Monday, November 9, 2009

Little Progress

I've not really been knitting all that much this month. This year NaNo isn't as easy for some reason so its hard enough to keep up with the daily word count (1,667 per day) and I really want to get 50,000 again this year. I was able to finish my Cancer dishcloth from Divination last month though.



Instead of keeping it for me, I decided to give it to Mom as part of her Christmas present. She has no idea on the other part of it, which I know she'll love. I was able to finally get ahold of Dan and get a size to make his Jayne hat that should fit (he never measured his head and it was hard enough to just talk to him..) I should have enough yarn to make myself one too!!

I've been working on my cousin's scarf that is the second part to Arithmancy from last month. It's between a fourth and half done and doubled in about an hour while I was watching an anime. I might go back and put in another DVD of something so I may be able to finish it today!

Present progress:
Mom: finished
Dad: not yet started
Josh: not yet started
Justin: not yet started
Allison: starting later today if all goes well
James: finished
Leslie: finished
Katie: not yet started

I'm really slacking on the job here, or it feels like it. Christmas is only a little over a month away and hardly anyone's presents have been finished.

Monday, November 2, 2009

My November Classes

Charms - a hat for my brother Justin
Potions - a hat for my brother Josh
Herbology - finishing up my Scorpio Scarf from last month I'd originally wanted to do for Divination
DADA - if I have time, a cowl for me
OWL - as many of the remaining hats as possible but definitely Allison's hat.

I'm also going to be knitting 3 garter scarf for various family members who want simple scarves. They don't make it fun, but they do make it quick! Then in December I can knit Dad's scarf and be all done! (unless I decide to knit more presents for friends..)

I have all of this on top of school, work, and NaNoWriMo. (6,895 words so far btw!)

Sunday, November 1, 2009

November Classes

Wow, classes for November have already been posted?! Sweet. I'm going to list what they are here and then see what I want to do along with some more work on my OWL.

Astronomy: Astronomy is one of the oldest sciences in the world, and the movements of heavenly bodies have been studied since ancient times.The list of cultures where Astronomy was of great importance goes on, including but not limited to- Mesopotamia, India, China, Nubia and others. Knit, spin, or crochet something inspired by one of these ancient stargazing cultures.

-Your professor has an inordinate fondness for historical computers. The oldest known of these is the Antikythera mechanism, which was used to calculate the position of various heavenly bodies. Bonus points will be awarded for any project that interprets the Antikythera mechanism in fiber form.

Charms: Impervius This charm makes something repel substances and outside forces, including water.
Create an item to repel something for example - water, food, crazy stalker guy, Mother-in-law, etc. Explain what it repels and why you need to repel it.

Protego - The Shield Charm The shield charm causes minor to strong jinxes, curses, and hexes to rebound upon the attacker, or at least prevents them from having their full effect. It can also cause a shield to erupt from the caster’s wand. Create something as a gift to shield the recipient from harm…e.g. someone who gets a lot of colds - create something to help stop them getting colds.

Transfiguration: Create something that will Transfigure a person, or a person’s body part, into something else. Or if, while working on your Herbology assignment, you find a weed that is impossible to get rid of (ie, finish up), you may bring it here for Transfiguring into something lovely and useful.

Herbology: This month’s project concerns another important aspect of maintaining your garden or greenhouse: WEEDS!!! A weed is something in your garden that you didn’t plant or don’t want around. It could be a perfectly good plant - to someone else. Your task is to take that weed from your WIPs or stash and get rid of it (by making something with it.) Post should contain why said project is a weed, how long it has been a weed, and how happy you are now that it is gone, a before and after photo would be a good idea!

DADA: This month, we’ll be exploring Quirinus Quirrell. Please reflect on how you would react and compensate if Voldemort were grafted onto the back of your head. Would you wear a balaclava? A cowl? A turban? A toque? Show us your kicky Dark Lord-concealing headwear. Extra points for house colors, making the prof laugh, or embroidering (or knitting/crocheting in) the inside of the hat with Voldemort’s face.

Potions: Something that represents who/what you love the most. It can be anything you love passionately. Please elaborate what this item represents to you or an item for a loved one. Something this person is going to enjoy and love or something with spirals.

So much inspiration for classes..

End of the Month Pics

As I said in my last update, I finished 35% of my OWL. I tried to get a couple classes finished but it didn't happen. But since we get 5 points for starting, I took pictures last night and posted them. That's a total of 65 points for the month of October. Not bad.

For Divination, I decided to do a dishcloth with the Cancer symbol on it. This was taken with my camera phone because the flash of my digital makes it impossible to see the sign in the blue of the yarn. I'm actually almost done with it and when I finish will be giving it to Mom, who is also a Cancer.


For Transfiguration I was going to do the scarf Ziva wears in the opening credits of season four. She wears it in at least one (I swear its two but I don't have the DVDs of season 3) episode of season 3. I gave in and downloaded the episode I knew she wore it in so I could get a screenshot of it since finding it was being impossible:

I'm knitting the scarf on circulars so I can sew the ends together to make it flat when I'm done. I hate so much how stockinette curls on straight needles. This is my way of getting around that.


For Arithmancy, I managed to finished my fourth pair of fetching (they're such an easy knit that its no wonder I've made so many!) but I didn't get the scarf to match started so I turned in the gloves for partial credit:


Finally we have the picture of my OWL 35% that I turned in for 50 points. The purples look more like blue but ah well. The hat in the picture that is a WIP I'm going to try to finish soon because its for my nephew and it will be another WIP completed.


I started to many WIPs this month and never got them finished.. Before October I had two WIPs and now I have.. seven? Man. I've never had that many WIPs at once before!