Apparition Socks: One finished!

Look! Isn't it pretty? I can't wait until I get the second one done so I can wear them.


The next pair of socks I want to finish are my Hermione Socks. One of them is 99% finished but I haven't reached the length of the leg that'll make me happy. If I have any spare time to finish that one up after I do my other apparition sock and swatch for my OWL, I'll try to finish it. Maybe there will be a WIP class this term so I can finish the socks. If I had two socks from different patterns to finish, I'd just ask the professor if I could do that. But.. I don't unless I don't even start on the second one of this pair. (Not going to happen. I'm in love with these socks)

Ohmygosh, is it really only six days until term? Gahhh.

Spring OWL - Rule Changes

The new rules for OWLs this term haven't been up more than a couple days and I'm already annoyed. Not with the new rules but the reactions the rules are getting. The two new rules are

1) Swatching is mandatory.

2) 50% by June 30th.

It used to be 33% by the end of month two and I have reached the 33% but never finished. So I'm a little worried but not too much. I'm absolutely in love with the sweater I'll be making. What I don't like is how everyone is bitching about how they have to swatch. Swatching doesn't always have to mean to get the correct gauge. I swatched last term for my bat shawl because I wanted to see how the yarn would work out to be. That's what I think swatching is really all about. I don't do it much - just for my larger projects.

But I still think people should realize that the OWL examiners aren't out to make things harder - they want to see us succeed.

Apparition class updates

I'm so excited - the Spring 2010 HPKCHC term is almost here! I'm all signed up and eagerly awaiting the start of term. Until then, I have apparition lessons keeping me busy. First there is the the sock class that I have just caught up on. There are a total of four clues out and I've reached the fourth clue even if I haven't started it yet. And yes, that is the heel you can see. I'll be starting on the foot soon (clue 4).


The other class I am doing is the crochet bag. I haven't even started clue three for it because I've been focusing on my socks (and have a paper to write before Thursday). This picture doesn't show sage green as well as I'd hoped. I am having fun working on a larger crochet project than just bracelets and a dishcloth sized granny square that I did in January.


At some point I'm hoping to find time to finish the pair of socks I started in March and never finished. I got almost one done (I'm still working on the leg) but I mostly didn't feel like knitting in March. The only thing I finished was yet another pair of Fetching to wear Easter weekend. That didn't happen because it was in the 90s that weekend. Ick.

Teachers don't understand

What is it about the teachers I get and their lack of understanding that yes, I can indeed knit and listen to them at the same time? On Tuesday we had this "evaluation" quiz to do about our teacher and the class. I got done early before the teacher came back in the room so I took out the knitting I had brought with me. And continued knitting even after she came back and started talking again. I was paying attention to what she was talking about but still working on my sock KAL.

She didn't like that. She came by my seat and quietly placed her hand on mine to say "STOP". I didn't exactly stop because I knew what would happen if I put it down in the middle of the row - I'd lose most of it because there was a chance it would come off the needles. Putting down lace in the middle of the row is something I fear doing.

I didn't say anything in the middle of the class but I kept wondering for the rest of class why she couldn't understand that I can pay attention to what's on my needles and what she is saying.

April is Apparition month!

After each 3 month term, I get a month off from HPKCHC classes and OWL work. April is that month. It is also the first month they've brought in apparition projects. What that means is that a few people have patterns they're working out and we can test knit the patterns for them. It's a mystery CAL (crochet-a-long) or KAL (knit-a-long). It means that on certain days of the week we'll get the next part of the pattern to work on for however many rows. Once that is finished, we have to wait until the next part is released. There are three of these going on for HPKCHC, two knit and one crochet. I've decided to do the crochet and one of the knitted ones.

Apparition Bag: My very first crochet pattern to follow and also my first bag. (So far I was confused as hell) I am using colorways Sage Green and Lime Stripes of Lily Sugar n Cream cotton yarn. Size US H hook.

Apparition Socks: Socks knitted cuff down (grumble) on US 1s in fingering weight yarn. I'm using a Wine colorway of Knit Pick's Stroll sock yarn. Pattern is released on Tuesday and Thursday.

I'm really excited and positive I'm going to have a lot of fun with these.

No knitting motivation

For whatever reason, I have little to no knitting motivation this month. I was hoping to have my bat shawl done, or at least to the border by now. I still have another row of bats to do. If I really worked at it, I could get my shawl done but I'm not sure I'd have enough time to block it. After the whole issue of not being online to post my 33%, I want to have everything done the day before its due because I don't want it happening again. So my personal deadline is March 30th.

Not only do I have my bat shawl to finish, I've also been working on a pair of toe-up socks. I'm not used to the small yarn and small needles. They seem to be taking forever where as my first pair didn't take that long. I need to keep reminding myself that my first pair of socks were done in worsted weight and on 6s. (or were they 8s? I can't even remember back to January..) I really love them and the first sock is almost done but man, I can't even finish a pair of socks in two weeks? That's got to speak for my lack of motivation right there.

