Glee!

I'll See You All In 6 Weeks...

When I finally get over this!




If you don't recognize who that is singing, that's Darren Criss, from A Very Potter Musical. I'm totally obsessed with this clip now.

Custom Fingerless Gloves Info!

Hi!

If you didn't find this post via A Girl and Her Scout, head on over there and check out my interview and to enter the contest that this is relevant to.

The contest for a pair of crochet fingerless gloves is being hosted over at A Girl and Her Scout, and the winner will get a customized pair of crochet fingerless gloves. This post is to give more info as to what that custom really entails.

The winner will choose any number of colors, limited to what I have in my yarn stash, and I'll use those to make a lovely pair of fingerless gloves for you! My yarn stash is full of multicolored yarns, as well as single colors that can be used individually or in combination with others.

Some examples of these gloves that I've done in the past are:

It's Harry! Freakin! Potter!

This new trailer looks so good.

!

I HATE PENNIES!!!! (Also Nickels.)

John Green rants about pennies, and he mentions Greeneville (which is about an hour from me). Strange times.

StarKidPotter Strikes Again!

And it's TOTALLY AWESOME!

A Very Potter Sequel premiered earlier this evening, and it rocks. So hard. I don't want to elaborate too much, because I can't say a lot without telling you what's going on, you've just got to watch it first! You also don't really have to have seen the first one first, but there's a lot of stuff that isn't as funny if you don't get it from the first one, and well, you should have already seen the first one anyway! Be prepared to spend a good amount of time watching if you do it in one setting, and it isn't a family affair, the sequel's got a lot more hardcore language in it than the original and it isn't censored. This makes me like it more, but I know that isn't everyone's cup of tea. To be slightly spoilerish, I've posted my two favorite quotes below the video. There's a bunch of them, but these two are my faves from my first view through.



Quotes:

From Act 1, Scene 2:

Ron: Where have you been all my life?
Harry: In a cupboard under some stairs.
Ron: That's so cool!


From Act 2, Scene 10:

Harry: No way? You listen to me now. For eleven years, I was a muggle douchebag locked under some stairs. This year, I found out I'm a wizard. I'm famous. I can fly, and turn invisible, and I just traveled the fuck back in time. Fuck You, Draco, how's that for a happy thought? So there is absolutely no way that there is no way, you hear me?

For the Owlie boxes!

We're working on putting together Team Sampler Boxes for the Owls team. This is my contribution:

Aren't they just too cute for words? (Okay, don't lie about it...) They're the latest in my knitting amigurumi sans pattern adventures, and I like them. :) And look how cute they are in their little packaging:

Look for more info about them and the Team Sampler Boxes coming in July! Exciting!

My HSKS Kits!

As you all probably know, I've been involved in a Ravelry group that does Harry Potter themed swaps. This was my first major swap of any kind, and I have to say I really enjoyed myself. I got my kit today, and I wanted to share pictures so my fellow swappers could come squee! I've also posted the one I built at the bottom.

Guaranteed to Make You Smile

Since my embed might be a bit wonky, click here for the video on YouTube.

Just a bludger or two...

Ever feel like you've been wacked a few too many times with a bludger or two? Or maybe a bludger bat? Yeah, I've been there. I definitely felt like that last night after working a 12 hour shift (talk about major yuck!), but I'm coming back from it today.

We played our last Quidditch match over in HSKS group on Ravelry today. We lost, but it was SO close and we got through it so gracefully that I feel like we did a really great job. I was captaining, so you know that's a trainwreck waiting to happen, and half of our team were volunteers from other houses, and we definitely couldn't have done it without them.

Related to that, I've got Skype now, and learned to use it to do group calls today, fun times. SO, if anyone out there has Skype and wants to be my Skype friend, lemme know. :D

Other than all the swap madness, and working, I haven't really been doing a whole lot else lately. I'm starting to get my mojo back for my Etsy shop, now all I need to do is put that mojo to work! Too bad it can't work without me... :D

Sudoku Madness! (HSKS)

So, I just remembered how much I'm in love with Sudoku. Seriously. I'm not really a numbers person, but there's something in the structure and logic behind Sudoku that makes me ♥ it. The HSKS homework this week was doing some Sudoku's to get certain highlighted numbers, use the key to convert them to letters, and then unscramble them to find a word related to the Potter universe.

I downloaded them, then uploaded them into a Google doc so I could play around with the spreadsheet, and also used the margins to take notes about each row, column, and 3x3 square as I needed it.

This led me to realize how much easier they are to play on the computer!

