Deptartments in the MOM

Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures = Items for magical creatures. Dog sweaters, cat toys and pet related projects

Timeturner Department = WIPS

Department of Magical Games and Sports = Toys, games, Quidditch gear, and other items that are related to the pursuit of fun!

Committee on Underage Magic = Kid-sized projects

The Auror Department of the MLES = Difficult, challenging projects

Department of Transfiguration = Spinning, yarn work

Madame Malkin’s = Tell us about and post pictures of the garments that you’re working on.

Department of International Magical Cooperation = This is the place for projects that use Estonian lace, Fair Isle, Nordic stranded knitting or any other technique that come from a specific country or region.

Committee for Domestic Enchantments = Household things. A swiffer cover, a dishcloth, a cozy for anything.

Misuse of Muggle Artifacts = Non-HP fandoms

Department of Magical Education = Hogwarts or school stuff


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from the site:

Rotations in the various departments last for varying periods of time, depending on the employee. Some employees spend very short amounts of time in each department, some spend long amounts of time, some spend different amounts in different departments. However long it takes you to determine whether a department is right for you, well…that’s how long it takes. You may join a department at any time, and you may stay there until you are ready to move on. You may even work more than one rotation at a time!

That being said, there are Ministry Reviews every two months (in early February, April, June, August, October & December), in which the Minister’s Office highlights the most extraordinary achievements in the various departments. If you have completed a rotation in the relevant period, your work will be up for review and potential bonus rewards. This is not to say that you must complete your project within two months! If you start a project in March and don’t finish it until September, it will still be eligible for the October review! Take your time and do the work that you truly want to do. We’ll be impressed if you finish quickly, but honestly? It’s government work. It takes however long it takes.

i love that line!

recent works

double strap baby booties for little augustus born this summer.

a tiramisu leithifold...uh, blanket for mlwl's lil' boy to be!

and a pair of huffleshoes for kimmyb's wee 'puff-to-be!


fact: the huffleshoes earned me 16 points for potions class and
the leithifold blanket earned me 10 for detention.

New Ravelry Group!

We have migrated over to the new Ministry of Magic group on Ravelry. The group was founded by some former members of the Harry Potter Knit and Crochet House Cup group a couple of weeks ago.

The founders of this new group are a set of awesome and dedicated craftspersons and personally, I wish them a lot of success and satisfaction with the new launch. I just adore that they are still focused on creating an atmosphere of fun and fairness for all the participants.

Less wanking and more cranking. That's what its all about, folks.

books snakey is currently enjoying

All are muy fabuloso so far!
AND...
I sent off some handmade gifts today, which leads to the question:

Is there any greater joy than inflicting your obsession upon hapless others?

Answer: No, there is not!

Nomination for October 2010 TRANSFIGURATION prize

Addreamy of Slytherin for her convincing canine lion costume!

2 interesting's, 4 funny's and 39 love's so far! (currently tied for 3rd)

Congratulations!

Transfiguration

Lookee! I'm finally remembering to post something I have done!

This month's Transfiguration homework was in honor of Tonks and her metamorphmagus ability. We were to disguise someone (human or animal).

I chose the ever-patient Sydney. Here is what I submitted for class:


Addreamy, fourth year Slytherin, turning in my completed Transfiguration homework.

Being a Slytherin, I first tried to find a potion to do what I wanted, eschewing “silly wand waving.” I considered Polyjuice, but that is such a finicky potion and takes forEVER to work. Besides, I wanted to transfigure my canine companion, and, as we all know, Polyjuice is only for humans.

Since Potions was out, I decided to brush up on Cross-Species Switches. I decided this called for before/after shots. As the whole idea was to disguise my springer, I realized there was only one thing to do. I chose the LEAST likely of the four houses for her. Sydney, you see, is decidedly a Hufflepuff, although, being officially a Senior Citizen (she is 8 now), she would much rather sleep than be hardworking. She does have some Slytherin tendencies, such as insisting on her own way and cadging around for treats or ordering me off the couch to go GET her water rather than doing it herself. I applaud her Slythernness, even as I shove her off the couch to go get her OWN drink.

