June 2011 HPKCHC Challenges

Summarized from Ravelry:

Transfiguration, June 2011

Option 1: Steeks.

Option 2: Use scissors to make something new.

Option 3: Make something inspired by scissors.

Option 4: Spin or Dye yarn for a colorwork and/or steeked project.

Bonus points for pictures of scissors in action or before and after pictures

History of Magic, June 2011

Option 1: : Create a FO to represent something to help you while confronting an unknown Triwizard Tournament Task.

Option 2: Symbolize a new Triwizard Task.

Option 3: Create a FO in honor of your chosen HPKCHC Champion

Muggle Studies, June 1022

Option 1: A Muggle Doll (Human.)

Option 2: Something for a Muggle Doll: clothes, accessories.

Option 3: Make a “Doll-like” stuffed animal.

Option 4: Spin doll hair.

Summary: Craft a Doll, something for a Doll, or a “Doll-like” stuffed creature. Spin doll hair (measured by WPI).

Charms, June 2011

Assignment: Select a pattern and follow it unerringly.

DADA, June 2011

Option 1: Create something that reveals a truth about your character

Option 2: Create something that is dull, difficult or will cause pain

Option 3: Create something that can be used to bind and secure an opponent.

Care of Magical Creatures, June 2011

Option 1: Create a jewel-like item.

Option 2: Create an alternative “Cauldron” that is pretty or unique.
Option 3: Create something to protect you from fire.

Divination, June 2011

Option 1:  Craft something that makes use of “negative space” in the design. Lace and/or colorwork suggested.
Option 2: Craft something that can be viewed or used two or more different ways, depending on which part of the design you focus on.
Option 3: Interpret the posted prophecy.

Herbology, June 2011

Option 1:  Knit/Crochet something completely new challenge to you.

Option 2:  Create something that requires explanation to fully appreciate, then sell it hard.

Option 3:  Craft jewelry that is odd/inappropriate.

Option 4:  Craft something upside down!

May 2011 HPKCHC Courses

From Ravelry:
Muggle Studies:
Muggle Art

• Knit, crochet, or weave an object, or spin or dye yarn inspired by any work of art ...or...
• Engage in a bit of artistic yarnstorming.
  

Potions:
The Draught of Peace

• Craft an item using 2 or more individual colours in a balanced way. (Fair Isle, intarsia, double knitting) ...or...
  
• Craft an item with 7 colour changes. (eg. striping with 2 or more colours) ...or...
  
• Overdye a commercially dyed yarn or one you dyed yourself.

Ancient Runes:
Shibboleth & Passwords

• Craft something to secure a means of communication, whether it’s a cozy for your laptop or socks to protect your feet when you go to visit a friend. ...or....
• Craft something that could serve as a shibboleth, that is, something that proves membership in a particular group (ex: the dark mark that Voldemort’s followers wore; in the Muggle world, a Red Hat for the Red Hat society; something in house colors for Hogwarts; etc.) ...or...
• Craft something with a hidden message. (You’ll have to work hard to sell this one.)

Defense Against the Dark Arts:
Kappa study

• Craft a project inspired by Mongolia or Japan, where Kappas are most commonly found. ...or...
• Craft a project that you might take to the beach on your own future vacations. ...or...
• Craft an object that represents one of your past vacations.

Astronomy:
The Asteroid Belt

• Craft something irregular. Try your hand at freeform crochet or knitting. Spin art yarn. Dye a yarn inspired by the asteroid belt. Imitate organic forms — break away from clean lines and symmetry and let your imagination free....or...
• Make a belt.

Care of Magical Creatures:
Griffin study

• Make treasure. ...or...
• Make something to keep treasure safe. ...or...
• Make something that’s a combination of the above.

Charms:
The Permanent Sticking Charm

• Craft something that represents a link between two people or locations. ...or...
• Craft something that will help you, or someone you know, be remembered after you are gone and preserve your legacy.
  

History of Magic
Wizarding Fashion and Style

• Make something to represent a Wizarding "style icon" ...or...
  
• Using the playful nature of Wizard fashions throughout history as your starting point craft something that could start a new Wizarding fashion trend.

Quidditch:

Horcruxes

Students who choose Horcruxes will be setting out to find and destroy the Horcruxes. Students will select a Horcrux from the list and craft an item that represents it. You may do one Horcrux or all of the Horcruxes, but cannot do each Horcrux more than once (because lets hope there’s just one set out there for you to destroy!).

Slytherin’s locket - Slytherin, locket/necklace, scarves/cowls, caves, zombies/Inferi, childhood, the Black family
Gaunt’s ring - family, symbols, rings, gloves/mittens
Riddle’s diary - identity, charms (as in charming someone to do something like Ginny was), anything related to a book
Hufflepuff’s cup - Hufflepuff, money, Gringott’s, things related to cups, dyed yarn! (for this Horcrux only, and if you show us you dyed it in a cup!)
Ravenclaw’s diadem - Ravenclaw. Hats. words/wisdom, intelligence, regret, room of requirement, tiaras/crowns.
Nagini - snake, animals/pets in general, familiars.
Harry Potter (and his scar!) Gryffindor. Parseltongue, something that isn’t what it seems (has a hidden feature/compartment/etc), colorwork

Hallows

The Elder Wand:

• Choose an Unstoppable Ravelry Pattern (Knitting=more than 2000 projects, Crochet = more than 900 projects).
• Make a project you’ve made before so you know you can make it again. (Provide a link to the first project page as well, if available)
• Show other ways that having the Elder Wand empowers you.

