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

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.

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!

niffler leg warmer

i, too, chose to tackle care of magical creatures this past month. my original hope had been to get an early start on my dog's halloween costume. alas, things didn't turn out quite as planned.

Here's what I posted on Ravelry:

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

My Niffler (who refused to come consistently when called, so never did acquire a working name other than HEY!) sustained an injury very early on in the month. I consulted with Hagrid, who claimed that long nasty scrapes were common in Nifflers, but due to the property of their blood, could not be healed magically. Therefore, he cleaned and bandaged the wound, but charged me with the task of keeping the Niffler from licking or removing the bandage.

Have you ever tried to keep an animal from mucking with a bandage? i tried several methods, including a bubble-headed charm (which interfered with the Niffler’s finding function and made it depressed), an impedimenta spell (which i have never managed properly and succeeded only in a series of low brick walls), and even a nasty-smelling potion. That was a disaster. ‘Nuff said.

Finally, i hit on making a “leg warmer” cover for the entire leg. This worked like a charm.


Having now returned my Niffler, i forgot to get a picture of her wearing it, tho, so my long-suffering springer, Sydney, was volunteered to stand in. Unfortunately, her paws are much bigger than the nifflers, so we could only get it on half-way!


The whole thing so traumatized my girl that she then had to take a nap….

working with something new

for the niffler challenge in care of magical creatures, i have chosen this golden "intermezzo" ribbon-yarn from trendsetters. the plan i have is to create a scarf out of golden coins.

so far it is challenging to crochet with since the 5/8" ribbon has its own little holes, but i have made two little circles so far. it might just work. :D