My HLBOE 1st term box arrived!!

My Hogwarts Little Bit of Everything Swap, 1st term, box arrived today!!

My spoiler, Msrib, sent me a witches hat!! It's so cool. I am donating most of the hats I've accumulated during the Dueling swaps to S.P.E.W., and had intended to include the hat from this part of the swap as well. Ain't gonna happen, folks! Even if S.P.E.W. could find a use for a witches hat (which I don't think they could ::grins::), this hat's a keeper! It's got a beautiful red & gold cord wrapped around the hat and knotted in back, with the ends hanging down. And it fits me just right!

There were 2 Ghiredelli candy bars as well, but I'm afraid those didn't make it to the photo shoot LOL DH got the intense dark chocolate and the milk chocolate just kept calling my name!

I got 2 tins of body butter (cranberry & vanilla), a dreamy raspberry candle, 3 50-gram skeins of fingering weight sock yarn from Knitpicks, a nifty little card to check my needle & hook sizes as well as my gauge, a box with 2 sample size bags of coffee (which my husband promptly confiscated - he's the coffee drinker, I drink tea), as well as a chocolate 'tarheel' (which I'm keeping - only fair as he got the coffee!) and a really cool bag of pasta .... it's blue & white and shaped like the symbol for the University of North Carolina! I can't wait to see the kids' faces when we fix that one for supper!

And I've got my very own time-turner!!! It's is *so* cool. The little hourglass in the center actually works! It's a replica of the one Hermione wore. And there was a little box of 8 neat stickers from the movies in the box as well. Now I'm hoping it actually works! ::giggles::

I want to thank my spoiler again for a really wonderful box of surprises.

Tea Time!

Here's the picture of my original cup of tea. I think I used too much loose tea due to inexperience with making tea in this fashion. However, in spite of the chaos in the cup, there does appear to be a squarish clump of leaves towards the top. If the tea cup were oriented properly, this shape would be close to the 6 months in the future area.

Our latest assignment for Divination reads: knit, crochet, or craft any sort of item in any medium that has to do with the placement of the symbols in your cup, when will things happen in other words.

So .... it's Tea Time, Professor Pren! ::grins:: Based (loosely) on the clock Mrs. Weasley uses to keep track of her family, my clock is used for deciding where in the lifeline the actions/situations take place.

The clock was crafted with play clay that I made myself this morning. I had some fun creating the 'vine' that winds around the outer edge ... the play clay didn't want to stay together. Then I needed to persuade it to stay together in even smaller 'snakes' to create the lettering. I finally figured out what to do, tho ... I just threatened to send it to my Professor. ::chortles::

You'll notice that, since the assignment is due in the present (or extremely near future, in just over 24 hours), the leaf pointer in the center is pointing to NOW. Or perhaps it is referring to the fact that I am posting this now ....

Gee, I'll have to study that cup a bit closer, I guess .........

:::wandering off to find my tea-leaf reading glasses:::

SeaFan

Our newest assignment for Madam Jak's Flying class is to create a bookmark in the colors used for the uniforms in our Fantasy Quidditch Team assignment a few weeks ago.

My team, Flight of Dragons, had two sets of uniforms. The home set was jewel tones, and each player would choose their own jewel color. The away set was sea tones. This bookmark, done in a fan pattern in sea tones, is a SeaFan bookmark. The colors in this scan are not true. It's actually in tones of sea green, aqua, pale lilac and sea blue.

The pattern for this bookmark can be found here: http://crochetroo.blogspot.com/2006/05/fan-bookmark.html

Defense Against the Dark Arts Assignment

1. Who is the author of the books prescribed for Defense Against the Dark Arts? Quentin Trimble

2. When conjuring a Patronus, the user is supposed to produce what type of thought? Happy

3. Who was the teacher of Defense Against the Dark Arts in Tom Riddle’s time? Galatea Merrythought

4. Which Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher is an accomplished Occlumens? Severus Snape

5. Which of these spells is the Full Body-bind Curse? Petrificus Totalus

6. Lord Voldemort used Avada Kedavra on Harry Potter in the Little Hangleton graveyard. But another spell used by Harry at the same time caused the Priori Incantatem effect. Which spell did Harry use? Expelliarmus

7. Which of the following can the Unforgivable Curse not do? Make parts of the body fall off

8. Which kind of people are known to use Unforgivable Curses very commonly? Death Eaters

9. One of the Horcruxes was a ring. Whom did the ring belong to? Marvolo Gaunt

10. The creation of a Horcrux requires: Killing someone


Extra Credit:
Name the 3 Unforgiveable Curses. Describe how to cast each and the effects of each curse. Why are they unforgiveable and what will happen to the person who cast them?

