So far in September

So far in September, I've done about 5000 stitches of 1x1 ribbing for my babyniece's little dress, and used up about 150g of yarn on my jumper. I have 10 rows of ribbing left before I start the skirt part, and I've done one repeat of the jumper cable.

I'm partnering up with Hufflepuff 7th-year Mediaperuana for the Yule Ball (we're making booties), and I'm in a trio with Victrix and Lunathecat making creatures for the Care of Magical Creatures class. I've got two other classes planned, and I'll probably get sucked into Quidditch (I'm a Beater).

The only problem is, I'm not sure I'll ever finish this ribbing!!

And here's another problem. Mediaperuana had this queued....

Spring at last!

I'll admit, I haven't been expecting sunny Spring weather, although we've had strangely nice weather lately. The first two days were awful, because I couldn't wash all the little clothes faster than my mudlets could unwash them! But when the mud dried up and they were outside playing all day, I got a little knitting in.

This is basically all I did for August.


And I had to resist the temptation to kitchener the toe until September 1 (at 5pm) so that I could claim 10 points for detention. They are Charades, knit top-down (for a change) in worsted weight yarn and 3.75mm needles. I'm wearing them now (at MacDonalds again, using the wifi) and they're very warm. But I'm going back to toeup...

I also entertained myself with a little dyeing, because I had a Babyniece project in mind that required skintoned yarn. I skeined up the leftover ball of madelinetosh sport (the good stuff for my little niece) and put 30g of coffee grounds in some boiling water.

Soaked the yarn in some dishwashing liquid (to make it soak in quicker) and citric acid (to make the color stick better; like vinegar but smells better!) for about 20 minutes.

Then kept it hot but not boiling in a pot on the stove (and yes, I strained out the coffee grounds through some cloth first! Was glad I thought of it in time...)

Turned a good color. The little white bit is the original color. Since this I overdyed it in a very pale red, because it was a little too yellow.

(Esther, don't read my blog for a while or look me up on Ravelry if you want Surprises next year, ok...)

It's going to be a small Poppy. Since it's 5ply instead of 8, it should come out smaller than Jasmine's one, and I'm going to make babyniece's Poppy with a matching Bloom. I asked my sister-in-law if there were any Ravelry patterns she liked, and she sent me a list, including Bloom, which I'd wanted to make in the past but hadn't gotten around to. I thought, "I'll work out how to shrink it, to make Babyniece and Poppy matching dresses", so I was pretty pleased to find that, after buying the pattern, it included a free pattern for a matching doll dress! lol.

Anyway, the real reason I've been itching for Spring is to start my second year as a Slytherin. LOL! I'm addicted to this silly game because the others are so funny! There are about 160 Slytherins, and this year I got a job as reporter for the Dungeon Bulletin Board, which is fun. So, at 5pm (because we all go by the same timezone) I put in my OWL proposal and it was approved in no time. Before it was approved, though, I was working on my first class assignment, for which I am doing Bloom in Green, and I plan to do... erm... one or two other projects for Babyniece this month.

Though I seem to have gotten sucked into the ridiculously funny Toilet Roll Holder KnitAlong that the Slytherins have agreed upon as the perfect Astronomy assignment, since we're studying Uranus.

Giggles. I know. I'm 9 years old.

P.S.

Second post of the day, just to say...

I'm getting a new niece! And I want to knit All The Cute Girly Things! Help...!

:)

hehe

Here's a new woven scarf made from self-striping handspun I made a few months back.


It's shorter than I meant it to be, and felted a little bit in the wash (which I wanted). Felting doesn't seem to shrink the fabric at all (nor can you seem to block it bigger) but it does get fluffier and mesh the mesh.

It was a "Potions class" for the Ravelry group. Next "year" I'm planning a Muggle Studies OWL, making a jumper and a hat and a scarf. The jumper will be the Opulent raglan, using the Madelinetosh MCN in Warm Mushroom, and the scarf and hat will be in this:

which is Madelinetosh Vintage in Ginger, Warm mushroom (x2) and Glazed Pecan (bottom). I'm thinking of another PaperMoon hat, probably in Pecan, and a woven scarf with all the scraps :)


I've applied to be a Slytherin for second year, because Slytherin is a fun group. Plus, Slytherins have an advantage down in the dungeons... we have a secret stash of celebrity helpers. You can choose one or as many as you need. I "had to" choose an Aussie, of course...

Most helpful. hehe.