Now I'll have to find somewhere to play them online!

HSKS Sudoku answers were:

Puzzle 1: Dobby
Puzzle 2: Harry Potter
Puzzle 3: Hogs Head

Quidditch! (HSKS)

I'm playing Quidditch this weekend, I'm pretty excited!

If only it were as cool as taking the skies with a real broomstick and the world had magic, and I could keep going on and on forever in my Harry Potter geekness, but I'll stop. :)

The Quidditch I'm playing is a rather nifty version over in a Ravelry group I'm in, where it's done mixing knitting and crocheting (done by the chasers as the ways to make goals) with Harry Potter trivia (done by beaters!) and an extensive snitch-hunting Internet quest! It's quite an elaborate set-up, and I'm excited to get to play in the upcoming match.

I'll write how it goes after the match Sunday!

Just a Cartoon Moment...

Poor Snoopy...

This came from the Editorial Cartoons Gallery over at USAToday.com

Just an update...

So, our HSKS prompt this week was in the spirit of funny. That's really funny, because the jokes have been bouncing around in the House Cup lately too. This was my favorite that someone else posted:

How many Slytherins does it take to light a wand?


Six. One to light it, one to gloat over it, one to steal it, and three to look impressive.

How many Ravenclaws does it take to light a wand?

Just one, because she stayed up all night studying on how to do it properly.

How many Hufflepuffs does it take to light a wand?

Only one, but they’re so loyal she’ll probably tell you it took the whole house.

How many Gryffindors does it take to light a wand?

None. Gryffindors? We do not fear the dark!


hehehehe.... :)

We were also prompted to show some photos of ourselves that reflect the funny, so I dug around, and couldn't really find all that much. This is what I've got. They're not all of me. (obviously)

Potions! (HSKS)

Take That, Gryffindor! (hsks)

Quidditch! (HSKS)

Homeworks! (HSKS)

HSKS Post. :)

Settling In...

This Be A HSKS POST.

What I Really Should Be Doing Instead of Writing This Blog Post...

I should be making things. The House Cup is on break until May, so I've got all sorts of jolly free time, and what am I doing? Not that much. :)

I am working on a line of knitted amigurumi for my Etsy shop and I'm pretty excited about them. I'm working on the second, and I want to have several of them finished before I list any of them for sale. I'm hoping to have one to preview on my Facebook page in a few days.

Other than that, I'm hoping to start my first sewing project soon! I've got some fabric that I had bought a while back to make a laptop sleeve out of. I've since changed my mind about the laptop sleeve, so I've decided to attempt to make a knitting needle roll. I have a pattern, so it shouldn't be too hard. Except for the part where it's sewing. !

I also should be working on my HSKS kit...which reminds me, I need to blog for that. And then make something for it. I have a bunch of ideas, which I can't really go into, since someone might find this and be spoiled. Lets just say it's going to be TOTALLY AWESOME.

And now I'll go watch A Very Potter Musical instead of craft. :)

The "What I Like" Post

This is the Post of Things I like. :)

Favorite Colors: Green & Purple are my absolute favorite colors. I love all shades of green, even the light and lime colors, but I prefer the darker colors. Same with Purple. I'm also fond of burnt-orange, browns, and blue (like medium blues...). Sky blue and burnt orange together makes my heart sing. :)


Favorite Scents:

I have to be careful with scents, because lots of things make me sneeze. I can't wear any perfumes or body sprays, but I'm largely okay with lotions and such. See 'Little Things I Like' below. Also things like household scents are largely out, because my DBF also sneezes, and different things make us sneeze.
Favorite Yarn Brands:

I am largely unexperienced with yarn brands. I really covet some Koigu PPPM, because it's so freakin' pretty...I really like Mirasol Yarns, Knit Picks (love all KP but WOTA Bulky makes my heart sing, especially those handdyed colorways...yum!), and I recently fell in love with Moda Dea's Tweedle Dee (of course I did, they've discontinued it...) My regular stand by yarns are Patons Classic Wool Merino & Wool Ease. :)
Favorite Yarn Types:

I don't like yarns that scream 'felt me!', because they're usually rough and harsh. I like wools, but softer wools (or superwash wools are good too). Cottons are great with me, and I tend to enjoy blends: cotton blends, wool blends, etc. I'm on a super bulky yarn kick, love me some chunky chunky yarn! :) I don't have a lot of experience with sock yarn, so far I've been good enough to not buy it (because I've never made socks, lol!) I'm also working on collecting some bare colored wools that I can dye, because I'm experimenting with kool-aid dyeing!
Favorite Needles:

I'm just not picky about needles. Coming from a crochet background, a hook's a hook IMO. I'm realizing this is different with knitting, but I still haven't figured out my favorites. I've got a nice little variety, a pair of bamboo, some wooden needles, and a slew of metal needles. I did get a Knit Picks Zephyr (size 6 tips) circ for Christmas, which I love, and I'm always looking to collect more tip sizes, etc.