The two least likely houses for her are Ravenclaw (i lovingly refer to her as “dumber than a box of rocks”) and Gryffindor (she is afraid of such things as the Ice Machine in the refrigerator and the stairs down to the basement). However, she does definitely have a love of learning, especially if food or treats are involved in some fashion.

So. Gryffindor it was.

Here is Syd awaiting the spell:



and after a little judicious practice, I got this:



(side view to show off the coat and tail)



(CRAP! Blogger has disabled image uploading due to maintenance. i gave you links instead - hope it works!)

pain

i have only been back at crochet for a month and i have been working everyday on something or other. in the meantime, headaches are visiting. two visits to the chiro and 3 chair massages later, i am realizing, i have all this strain in my right shoulder and neck...from guess what?

ssss.

so, i am taking it easier and trying to be very conscious of not curling over the work or twisting too much. hopefully, this will help!

here is a link i found with a bunch of good tips for yarnwranglers.

excerpt:

You are attempting to be a marathon knitter and crocheter. And as such, like any elite athlete, you need to train to be able to knit and crochet with endurance. Too many of you, especially those of you learning how to knit or crochet, or picking up your knitting needles or crochet hook again after years away from the craft, just launch straight hours of work.

Start slowly and build up. As a rule of thumb, you could start by working for 20 to 30 minutes a day, slowly on a sliding scale according to half your age. So for example:

20 for 10 days
30 for 15 days
50 for 25 days
70 for 35 days.

LOL. yeah, right. :p

twisted-like-the-devil

as i am such a baby yarnmeister, i just learned something the hard way. i hate that.

as i have mentioned, i frogged my first attempt at a large crochet project. i blithely balled the yarn for reuse. last night, however, i began incorporating the first of the frogged yarn and discovered it was twisted. twisted as in "twisted-like-the-devil" twisted. i couldn't crochet more than a row and a half without ending up with knots and evilness between me, the piece and the ball.
to rectify the situation, i had to brainstorm. gently twisting it against itself while i worked stitches was futile. i could not simply hang the ball or piece to let it spin out...until i thought of using binder clips to hold the ends of the yarn to prevent unraveling. afterward, i spent a good hour and a half untwisting my yarn by letting the ball hang in midair and spin itself back to normal--2 stinking yards at a time. that...is a lot of twisting in the wind. i balled the yarn, now all nice and well-behaved, and, hopefully, it will crochet without any memory of its evile tortured past.

Cup Work

my ophidian wand cozy features a flip-top head.
(nagini was my inspiration, of course.)
i also turned this slytherin hyperbolic plane
ornament for the arithmancy assignment.

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also...this little rainbow one simply made of cute.

the rest of my month was all devoted to my big project
and much wank-stalkery. oh, snakey...*eyeroll*

OMGWTFFROG

my current project was half done, when i happened to view the piece from an distance and catch that i made a huge mistake 10 inches ago. it is a subtle crochet texture, so i didn't catch it right away...but there it was: one stitch off. i knew i couldn't live with it, but man, it is so hard to bring oneself to undo all that TIME invested. i discussed it with some knitters at work and decided to start a whole new one first, and then when i felt happy with that one, i could more easily frog the other and feel clean and righteous!

so far, it looks perfect!
go, clean-righteous snakey, go!



*i promise i will post a pic when it is done. :)

more linkypoos

the queen of all things "scrumble" was the late slyvia cosh and i happened to stumble on a set of freeform crochet workshop pages that her fellow artists have shared.

links to pdf files here.