OWL update: 33%

I was able to get my 33% completed but I didn't get to turn it in for the 50 points because my internet was down. It kinda upsets me but oh well. I can't do anything about that. If I'd KNOWN it was going to be down I would have made sure to have it finished the day before. I still wanted to put it up here so everyone can see how pretty my shawl is turning out.


Most of March is going to be working on my shawl. I want to get it done but I also don't really have that much I want/need to make right now. Well.. besides socks. The only other thing I really want to do is figure out how I'm going to use up the rest of my Red Heart yarn short of sending what I have left to Bubbles.

Ravelympics Completed

Once I got started on Ravelympics and realized how little time I would have for my OWL if I did two WIPs for the WIP Dancing event, I decided to do just one. I needed to get it done because it was a hat for my brother that I'd started back in November. I should remember that November is always a busy month and that I'll probably get little knitting done during it...


The other event I decided on doing for Ravelympics was Aerial Unwind. I had frogged a pair of Bella's Mittens I'd started for a friend and also the Ziva scarf. Maybe one day I'll decide on a project to do with the yarn I used. So far I seem to keep starting something with it and than frogging.


And this means that the only thing I have left to do for a few days (it's actually been more like a week but I hadn't done the aerials yet and that took only 5 minutes each..) is my bat shawl.

Hat for Me

Remember my last blog post where I mentioned I was working on a hat for me? Well, it's finished! It only took me three days (actually more like two) to do. Knitting while watching movies is a wonderful thing..

Weeks 1&2 progress

So far I've been able to stay on task with my February plan. Both Potions and Transfiguration are done. Astronomy should be done later tonight. For Transfiguration this month, you had to knit something that was scary. Scary to me was knitting presents and have them not fit. (I hate giving a gift and having it not fit!) This allowed me to be able to finish a hat I'd promised my brother a long time ago.

Potions was the Hate potion- you had to use a fiber, technique, pattern, etc. that you hated. For me, I'm not overly fond of using cotton even though its all I'll use for dishcloths. I had a dishcloth pattern I was making for someone who means a lot to me so it fits for Potions or I'd have only done one class this month.



Last but not least is Astronomy. This time it's a hat for me. I'd wanted a hat with cables but as I looked at the time I had for a contest in my HPKCHC common room and the pattern I was still figuring out, I decided to go with the same pattern I'd used for my brother's hat. I'm making mine black instead of green like his. And when I finish with Ravelympics, I'll have made 3 hats, all pretty much the same, in one month.

RAVELYMPICS! ♥

Ravelympics starts tomorrow! Since its in Vancouver I'm three hours ahead. The opening ceremonies are at 6pm which makes it 9pm for me. (I'm going to have to wait all day. Ugh..) I'm doing two events: Aerial Unwind and WIP Dancing. For HPKCHC, the Quidditch this term is Ravelympics which is like the Winter Olympics except that the events are knitting/crochet based. There's even an event for spinners and dyers. As soon as I saw that there would be an event for finishing WIPs, I got really interested. XD What I'm planning on doing is this...

Aerial Unwind: Bella's Mittens
WIP Dancing: Scorpio Scarf and Josh's Hat

I think there is supposed to be a certain amount of points one gets for finishing a project. 5 points is the set amount for unwinding something though. I've been wanting to cut back on my number of WIPs because I only have a set amount of 32" cables (only four) and three of them are being taken but by WIPs. My goal is to try and get my number of WIPs down to zero by the end of April. I think with Ravelympics helping, I can do it.

The only other thing I'll be working on these last two weeks in February will be my bat shawl. I need to finish 6/15 bats to get to 33%. I'm still working through the first bat.

February Monthly Plan

In the Ravenclaw common room of HPKCHC, I've been writing up monthly plans for what I would like to get done that month knitting-wise. It's never set in stone and I'm not sure I've followed it completely once. But it still gives me a good idea of what I would like to get done.

Week 1: Cast on and finish Potions. Cast on Transfiguration.
Week 2: Finish Transfiguartion if not already finished. Cast on and finish Astronomy. If there's time, cast on and finish Herbology.
Week 3: Ravelympics (WIP Dancing event) and OWL
Week 4: Ravelympics (WIP Dancing event) and OWL

I have to reach 33% of my bat shawl this month to get 50 points and then finish by the end of next month (that includes blocking!) to get the other 100 points. I think I focused on classes too much last month. Sometimes I forget that classes are only 15 points and an OWL is 150 points. And it really isn't about the points, its about having fun!

Quidditch this term has been confusing because its also Ravelympics and there are guidelines to follow for both groups. However, I think I pretty much know what to do. I wouldn't really be interested in it this term if Ravelympics didn't have a WIP Dancing event where you finish WIPs during the two weeks of the Olympic Games. (the timeframe that Ravelympics runs)

End of the Month projects

I did it! For the first time, I finished all six classes! Transfiguration this month was to organize my queue on Ravelry so I didn't actually have to knit anything for that one. Potions was my first pair of socks and Divination was the pair of fingerless mitts I finished. That leaves.. Charms, DADA, and Arithmancy.