Favorite Snacks:

I love Dark Chocolate (but I like my chocolate without nuts in it!). I also love mint, so anything with Dark Chocolate + Mint = Win (like 3 Musketeers Mint, Andes Mints, or those Ghirardelli Dark Mint squares....*drools* I'm not overly fond of peanut butter mixed with chocolate. I also like Wonka stuff like Gobstoppers, Runts, Nerds, etc... all that bad for you candy, and Sour Patch kids and those neon sour worms...yum....I also like coffee (just about anything coffee or coffee flavored), hot chocolate (yum!) and tea (any kind of tea, but i especially like fruit related teas!)

Little Things I Like:

Tiny lotions or liquid bath soaps, things like Bath & Body Works, Burts Bees, etc. I love Cucumber Melon and Pomegranate anything. :)
Lip Balms, because I can't ever have enough of that stuff.
Koolaid for dyeing (shades of cherry, grape, and greens are my favorites)
Soak Wash! I've recently discovered how awesome it is! I don't have a favorite scent yet because I'm still trying little samples Soak sent me.
Stationary, particulary tiny little notebooks with hard covers on them.


Allergies: Don't mail me cigarettes or a puppy, and I'll be okay. Wait, please mail me a puppy. I'll sneeze, but it's a puppy!!!  Unless he smokes, then you can keep him. ;)

Wishlists:

KnitPicks
The Ultimate List  (will grow, and has Etsy and stuff on it too, since my Etsy favorites are a disaster zone!)

My favorite HP Characters

If the public at large didn't know, I'm a pretty geeky HP kid. I just can't help myself. I really enjoy thinking about the characters, about they represent in the books, how we see ourselves in them, etc. I was recently given the task of discussing who my favorites are, and why, so here we go.

Warning: Harry Potter Geekery Ahead!

I've joined the HSKS over on Ravelry! 

Owl Nest Cam!

This was posted over on the Owls blog, and while I thought it was a neat concept, I didn't check it out right away. When another Owlie member, bumblebirch, linked it to me while we were chatting earlier I went ahead and clicked. And it's an owl, sitting in a box!

I just went back to check it randomly, and I saw the one hatched baby owlet (for just a second) and a bunch of eggs, as she was positioning herself to sit on them again. Based on the comments below the video, i had just missed seeing the male owl by a few minutes. Oh well.

Video chat rooms at Ustream

And now a Public Service Announcement...

Team ESST Semi-Annual Promotion
Beginning at 12:00 AM EST February 26
and ending 12 pm Sunday EST February 28.
The Etsy Supply Street Team (ESST) will be holding its
Semi-Annual Supply Street Team Promotion.
This sale exclusively features the members of the
Etsy Supply Street Team!
Crafting supplies for most any project you may have.
Team members will be offering specials like free shipping, discounts, extra goodies, and everyday fabulous prices.
And for a look at the Team members promos checkout out Team ESST Promo blog: http://esstpromo.blogspot.com/
Search TEAM ESST for all your supply needs!
http://www.etsy.com/search_results.php?search_type=supplies&search_query=team+esst&ref=auto
Also, check out our Promo thread in the Etsy Forums starting Friday at 12:01 AM (search for Team Esst?)

We will be featuring the latest:
*Deals
*Sales
*Bargains
*Great Every Day Prices
*Supplies for the Talented Artist in You!

Happy Team ESST Day! (what?)

Look, I'm in a slideshow!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Adventures in Dyeing!

I've spent the last good while coveting and drooling over handdyed yarns. Gorgeous colorways and combinations of color that make me go oooooh....anyone who knits or crochets has been there. But they're always sooo expensive! Sure, they're worth it, but we can't all shell out that kind of money. I definitely can't.
After running across the fact somewhere that people dye with Kool-Aid, I decided to work up the courage to try it myself. That time's finally come.

Before I was ready to attempt it myself, I've spent a good amount of time gathering resources. It's helpful to know what direction to go in before you try it out. Some really handy tutorials are over at Knitty KnitPicks and a pretty useful tutorial over at A Beautiful Life

I read and reread these articles, and others, and visited some groups on Ravelry, just trying to soak up the details of how to do it. When I started earlier, I discovered very quickly that this isn't like knitting, there's no pattern. There's just what to do and what not to do, and then you, your yarn, and the colors you choose. Everything else just happens as you go along.