The Unforgiveable Curses all cause great harm to the person affected. The harm may be emotional damage, physical pain or death, depending on the curse. Using any of these curses, if caught, will result in life-long impresonment in Azkaban.

While someone with great magical abilities and protections may be able to resist the first 2 curses, there is no known counter-curse for the Killing Curse.

All 3 curses are cast by pointing your wand at the intended victim and incanting the proper spell word.

Imperius Curse - spell word "Imperio". Result -the caster then has total control over the actions of the victim.

Cruciatius Curse - spell word "Crucio". Result - the curse causes almost unbearable pain for the victim.

Killing Curse - spell word "Avada Kedavra". Result - the curse results in a flash of brilliant green light and a rushing sound, and the instant death of the victim.

Divination Assignment - symbols

Well, the newest assignment in Divination is to create something in the shape of some of the symbols used for reading the tea leaves. I've found a pattern for what I want to do ... now I gotta get it done before time runs out!

Guess I'd better move my posterior ... and my fingers!

Arithmancy Assignment

Our newest assignment (at the moment) is in our Arithmancy class. The concept is not new to me, but I haven't looked at it (or really thought about it) in years. We read some information on it, which refreshed my memories of it. Then we calculated our Character, Heart and Social numbers.

I did this three times (yeah, quite a coincidence, huh?) because I have 3 names I use. The first name given to me at birth (which I only use when required to and nope, I'm NOT telling), the name Kitty (which I use offline)and Katt (which I use online). The results were both interesting and scary.

Birth name: Character 2, Heart 5, Social 6
Kitty : Character 7, Heart 2, Social 5
Katt : Character 1, Heart 3, Social 7

Note that every name has at least 1 number that is repeated in another name.

Katt
Character: 1 - This is the number of the individual, the solitary unit. Ones are independent, focused, and determined. They set a goal and stick to it. They are leaders and inventors. Ones find it difficult to work with others and don't like to take orders. They can be self-centered, egotistical, and domineering. They are often loners.
Yup, this is me, alright! Clearly someone was looking over my shoulder here! I take exception to the 'egotistical' part, but the rest ... well ::sigh:: Yeah, I guess so.
Heart: 3 - Three represents the idea of completeness or wholeness, as in the threesomes past-present-future and mind-body-spirit. Three indicates talent, energy, an artistic nature, humor, and social ease. Threes are often lucky, easygoing, and highly successful, but they can also be unfocused, easily offended, and superficial.
I don't quite fit this one. I have little social ease (except online ... and note that this is my online name). I'm not really very successful, except in my crafts, and then not in a business sense. Altho if I can ever get an Etsy store opened, perhaps that will change. I was lucky in my 2nd choice of husband, but not my 1st. Other than that, I don't consider myself particularly lucky. And I'm not really very easy-going. There are other numbers which indicate I'm domineering and difficult. An internal conflict which can result in problems. I don't think I'm superficial, but it says 'can be' not 'always is', so that's okay. I guess. Unfocused? Not quite sure about that one. I can be quite focused at times, but easily distracted at other times.
Social: 7 - Perceptive, understanding, and bright, sevens enjoy hard work and challenges. They are often serious, scholarly, and interested in all things mysterious. Originality and imagination are more important than money and material possessions. Sevens can also be pessimistic, sarcastic, and insecure.
I'll pretty much agree with this one, I'm afraid. Note, please, that while Character says I'm focused, Social says I'm not. The dichotomy can result in depression because I'm fighting myself and can't win. The insecure part I sure won't argue with ... that's right on target. Unfortunately, so is the sarcastic part. I try real hard to be optimistic, tho sometimes it can be difficult.

