in the Eastside Stitchers thread about the possibility of meeting up to stitch together in real life, not just on line, and today was the day.

We started early at Crossroads, or well I thought I was getting there super early, but CodyJunk beat me there.  We grabbed a big circular table in the middle of the mall under the skylight, got ourselves some coffee (I had a skinny mocha from Starbucks), and were joined by CathieC before we could even sit down.

CathieC was working on her beautiful Racing Raindrops from Churchmouse Yarn & Teas.

Later, we were joined by Constance49, who was also working on a Racing Raindrops.

Connie is using variegated yarn, and variegated beads, too.

CodyJunk, the Queen of crocheted toys brought a beautiful pair of knit socks to show and tell.

She also brought a special toy for my youngest son, Pookie. 

She brought Pookie a Pookie.  Get it?  Garfield's teddy bear, "Pookie."  A gift to my son, Pookie.  I can't wait to send it to him.

CodyJunk was also knitting today.  She is making this cowl with a really interesting stitch pattern.

Zillalatte was knitting hats for charity.  We have an ongoing Charity Hat Challenge in Gryffindor.  Zillalatte was knitting the Braided Gems Hat by Elizabeth Ravenwood Designs.  This pattern is on sale until October 12, 2013 in the Ravelry store.  For every hat you make for charity, the designer will send you another free pattern from her designs.  There is a thread for this offer in the A Big Comfy Doghouse Group on Ravelry. 

JulieMustKnit brought her almost-finished Union Square Cowl.

She is running out of yarn.  I can't wait to see the finished project.

Winterpromise31 brought her Twisted Trellis Hat.  She has reached the decreases and should be closing up the top soon.

We talked about a Christmas Gift Exchange.  We are planning something in the Wednesday group, and thought that the Friday Fiber group could do something similar, but a bit smaller, perhaps simply bring a gift (amount to be determined), and blindly exchange it.  That would require zero stalking.  Just presents.  I'm always up for presents.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with a ROAR!

B-I-N-G-O

Hello:

Life
If you weren't watching football last night, you might not know that we had a huge thunder/lightning storm last night.  I had gone out to pick up pizza, too busy to stop to cook, and when I got home it was directly overhead.  As, I started to get out of the car with the pizza, I saw the flash and heard the CRACK simultaneously.  I pretty much dove back into the car.  A few weeks ago, I posted about how a guy riding a motorcycle on the 5 fwy here was struck by lightning.  I didn't want to get hit.  Of course, we have these super tall trees in our yard, so if lightning did strike in my yard, it would probably hit a tree, not me.  But, then, I thought, I could get hit by a falling branch or something.  Best to just wait a bit.  When I got inside, the Doc and number 1 son were both upstairs.  Why aren't you watching the Seahawks Game?  I asked.  Well, duh!  the game was paused because of the lightning.  When they resumed an hour later, the Seahawks dominated the San Francisco 49ers.  And, the Seahawk fans set a Guinness Book of Records record for noise.  Go Hawks!

I was busy with so many fun things this weekend.  On Saturday night, I went with a neighborhood group to see the musical, Xanadu, at the Village Theatre in Issaquah.  It was really fun.  A bit of name dropping here... I had a friend from high school who was in the original movie.  The movie was horrible.  The Broadway Musical is wonderful.  They took the movie, and redid it but with their tongues firmly in their cheeks.  It is a silly poke at the disco culture of the 1980's, roller skating and all. 

My neighbor friends and I went to dinner first at Fins Bistro which is right next door to the theater.  Fins also has this cool thing where you can order something for intermission before the show, so when you come running for the 15 min. intermission, there is your dessert and coffee waiting at a table.  I had the Steak Salad, and split a banana split at intermission.

What a fun night out.

Stitching
This weekend, I both finished and started projects.  I don't want to just do a rundown of everything I was working on, so I will focus on 2 things.

I finished the fingerless mitts I was making as companions to the Roscoe Village Hat I made for my daughter, Moogie.

The texture pattern for the top part of the hat is the same as the one from the Hermione's Everyday Socks Pattern.  It's a really attractive texture.  I used that for the hand part of my fingerless mitts, and the brim stitch pattern for the thumbs and thumb gussets. 