I decided to approach it in small doses by test dyeing only a little at a time. My method would be microwave dyeing. My first attempt was overdyeing (dyeing a yarn that is already colored) some Patons Classic Wool Merino, a bit over 2 yards. Mine was a light blue when it started out.

I soaked it a bit then tried the hand-painted approach, I put it out on a grocery bag and dabbed it with bits of grape, lemon lime, and black cherry. Now, I learned the hard way that you want this yarn to be fairly damp when you do this, and when you go to microwave it, for the love of God don't add it to water! (which I might or might not have actually done...)

The result was (okay, so I did that, duh..) that the colors ended up seeping out into the water, and swirling around a bit as the yarn soaked up the dye, so I got a bit of a heathered look. I like it, but it wasn't at all what I wanted.

At this point, my water wasn't clear. It actually wasn't anywhere close to clear. I wondered what would happen if I took my second yarn (Condon's Wool in a very light tan color) and just added it to the purple-ish water. I took a little bit (7 yards) and just plopped it in there, and put it back in the microwave for a few minutes. The color instantly took to this yarn (this is obviously the winner yarn here). I had a solid very light purple red yarn. What would happen if I handpainted some green on it?

I made sure the yarn was very damp, and very gently added small amounts of green to it in sections around the loop. then i spooned a bit more water on it to help dampen it, and put it back in the microwave (without water added, obviously!)

This was that result:

By testing, I learned that it works best for me to get a solid color then try to add others to it, but would that work for a lot more yarn? This third dye is about an ounce, I think. It came as an addition to my 4 oz skein of Condon's. (I'll measure it for sure when it's dry and ready to ball up, so we'll know for sure then)

First I soaked it for about 20 minutes in just warm water, to allow it to get really damp. Be careful not to use too hot water, or to agitate it in hot water, as you'll felt your yarn.

Then i removed the yarn from the water, mixed in some black cherry koolaid (about a tsp) and added the yarn again. The websites all say that it doesn't matter how much water you add, as it doesn't dilute the dye any, it's all about the amount of powder to the amount of yarn. I've been using small amounts because I'm dyeing small amounts, most sites recommend a packet of koolaid per ounce of yarn.

I put my yarn back in the microwave for 2 minutes, then let it sit in the microwave for about 5 minutes, and then repeated the process again. The next time, I took some grape, about half a tsp, and added it only to the part of the water in the middle and mixed it a bit, hoping to get a darker turnout in the middle.  This is the time where I added the grape.

Overall I repeated the microwave process about 4 times (over the commercial breaks of LOST) until the water was clear. All the tutorials say that the water will be clear, and boy was I shocked to see that it was actually clear!

This is the end result:

From what I can tell, the grape didn't really take in the middle, it probably just blended in with the overall coloration.

Now, because I can't be ultimately happy with one gorgeous solid color, I had to take it further. While soaking the yarn in some water, I took two coffee cups and mixed some dye in them, one grape, the other lemonlime.

From my second testing, I remembered the black cherry taking the lemon lime well. So I decided to see how well it'd take it. I put about half a tsp of dye in each cup, and making sure the yarn that wasn't in a cup was really damp, put it back in the microwave for 2 minutes.

After two trips through, I brought it out and covered it with the pyrex dish (that the cups are sitting in) and let the yarn steep a bit. After about 10 minutes, it had soaked up all the green dye (with little result) and was working on the purple dye. I added the rest of my green koolaid (about another half tsp) and put it back in the cup and put the pyrex dish back on top. About 10 minutes later, the water in both cups was almost clear, and I had this:

The green isn't entirely saturated all the way through, but it's a nice representation. The darker end is a bit of a light purple. I'm quite pleased with the end results, and can't wait to try some more!!!

omg squee!

So I can't embed these for some strange reason, but the producers of LOST went on Jimmy Kimmel last night right after the premiere and it rocked.

Pt 1

Pt 2

Knitting Geekery!

X-posted on the Etsy Owls blog, someone on Ravelry showed me one of WineMakersSister's awesome mugs and I just had to blog it! And I added a few other fun things too :)

I LOVE MUSICALS!

I'm such a sucker for a good musical number, I just can't help myself. So I'm going to make a list of my favorites and post them over the next little while. Like this one from the newest How I Met Your Mother. :)