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here is a link to crochet by numbers where crochet artist todd paschall shares his pdf training tools to help grasp to his photo-crochet technique. there is also a ravelry group devoted to todd's technique!

scrumbdillicious

we are off! classes are posted. i am reading through and trying to choose how best to use my time.

last night, mair and i went on a yarn-pr0n spree over at etsy. i was able to walk away without a purchase, but it was hard! today, i spent the last hour tweaking my ravelry pages so i only see what i want to see. then, i loaded RSS feeds from slytherin to my igoogle reader. THEN, i researched freeform crochet AKA scrumbling:



it so beautiful! it looks like undersea corals--so organic and magical! i just want to try everything!

*obviously suffering from an acute case of autumn woolmania*

whoa! just when i think crochet is fun, but ugly.....

look at this aussie chick's amazing blanket of crocheted HP portraits!



here is totallee's blog with all the finished portraits.
lookee! A SNAPE PATTERN!

sign ups over at the HPKCHC are open!

the term begins september 1!
anyone thinking of joining?

link to the group


edited to add:
signups are closed, but we are IN! slytherin FTW!

envisioning tiny stitches!

i picked up my new pair of prescription reading glasses at costco today. (i did not like the transitional bifocal lenses. i had them remade into single vision lenses.)


now i have no excuses left when it comes to crocheting that jewelry project i was dreaming of a while ago!

It's 100 degrees outside...but autumn must be in the air

I spent 20 minutes fingering yarn yesterday, then went home and watched YouTube videos on how to knit.


uh-oh!

;)

where i stopped...

i did also work on the ash, but i haven't photographed it.
i am still at a standstill on all my crochet.

sigh.

alas

i did not meet the deadline for the end of the second month on my OWL. not that i hadn't been working-- it is just sometimes, february goes out like a carpstorm. i did get the little phoenix body banged out and most of the ashes, but i didn't even try to submit it before the deadline. i really have been distracted and discouraged.

i also did not finish the braille secret message scarf.

grr.

amigurumi: ur doin it rite!

yes, it looks a bit like the last post! frankly, most amigurumi begins in a circle, but looky what i made! a HOLE! this phoenix body needed a hole in both ends of a sphere. this sphere will have a dowel running through it that continues up the neck (yet unmade!). here is my first attempt (after i remembered about the hole and tore out the actual first attempt). i abandoned it because of the wonky shape of the hole and the arrhythmic increases.

version 2 started with a joined chain ring of 18 stitches. i then went around the ring through the center for 24 stitches. (amigurumi LOVES multiples of 6!) since i started my increases every 4th stitch on the next round, every 5th, every 6th and at this row, i am at one increase at every 7th stitch.

much happier with the results. good amigurumi has such a nice body to it when you are doing it right!

the baby phoenix looks a lot like a large bladder with a little neck. i WISH i had started from the top down on that one, but alas. i am going forward with it as is. the next step for that is the felting.

baby in the making!

this is the inside of the baby phoenix which is about 5 inches now in circumference and will be felted before i am done.

round and round i go!


edited to add:
hmm...i wonder if i should have started at the top DOWN. dang.

devil's snare scarf...done.

snakey's lost her slytherin mind

anguinea of Slytherin proposes to tackle Option 2 for a Magical Creatures OWL.

“Option 2: Hatch an Egg. Identify your egg (dragon, phoenix, etc.) and knit or crochet an object inspired by your creature. If you make a physical creature it must be a minimum of 12 inches in at least one dimension.”

I intend to create a fully-grown Phoenix seated upon a perch and, since a Phoenix does not come from an egg, a Phoenix chick emerging from ashes.

evile project is too evile

my "dangerous" project is killing me slowly, but not in a good way. i do NOT like it so far, and i am running out of both green yarn and time. i think this one might just have to go in the "get it done" category. they can't all be winners, i guess.

i have to focus on the amigurumi. every time i stray, i fail.