I started with some 1x1 ribbing, and finished with the same ribbing.  I love how these look.

Part of it is the Malabrigo yarn, of course.  It is tough to have anything knit in such gorgeous yarn be anything but gorgeous.

Anyway, I told Moogie that I am just going to send them out.  I am not going to keep anything for Christmas, they will just get stuff as I finish it.  She will need these when the weather gets cold.

One of the other things I worked on this weekend, and today, was not really stitching, but stitch related. 

I have said that I am a Pride Leader in the Harry Potter Knitting/Crochet House Cup (HPKCHC) for the Gryffindor House.  One of the things I really want to do is encourage all members of my pride, Acid Pops, to turn in at least one project every month.  I have been making stitch markers to send out to people as they complete their first class. 

One of the ways my house, Gryffindor, encourages maximum project turn ins, as well as just general participation, is Gryffindor BINGO.

We have this BINGO card that we can download that has activities and classes in each square.  As you complete things, you can mark it off on your card.  Your name gets put in a hat for every row and column you complete.  People in the house donate prizes which are given out at the end of term.

At first, I was going to make these little cards that said something like "First Class Complete!  Pop On!"  or something equally lame, and send those with 2 stitch markers.  Then, I got the great idea to print out the BINGO cards, and put the stitch markers on as BINGO markers.

They are pretty simple, just the printed out cards glued (rubber cemented) to cardstock that is Gryffindor colors with the Rav Names on top.  Then I sewed (from behind) the stitchmarkers on as the BINGO markers.  About half of the Pride has sent me their addresses.  I need to get on the rest of the group so I can send their cards out, too.

Pop! Pop! Pop! ON!  Acid Pops!

f1bercat
shaping the planet with BINGO

I have been busy

Hello:

It's a bit after 11 am, and wow still foggy.  It seems like summer has ended early.  We had the warmest/least rainy summer in 2 generations.  The weatherman on KUOW keeps saying that we are going to have more nice days, but then... we get this fog.

It is the beginning of the Fall Term for the Harry Potter Knitting Crochet House Cup (HPKCHC) on Ravelry.  This happens every 4 months.  The "terms" are 3 months long with a month break in between.  You can turn in one finished WIP each month of the term, but all other points are for projects started and finished during the term.  This always makes the break month a bit of a stitching downer.  Or, a needed rest...

For detention (this month it is called "Leaky Cauldron"), I made a hat, the Turn a Square Hat by Jared Flood.

Other than "detention" - the finished WIP's, there are 5 different types of projects you can do for the game.

The class prompts are short term projects.  Every month, on the first day of the month.  Eight different class threads are opened with a bit of a story and a prompt for a project.  These prompts have different options, and always include all the possible crafts (knitting, crochet, spinning, dyeing). While at first they seem specific, they are very open and you can almost always figure out a way to "sell" a project you wanted to make to any class.  The projects must be completed, and by completed I mean completed - blocked and all ends woven in, and the turn in posted by the last day of the month.

This term, the classes are a bit different, at least for September.  We are exploring the shops in Diagon Alley.  So, rather than having Flying Class, we have a prompt for Quality Quidditch Supplies.  The prompt has to do with the balls used in playing Quidditch.  If you are learning about the Snitch, you might craft something to help catch or contain a snitch (for example, gloves/mitts/bags).  If you choose the Bludger option, since these are rather dangerous, you might craft something you are afraid of, something you have tried and failed at before, been nervous to start, or a new technique.  The last option for this class is the Quaffle.  Since these are the only non-magic balls used in quidditch, you must craft something a muggle might use to clean up messes.  This is an opportunity for people who love to craft washcloths, etc.

This type of game is so perfect for me.  There is a bit of role-playing, a bit of trivia and learning more about the Harry Potter world, a lot of Harry Potter, and a lot of crafting.

For Quality Quidditch Supplies, I made some fingerless mitts.  They fulfill option 1, and will help my son, Pookie, "catch snitches" at his school this fall.

Another class I have finished is Ollivander's Wand Shop.  You might remember from the books, that Mr. Ollivander is always saying that the wand chooses the wizard.  So for this class, there is only one prompt, "craft something that chose you - explain how it chose you."