Kitty
Character: 7 - Perceptive, understanding, and bright, sevens enjoy hard work and challenges. They are often serious, scholarly, and interested in all things mysterious. Originality and imagination are more important than money and material possessions. Sevens can also be pessimistic, sarcastic, and insecure.
See remarks above .......
Heart: 2 - Two represents interaction, two-way communication, cooperation, and balance. Twos are imaginative, creative, and sweet natured. Peace, harmony, commitment, loyalty, and fairness are characteristic. But two also introduces the idea of conflict, opposing forces, and the contrasting sides of things: night and day, good and evil. Twos can be withdrawn, moody, self-conscious and indecisive.
This number gives me balance, which is missing in my other numbers. ::giggles:: I'm not at *all* sure about the 'sweet natured' part, either! And again ... that internal disturbance, which can result in depression.... btw, I'm a diagnosed severe depressive. Considering how often the internal conflict shows up in my numbers, perhaps that isn't so surprising, hmmm? Note: this is the character number for my birth name.
Social: 5 - Five is the number of instability and imbalance, indicating change and uncertainty. Fives are drawn to many things at once but commit to none. They are adventurous, energetic and willing to take risks. They enjoy travel and meeting new people but may not stay in one place very long. Fives can be conceited, irresponsible, quick-tempered and impatient.
Here we go again .... the first adjective here is 'instability'. And I used to wonder why am I a depressive? ::shrugs:: Guess it's in the numbers, huh? The second comment certainly holds true for my crafts - I am drawn to many crafts, but I won't commit to one and exclude all others. I might enjoy traveling, if we could afford it, but I don't want to move ever again! While I don't think I'm either conceited or irresponsible (my ex- made sure I had to be responsible, since I had to raise the kids), I can be quick-tempered and impatient. Note that this is my heart number for my birth name.


(Birth):
Character: 2 - Two represents interaction, two-way communication, cooperation, and balance. Twos are imaginative, creative, and sweet natured. Peace, harmony, commitment, loyalty, and fairness are characteristic. But two also introduces the idea of conflict, opposing forces, and the contrasting sides of things: night and day, good and evil. Twos can be withdrawn, moody, self-conscious and indecisive.
See notes above.
Heart: 5 - Five is the number of instability and imbalance, indicating change and uncertainty. Fives are drawn to many things at once but commit to none. They are adventurous, energetic and willing to take risks. They enjoy travel and meeting new people but may not stay in one place very long. Fives can be conceited, irresponsible, quick-tempered and impatient.
See comments above.
Social: 6 - Six represents harmony, friendship, and family life. Sixes are loyal, reliable, and loving. They adapt easily. They do well in teaching and the arts, but are often unsuccessful in business. They are sometimes prone to gossip and complacency.
This is the one I disagree with the most. I've had very little harmony in my life, and I find it difficult to make and maintain friendships. Family life? With 3 kids, and a 2nd husband .. oh, yeah. But it has not been harmonious, to say the least. The second comment is true, but the third I have reservations about. I do okay teaching one-on-one as long as I am confident of my own knowledge in the subject; and yes, I think I do quite well in 'the arts' as long as you include crafting in that header. Some people don't. But then, some people don't know their ... well, never mind ;x This blog is family rated! The unsuccessful in business part, so far, has proven true. Sadly. I do not gossip and I hope I am not complacent. Since both of the other numbers for this name appear again in "Kitty", which is the name I use the most off line, perhaps this Social number is the reason I dislike, and rarely use, this name unless I'm forced to for legal reasons?

In conclusion ... most of this was so close, it's scary. What is even scarier is the way the numbers repeat, no matter which name I use.

The Tea Party

Divination homework included creating a tea cup and something else that was a part of the Tea Reading ceremony. The assignment did not say that we had to create the second item at this time, so I'm hoping my teapot will be acceptable. I used to do greenware when we lived in Florida. I've got 2 teapots that are hand-painted - the other one looks like a basket of fruit. I've never seen another teapot like this one, tho. The owner of the store where I used to go often made her own pieces from molds, so this may be one of those pieces.