Friday

I haven't even started the jumper planned with the last lot of Madelinetosh I bought yet. (Planned for next month) but I was considering this pretty blue called Nebula. I had just decided I shouldn't spend so much until I'd used up the jumper-yarn I had first, when someone decided to sell 8 skeins of this exact stuff second-hand (but untouched) on Ravelry for about half price :)


It's MCN worsted, which is merino, cashmere and nylon. It's very very lovely to knit. I took the kids to an indoor playground and neglected them while I knit a square out of the mushroom-colored stuff. Sigh. For something that's going to take me about 500 hours to knit ;) I may as well spend an extra few cents an hour on Nice Yarn.

I also got a package of baby alpaca to spin, all the way from Knit Nation in London (care of my little sister). I sent her something from Bendi, so it's swaps all around :) This stuff is so soft it feels like you're putting your hand in a bag of cotton balls.



Next loom project is a scarf for Byron, one which he wanted but does not want to actually wear. LOL. He wanted all black, but I found some BWM rustic 12ply that I'd overdyed black, which had bits of dark purple and green showing through, and some almost-black green (the leftovers from his birthday jumper) and warped the loom with alternating strands of those two. Then I did the weft part with all black BWM luxury 10ply.

Just enough color to keep it interesting, but not enough for Mr AbsolutelyNoColors to be happy with. He assures me he likes it. He just doesn't want to wear it "right now" thanks.

Cupcakes for all!

Firstie Alrischa hands the microphone to Headmistress Needlesnswiffers...

Coming in 4th place, scoring an amazing 5,145 points is

GRYFFINDOR!!!

Coming in 3rd place, scoring an awesome 5,269 points is

RAVENCLAW!!!

Coming in 2nd place, scoring an incredible 8,401 points is

SLYTHERIN!!!

And, the Winners of the QIX Quidditch Cup, with an impressive 8,628 points is:

HUFFLEPUFF!

Well we came second. Not bad, and it was pretty darn close...

Hang on... Quidditch?

And now, without further ado, the final standings for the Spring 2011 term of the HPKCHC!

In fourth place, with a mighty 35,898 points - Gryffindor!

In third place, with an amazing 40,883 points - Hufflepuff!!

(was that pause long and dramatic enough? ;) )

In second place, with a magnificent showing of 42,034 points - Ravenclaw!!!

In first place, the winners of the House Cup, with an astounding 45,957 points - Slytherin!!!!

Thanks, Headmistress Needlesnswiffers, for a fun first year at Hogwarts. It was lots of fun. For the record, 863 of those points were mine, so there must have been a lot of people working hard in Slytherin the last 3 months.

hehehe.

Gotta love fingering-weight scarves

I finally sat down and finished the Lacy Baktus. This Waterlilies color is hard to photograph, but it's very multicolored in a very subtle way. Being a long triangle, it blocked nicely from a 140cm scarf to 234! Perhaps I overdid it, because the ends are very pointy and the whole thing looks narrow, but I love it long :)


I hung it on the line for the last bit of drying, with one peg on each point.

Then I finished my second woven scarf. I used a different (smaller) heddle, which makes the gap between the lengthways yarn. This heddle is a "10dpi" and the lengthways yarn, called the "warp" is about 90g of the rest of the blue Serena from May (same as your gloves, Kelly). I used it all up, which ended up being 78 strings. I used some hand dyed sock yarn to do the acrossways yarns (the "weft") and I ended up running out of space, which is amazing, since my "warp" was 3.8 meters!! The scarf wasn't that long once the ends were cut off. A bit over 3m, I think. (I'm updating at MacDonalds because their WiFi is better than my home internet, though the details of this scarf are at home...) (edited to add "3.3 meters or 130")

What's funny about a 3m scarf, is that it is for my little 3yo :)

Jasmine loves it, though. I put it through the washer and dryer and it came out lovely and fluffy! Imagine making a scarf with 200g of fingering weight that takes less than a week to finish. Sigh. I love this loom-thing!

Here's a pic for you, Kelly. The yarn didn't fade at all, and I loved the colors. It's mostly blue, but there were pretty bits of purples and greens... as you probably remember. It just left a tiny line over my left index finger, where it rubbed.

For my next trick, I owe Byron a scarf. (As I neglect the trio when I'm weaving, I promised Byron and Jasmine a scarf each. They were both keen. Unfortunately for me, he takes after Daddy in his color preferences.

"Black."

"Black and red? You like black and red."

"No, just black."

"What about a tiny bit of red, just a few little stripes...?"

"I just want Black, Mummy. No other colors. No little bits of colors. Just black. Only black. All black."

"Sigh..."

"But not as long as Jasmine's scarf, okay?"

hehehe.