I have been working on a new afghan square design, Twisted Rose, having it tested, and getting it ready to publish.  So, for this class, I made up one of my new squares in Gryffindor colors.  I haven't turned it in yet, but the write up will be something about the design being my own, and something I just can't get out of my head, and of course Gryffindor colors are a natural since being sorted into Gryffindor for the 4th term.

I have started a pair of socks.  These will be turned in for Flourish & Blotts.  This is the bookstore in Diagon Alley.  The prompt focuses on a book of hexes and jinxes, Curses and Counter-Curses: Bewitch your Friends and Befuddle your Enemies with the Latest Revenges: Hair Loss, Jelly-Legs, Tongue-Tying and much, much more. 

The prompts are to either craft something to protect your legs from the Jelly-Legs curse (socks/leg warmers) or to craft something really ugly and for bonus points, give it to someone.

I am doing option 1.  I am making Hidden Hearts by Jeannie Cartmel.  She is one of the featured designers for Sock Knitters Anonymous, SKA, this month.  I am using some beautiful SweetGeorgia Yarns Tough Love Sock in Boysenberry.  SolidSocks challenge for September is Purple, so these socks will fit that group, too.

I am finding these a bit of a slow go.  The pattern is not difficult, but it is not necessarily social knitting.  I brought them to Crossroads last Wed, and made very slow progress.  Then, I tried to knit them while watching Notre Dame lose to Michigan last night, and that was even worse.  The Doc does not like too much light on while watching TV, and these need a lot of light.  I ended up putting them down and working on my OWL, instead.

The long term projects in the House Cup are:  NEWTs, OWLs, and BROOMs.

NEWTs are meant to be a 4 month long project.  You have to have successfully completed 4 OWLs before you are "allowed" to do a NEWT.  I am currently on my fourth OWL.

The OWLs should take 6 - 8 weeks and involve 60 - 80 hours of crafting.  This is pretty subjective, as they want it to be your time, not what it would take an expert speed knitter, or spinner, etc.

For my other OWLs I made, 3 pairs of socks (History of Magic), an Afghan (Transfiguration), and two lace baby blankets (Charms).  For this OWL (Arithmancy), I am making another afghan, but not the entire thing.  The prompt is to make 12 of something.  You can make 12 hats.  They don't have to be the same pattern or yarn.  So I will make 12 12 in. afghan squares, and 10 6 in squares.  I need 20 of the 12 in squares to make a decent size afghan, so the other eight will be made for various classes or Quidditch.

So far I have completed two of the 12 in.:

Four 12 in Shell Stitch Granny Square Variations  by Pricilla Hewitt

The Harriett Square by Carolyn Christmas,

and, the Vintage Lace Square (6 in. square) by Carol Alexander.

As soon as I figure out how I want to arrange the squares for the afghan, I will start hooking them together.  That is my fail safe recipe for finishing an afghan quickly.  Hook as you go!

I haven't proposed a BROOM yet this term, but I plan on proposing 2 pair of socks.  I plan to make the socks anyway, for SKA, and possibly solid socks, so I might as well get BROOM points for my house.

The last way to win points, and submit projects for prizes, is through Quidditch.  Quidditch projects are usually short 1 week projects that span the three months.  This term, there is actually one long three month Quidditch Game, and 4 short games.  I will talk about the long game later, but the first short game is a one week Get to Know Your New Nimbus challenge.  Since the Nimbus 2000 was the top-of-the-line broom when it was released, this challenge is to craft something using top-of-the-line materials.  This means top of the line TO YOU.  If you only have acrylic, and always use acrylic, you just have to say why acrylic is top of the line (wears well, washable, no allergies, etc.)

For this challenge, I made a hat in Malabrigo Worsted.  I had started this hat during Mal March, but never got much past the cast on.  I frogged it, went down a needle size to size 4 (I am such a lose knitter!), and it knit up in 2 days.

The pattern is Roscoe Village Hat by Breean Elyse Miller.

I plan to make a pair of matching fingerless mitts using something of the same stitch patterns, and give both to Moogie as a Have Fun in New York gift.

Whew!  that was a lot of explaining.  I really need to get back to my socks.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet on a HP high

Almost 1 pm and look, there is the sun.  It will be a beautiful day, after all.