BTW, the top of the teapot has a big black spider holding it in place. NOT my daughter's favorite thing!!

The teacup was crocheted using acrylic yarn in a sunset colorway, perfect for a Gryffindor. I made it more functional by tucking a clean empty tuna fish can into the bottom.

Still have to do the actual tea reading. Will use the Witches tea pot to brew the tea in .... but I don't think my tea cup will do for the reading itself! It is, however, making itself useful in my craft room, holding small items so I may be able to find them again. Of course, I have to remember where I put them, first!

My new hat arrived!

Not at all sure you can make out the darling cat button used to 'close' this button-tab hat, but I love him! I don't normally wear beanie-type caps, but I think this one just made the cut. Thank you, Arianna. Also received a matching cup cozy, some Alpine milk chocolate (YUM!), tea bags so I can use my new cozy, and an HP label ... I want more labels! (want more chocolate, too! LOL)

Snitched!

The latest assignment for our Flying class is a snitch. Mine was created from acrylic yarn for the snitch body and a specialty yarn for the wings. The wing yarn is 3 ply ... 1 ply is a very thin, flat ribbon of opalescent acrylic for sparkle, 1 ply alternates thin spaces of about 1" with thicker areas, also about 1" long, and the 3rd ply is a boucle with some mohair in it to make the whole thing fuzzy. *SO* much fun to knit this on size 1 needles, because of course the thicker areas of the yarn nearly always managed to show up when the pattern called for knit 2 together ... and both of *those* stitches also had the thicker yarn. Naturally.

We also needed to add our own touch to the snitch. See those orange lines radiating back? It's the snitch overheating. Darned thing didn't want to stay still long enough to gets its picture taken, which is why the picture isn't the greatest quality. But then, neither is my scanner.

The Nestlings

This all started with an assignment on owls for HLBOE on Ravelry. The original pattern is here:
http://www.geocities.com/crochetrat/owlfridgie.html
and that is what I used to create the largest nestling.

However, I wanted to be able to send this owl overseas; and since that can be expensive, I wanted something smaller than the original nestling. So I tried adapting the spell, er, instructions. That resulted in the middle nestling. (Spell, er, instructions follow.) The smallest nestling, who will live in my kitchen, was created using a double strand of Tofuties black-and-white fingering weight sock yarn. He was a bit fiddly because of the doubled yarn. The other nestlings were created with Red Heart Fall colorway. I changed from magnetic tape to round magnets on the back - they stick better. I use a cool temp glue gun to attach eyes and magnets.

First ... I use the Magic Circle to start projects which call for a starting ring. You'll find instructions here:
http://crochetme.com/Dec_Jan_0405/reads_round.html
My most favorite thing about this? You NEVER have to squish those last few stitches into a circle that isn't quite big enough. You just make the required number of stitches over your magic circle, pull the tail and hey! the starting ring is *exactly* the right size. Every time.

Using your magic circle, and using a size F hook with worsted weight yarn, chain 3, then make 19 dc into the circle. Pull the circle tight. Weave the tail in later. Slip stitch into the top of the chain 3.

Following the original directions, but substituting dc for tc and chain 3 for chain 4, create the owl's head & ears. If your circle tail was long, you don't need to leave a long tail here. If your circle tail is short, tho, cut this tail longer. You'll need one or the other to sew the face halves together when you finish.

Following the original directions again, make the tail, again using dc instead of tc and ch 3 instead of ch 4.

Finishing: Weave in the yarn ends from the tail. Using either the circle tail or the face tail, whichever is longer, on the back of the owl, weave over to the bottom of the split between the two face halves. Weave the sides of the two chain 4's together, then weave back down to the starting circle of dc's and bury the tail. Cut the tail and weave in the other tail.

Glue on a magnet and wiggle eyes. I use twigs from my yard for the owls to 'sit' on. The original spell, er, pattern, calls for chenille. I like the twigs better - they look more natural and each owl gets their own unique look.