OWL ideas sketches...

thinking i might try for a "magical creature" OWL, i did some sketches from the HP lexicon's bestiary.
these were ones my kid thought might be good to see in 3-D:

Streeler: Giant African snail that changes colour every hour, and deposits a trail of venom as it moves that kills and shrivels all vegetation over which it passes, and which can kill horklumps. It is often kept as a pet...

edited after deciding not to do the zoo idea...i think i WILL do this creature eventually!

the dangerous scarf w.i.p.

i have about 2 dozen leaves so far (most smaller than the last ones i showed you), a possible tendril and i started the bulk of the middle of the scarf today.

this month is whizzing by! i am not sure i will be able to get my owl proposal together in time, but my kid and i picked out 5 likely candidates for a magical creature "zoo". i have to do some sketches and get my yarns together for a post by the end of the month!

HPKCHC project begins

i found a nice irish crochet leaf online and am embarking on making manymanymany of them for my "something dangerous" class project for potions. (her photo is 1000X better than my scan.) i like the little ridges that come from crocheting into the back loop.


you've probably guessed what it will be already. think "philosopher's stone".

beading...first try

i bought a couple things to try beading this weekend.

i thought it went well, although, holy carp, my eyes were crossed by the time i just did this little bit. poor old eyes! i need brighter light and (sigh) magnification. i need to keep my eye out for a silkier thread. royale brand cotton is a bit less than jewelry-worthy, imho.

ETA: aha! this looks promising.

youtube link to adding beads to crochet to make a rope.

also, i finally came up with a halfway decent idea for my HPKCHC. now, to get MOVING!

Christmas part 3 and my mystery project!

I figured, before i gushed about my New Year endeavor, I should probably show you all what happened with all the Christmas knitting. I ended up making a snake-and-mouse combo for my nephew (at his request) The snake is designed to swallow the mouse, which it did do successfully several times. However, the mouse, my nephew discovered, was really a Kung Fu mouse, and he had a ball whipping around by its tail (thank goodness the thing was so securely knit on it could never come apart!). I also had a little extra time and made him a bat as well, from a pattern I'd used successfully earlier this summer. It was an even faster knit since I'd made one before, and i finished the entire thing on Christmas Eve. of all the things i did, i think that impressed my dad the most!

Here's the menagerie:



A while ago, I stumbled across a lace-shawl designer named MMario and fell in love with many of his shawl designs. They are fantastic, but look so complicated that i have never dared to try one. He has a real penchant for theming his shawls on various fantasy series and has a number of shawls based on HP as well as Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series and Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, just to name a few.

Well..............when MMario announced last fall that he was going to be hosting a "mystery shawl knit-along" starting Jan 1, I just couldn't resist. What better time to learn how to do lace than with a knit-along, where I could get help from the other participants and where everybody would be more-or-less at the same pace, as the clues would be spaced out weekly???

MMario gave us preferred yarn colors and thickness, and told us that beads would be optional. I rather ignored the thing about beads - i figured, why complicate things?

Ha.

I ordered my yarn just as soon as i got my first paycheck from my new job; i'd spent weeks scoping out yarns all over the internet to find just what i wanted, and it was too expensive to get otherwise. Unfortunately, that meant that it didn't arrive in time for new years, when the first clue was released. I contented myself with "practicing" the first clue with yarn i already had, just to get the feel for how it worked. and i watched.

I watched all the other participants talking aobut their beads and how to do that, and what kinds of beads. I watched their examples start to be posted as they finished the first clue. and man. it looked SOOO COOL with beads. so.......while i was waiting for the yarn, i started looking at beads too. dumb, really, because without the yarn in hand, picking the right color of beads was like reaching blindfolded into a bag. I ended up ordering some inexpensive beads in 3 different colors. none of them, it turned out, worked with the yarn i got. instead, i found some even more inexpensive beads at JoAnn fabrics yesterday.

duh! moral of the story: CURB YOUR IMPULSES!

anyway, I finished knitting Clue one today. Clue 2 came out on Thursday, and I should have that done by the end of the weekend, i hope.......

Here's what it looks like so far: (Many other people stretched out the knitting with pins as it will be at the end when we block it, but I am not set up to do that, so it is a bit curled up on itself at this stage)(TIP: Click on the pic to see the closeup with the beads)



this is fun!