Bit more

The yarn is spun up for Phi

And I've finished washing and carding the fleece. I dyed some of it, but most of it is the natural light grey color.

It's hard to tell it's grey, but here's a comparison with half a bit of A4 paper

So all I have left to do to get to my 50% NEWT mark is knit up two more skeins of Madelinetosh Vintage into my jumper. I've done two skeins, and finished the sleeves, and now I'm onto the body :) I'm taking it to work tonight. Night shift has been encroaching on my knitting time, but I also like to eat and turn on the heater, so I have to do it. hehe. And yesterday I got distracted from Stilwell and spun up this 150g skein of 2ply... just to see how it went, you know?

Next time: new yarn :)

Wit Sharpening Potion

And so my holiday up in Ravenclaw has ended, with me finishing my Potions OWL about an hour before the deadline! I decided that while I was in Ravenclaw, who are the geeks in HP, I would be one. I knit the pattern "Tortoise and Hare Sweater" by Kate Davies, but added some Nerd.

Picture by Jasmine :)

The runes around the top say "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good". Then some music, and then a chart I called "waves and particles" (just to make is sound nerdy). The question marks are a nod to one badly dressed Dr Who, and the Sine waves were really just a rest from trying to decide what to do next and how to fit it in :D

Above the 6 inches of 1x1 rib I did 3 vikkel braids (which are fiddley and time-consuming!) and then wrote out Pi to 35 or so decimals. And look! More sine waves...

The colored stripes were a nice rest from Fair Isle, but officially they're Fibonacci Numbers. On the "8" strip I wrote out my Rav name (Alrischa) in binary. Binary is Not Shorthand!

Daleks! Cute little exterminators. Also some DNA, which was a fiddley chart.

It sure did test my wits. Look... steeks!

A weirdly shaped thing (so as to go around and around, which is far easier for Fair Isle) with no armholes or neck hole, though the stitches for the back of the neck are held on a string.

Where you plan to cut, you do 5 extra stitches, and then you sew a crochet reinforcement (holding each side of the center stitch to the next stitch) and cut down the center of the center stitch.

 It works beautifully, in theory. The crochet took me a long time (because I hardly even know how to hold the yarn for that) but it held the stiches nicely. Then I picked up stitches all around, folding back the cut edges, and knit the arms and neck.

Half-way through the first sleeve, however, the yarn remembered that it is Superwash, and so not as willing to stick to itself. The crochet edge started drifting off... and then the stitches. I had to do a quick and ugly re-reinforcement that I hope does the trick. Silly thing. It was a good experiment, but I won't use superwash next time!

And now I'm back in Slytherin (hopefully) and working on my grey NEWT. 

Check out the difference between my raw fleece, and my washed and carded fleece. This will end up as leggings, a woven skirt and the Sitka Spruce hat.

Made a start on the merino/suri/silk that will be Phi

A bit of Stilwell, with stripes :)