Flat cats...........

Well, the latest assignment for Magical Creatures is to create a cat. Since we are already owned by nine of the creatures around here, when I sat down to craft the spell I kept muttering 'no more fat cats' ........ meaning that this time, the cat was going to need to be useful. Love our cats .... but .... enough is enough, you know?

By the way, 4 of them are kittens, 1 of those a rescue who was left outdoors when her previous owners couldn't take her with them ..... I won't comment, because it would only get me in trouble with someone ....... Cuddles is a sweet, lovable marmalade ..... that makes 3 orange marmalades here ...... and 2 of them own me!!

About an hour later, some very upset owls descended upon me with a ..... flat cat. And a *lot* of dire mutterings about what was going to happen if they found any flat *owls* in the Owlery (which is where they found the flat cat).

I can only presume that while muttering to myself, I somehow stumbled over my words just as the spell took effect ........ I promptly checked all the felines belonging to this house and they are all well, safe and ...... fat. So I'm not quite sure where this one came from. But I know where he's going ... right on the table to keep hot things safely away from the table surface.

Woke up this morning to find a whole pile of wiggly things on my crafting desk. After some research, I discovered that these are a variety of Flobber worms, commonly known as Rainbow Flobber Worms. Thus far, apparently, no one has discovered where they come from, what they eat, or when they sleep. Their eyes always seem to be open. The only thing that has been discovered about them is that they love to keep your place in a book.

Altho the idea of making Rainbow Flobber Worms is my own, you'll find the pattern I used for to create them here:
http://www.knitlist.com/98gift/crochetworm.htm

I used to make these back when my now-grown children were very young. Now my grandkids play with them. I think the pattern I used back then came from a magazine called Workbasket, which is now out of print.

Snowy Owls

The Snowy Owl was first classified in 1758 by Carolus Linnaeus, the Swedish Swedish naturalist who developed binomial nomenclature to classify and organize plants and animals. The Snowy Owl is a large, diurnal white Owl that has a rounded head, yellow eyes and black bill. The feet are heavily feathered. A distinctive white Owl, their overall plumage is variably barred or speckled with thin, black, horizontal bars or spots. Females and juveniles are more heavily marked than males - adult males may be almost pure white, although they have up to three tail bands. Adult females are distinctly barred throughout, and have from four to six tail bands. Immatures are very heavily barred throughout, and dark spotting may co-dominate or dominate the overall plumage. Intensity of dark spotting varies with the sex of the immatures, females being the darkest. Juveniles are uniformly brown with scattered white tips of down. Snowy Owls are active during the daytime, from dawn to dusk. They have a direct, strong, and steady flight with deliberate, powerful down strokes and quick upstrokes. They make short flights, close to the ground, from perch to perch, and usually perches on the ground or a low post. During hot weather, they can thermoregulate by panting and spreading their wings. Snowy Owls are very aggressive when defending their nest. The Snowy Owl is a bird of Arctic tundra or open grasslands and fields. They rarely venture into forested areas. During southward movements they appear along lake shores, marine coastlines, marshes, and even roost on buildings in cities and towns. In the Arctic, they normally roost on pingaluks (rises in the tundra) and breed from low valley floors up to mountain slopes and plateaus over 1,000 meters (3,000 feet) in elevation. When wintering in the Arctic, they frequent wind-swept tundra with little snow or ice accumulation. At more southern latitudes they typically frequents agricultural areas.

Information found at: http://www.owlpages.com/owls.php?genus=Bubo&species=scandiacus

HLBOE extra credit assignment

New swap!!

::sigh:: I've been rather, er, forgetful about posting here. Real Life tends to bite me in hidden parts and get in the way, causing me to, ah ...... forget. Things.

Anyhow, I've joined a new swap .... it's on Ravelry and it's called 'Hogwart's Little Bit of Everything Swap' and I think it's going to be so much fun! There will be seven swaps total, over a period of 3 1/2 years ..... that's a long time! But they all sound like so much fun, that I intend to stay for all of them!!

Got to go send a new message to my spoilee ... now that I know who she is :)