For Charms I did a scarf for someone who will not be named because he can read this and then he'll know about it and I want it to be a surprise. I still need to add the fringe but that can come when I get around to messing with it.

For Arithmancy, I crocheted a granny square to act as a dishcloth. It needed to be an image within an image and a granny square works for that. It was the last class I did so I ended up being awake at 11:30 finishing but I still got it done.

For DADA, you had to pick a resolution and find something to represent it. That was easy for me because I had two craft related resolutions this year. One was to learn how to make socks and the other was to learn to crochet. At first I was going to mess around with bracelets some and then actually make something. But then I decided to make friendship bracelets because two of my really good friends crochet so I think of them when I think of crochet.

So.. I made blue(me), green(Bubbles) and pink(Alli) bracelets.


January sped by and I have a feeling February will too because February is always a short month..

Ravenclaw Evangeline

So for Divination, the assignment was to knit something to protect our palms (ie. fingerless mitts, mittens, gloves, etc.) This was exciting because I love knitting fingerless gloves. I've been wanting to make Evangeline for awhile and this was the perfect opportunity to do so! I browsed the project page of the pattern to see what colors others had made them in and got the idea to knit them in blue and silver. Blue and silver are Ravenclaw colors in the movie just like blue and bronze are Ravenclaw colors in the books.

So here they are:


I absolutely love them. <3 <3 Usually I don't get extremely attached to my knitting but omg.

Socks!

I've been knitting a lot lately. The first FO of the year for me is something I kept telling myself I would make and would always find something else to make instead. I told myself it would be a resolution of mine to learn how to make socks. And here they are!

The even fit too! Because they're my first pair and I wasn't exactly the best at making sure everything was tight enough, I'm not sure I'd want to wear them anywhere except around the house to keep my feet warmer. But that won't happen until I stop wearing my wool socks.

I don't think I knit much of anything without HPKCHC anymore. My first pair of socks goes to the January Potions class of the Winter 2010 term. The second option was to make something that would delight Dumbledore. He said it himself, "One can never have enough socks."

OWL Proposal - Winter 2010

I actually forgot to blog about a few things because I've still been buried in my Kingdom Hearts fandom. For the Winter 2010 of HPKCHC, I've decided to make my first ever lace shawl. Its also my first big project (big being bigger than hats/scarves/gloves/etc.)

Therealkarity from Ravenclaw submitting her proposal for a Charms OWL.

1. Identify the pattern(s) you will be using (original designs encouraged).

I will be making the Wa-na-na-na-na-na-na-na bat shawl in Knit Picks Gloss, colorway black.

2. Photograph of the yarn(s)/needles/materials involved.


In this picture you can see the yarn I will be using for my OWL, my Nickel Plated Interchangable needles from Knit Picks, a printed copy of the pattern, stitch markers, and few other items like a tape measure and sissors that I think I might need.

3. Two or three sentences describing the planned crafting sequence and analyzing any areas of potential difficulty or new skills learned.

I have never knit a big project before so sticking with it is going to be the first challenge I'll face. This will also be my very first shawl and lace project. My hope is that with the compleation of this shawl, my confidence in my own knitting will improve and I'll be proud to wear it out in public.

4. Photograph of your swatch or explanation of why a swatch is not needed. Please note that "I never swatch" will not be accepted as an explanation.

Gauge is not terribly important for this project because it can be adjusted during blocking. In the above picture you can see where I tested out the yarn and needles I would be using to get the feel of them.

A new term! (preparing)

I didn't get much done in November because I was so busy trying to get my 50,000 words for NaNoWriMo. Good news? I won for the second year in a row! Now I'm back to working on the last presents for family. I've got half of my niece's scarf done and once I'm done, I'll start on her hat. I'm just about finished with the ribbing on the hat for my oldest brother too. After I finish it, I'll start on the hat for my other brother. 3 hats and a scarf... That's all that is left of my Christmas knitting. Yay!

January is trying to sneak up on us. With January comes a new HPKCHC term, making me a second year! I have been... hmm, how should I put this? Haha. I have been really into Kingdom Hearts as of late. My favorite of the series is Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days where you really get into the story of Roxas while he was in the Organization XIII. Calling on that, I made myself this icon to use during my second year:


Zexion, number six. You don't see him much in 358/2 Days and he isn't in Kingdom Hearts 2. Zexion is mostly in Chain of Memories, the one I haven't played too much of. In Chain of Memories and Re: Chain of Memories (remade for the PS2), you attack using cards and that takes a bunch of getting used to for me. Once I showed it to Bubbles, she was trying to think of which of the Organization XII members would be Slytherin-like. Naturally Xemnas came to mind. Xemnas is the leader of Organization XIII, number one. And Bubbles is my number one knitting friend. So, I made her this:

She was so happy. I love doing little things like making icons that just make my friends day. All of my friends mean so much to me. ♥

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.

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!)

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..