Resurrection Stone:

• Take a second attempt at making an UGH project

• Reclaim a project (UGH, unfinished or otherwise) and give the yarn a new life (before and after pictures required here, no WIP finishing allowed!) Thrifting a thrift store sweater and turning it into another project also counts here.
• Give life to a vintage pattern! (Vintage in this case = 1986 or older)
• Pay respect to a great crafter who has gone on before us. Explain when you turn in. (i.e. Elizabeth Zimmerman)
• Give a Face to a faceless Ravelry pattern by crafting a pattern that has no projects with pictures on Ravelry!

Invisibility Cloak

• Make something in House Colors to blend in among the movie goers!
  

• Make a shawl of at least 300 yards

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.

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!)

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.

----

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*

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*

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!

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.

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.

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!

Harry Potter Knit/Crochet House Cup 2010

i thought i was dropping out of the HPKCHC as of this term.  it has mushroomed in size and the busy threads started to remind me of leaky lounge post-HBP; i couldn't keep up! i felt the group had lost that little home-away-from-home feel i was first attracted to.  however, to be honest, i couldn't keep up project-wise either. RL kind of sucked this autumn with a big re-org at work threatening my livelihood and friends losing jobs all around me.

the sign-up form went up yesterday for the jan/feb/mar term and in the end, i just couldn't resist.  after all, their challenges have been so well thought out and fun to work around!  

so, stay tuned for more HP silliness in 2010.  ~snakey

  

a win/lose situation

Well, I signed up for quidditch last term. They divided us into 7-player teams and made us come up with background and goals for charity knitting. Our team ("team Chance") chose to knit 3 items each, for a total of 21 items. We could each donate to the charity of our choice. We had 2 1/2 months to knit our 3 items; the term started Sept 1 and ended yesterday, but we had to have our pictures in to our Seeker in mid-Nov.

I originally chose Knit for Kids, an organization that sends knitted sweaters to children in need both internationally and here in america. The pattern was dead-easy and came in sized from toddler to pre-teen.

then i encountered a long string of setbacks. the first project, easy as it was, took 2 weeks to knit the first half of the toddler sized sweater. oops! so i abandoned that project (although i plan to finish the sweater sometime) and cast about for smaller endeavors.

At the beginning of October, i decided to knit newborn caps, as one of my teammates had done that and had already finished 3. So i ordered appropriate weight yarn and needles and got to work....only to discover that i had chosen a really complex pattern that did not knit up easily - and worse yet, you couldn't even tell when i was finished that i had done anything fancy to it at all. (see the preemie cap in the middle) that little preemie cap took me over 2 weeks to make. So I abandoned that pattern in favor of a different one. Unfortunately, the next one i chose also was time/labor intensive, as it called for 3 colors of yarn in a dropstitch pattern. the result (the larger striped one on the right) looks AWESOME and it is stretchy, thanks to some better sock yarn. But between the flu and the length of time it took to knit that, it was now well into November and i still had one more hat to do.

the third pattern i chose turned out to be the simplest of all and the fastest to make. the hat also probably will be the easiest for newborns to wear, it is soft and stretchy without being binding. i love the vertical stitch pattern it made like lazy wide ribs. (see hat on the left.)

i finished it....just before thanksgiving. if i had been able to take its pic and post before i left for my folks, MAYBE i could have helped my team. as it was, today was the first day i could even upload the pics i took at mom and dad's, where this shot was taken. So - EPIC fail for my quidditch team. I am so embarrassed i haven't even been on ravelry to see what happened with them.

also, i don't yet know where i am going to donate these caps. i haven't gotten organized enough to call the local children's hospitals and i didn't find anywhere online that looked like a good, legit prospect.

anyone know of a place that might want 3 cleveland-colored newborn hats?

i actually handed in some homework!

man. the past 2 months have not been my best. i have about had it with real life!

however, i did manage to pull it together long enough to hand in my Transfiguration homework in the HPKCHC for this month. Here's what i posted:

Addreamy of Slytherin here, signing up and turning in my transfiguration homework.

I chose option 2.

2) Taking an object or image from real life and Transfigure it with fiber. This can be done in any way you choose - e.g. spinning yarn to represent the colors of fall, making a knitted version of your cat, making a hat just like one seen on tv (Jayne Hat, anyone?). You are welcome to use a pattern, but you MUST post a picture (or detailed description, if it is from a book) of the object that inspired you - what you are Transfiguring, along with your completed assignment. CLARIFICATION: “Real Life” just means non-knitted. Fictional realms, characters, etc are welcome!

my real life object is a wizard hat. This can best be seen in the following still (I borrowed a muggle camera in order to provide clear evidence that wizard hats are not knit)




I adapted a pattern found in Charmed Knits in order to appropriately clothe Sydney in Hogwarts attire. As you can see, she would now make a good student - or she will in several years. She is only 7 at the moment!



I hope this meets with your approval!

hpkchc update

i have not been around the cup much. in fact, the note i got from my head of house wondering "where are you?"-- i just opened it up tonight and she sent it 2 weeks ago. not sure why the cup was not grabbing my attention like it did the first time around, but the last two weeks? well, they went down the toilet due to the re-org at work.

however, i am working on something now. it is for divination.
can you guess what it is going to be? :D

........

i did not finish the "shiny gold galleons" scarf i was struggling with last month. i used that ribbon i showed you and it did crochet up easy enough, but the sheen pretty much disappeared in the process.


plus...i was running out fast and it was not cheap.

so, i turned to gold cord.


ugh. true, it is shiny as can be, but it is stiff and cruddy for making circles. in the end, i tried just straight chains and intended to coil them up and sew them into flat shiny coins. it looked okay enough...but then time ran out. i threw out all my efforts.

as to crocheting with gold cord?
no.
just no.