Starting off strong

Defense Against the Dark Arts is my theme this term. So, again on January 1, I managed to whip up a little bamboo Trick Hat. It's Crystal Palace's Wee Bamboozle Bag done with an extra long i-cord tie - which, if knotted in a bow, turns the whole thing into a cloche.

Here's the hat part:




Here's the bag part, and, as you can see, the cord is shoulder-bag length. It'll work as a tiny project bag. (Circular needles only, though. DPNs would go right through it, and it needs to be stretchy to be worn as a hat, so I can't really line it!

So, 25 points for Slytherin so far. And I've figured out Quidditch (good for at least another 225), turned in my OWL proposal (Woohoo!), and should have my BROOM proposal in by the end of the week. And, hopefully, a few more classes!!

Hurricane "aftermath"

How to knit through a hurricane in Three Easy Steps.

1. First, the last thing you should do right before the rain starts is get some yarn. The quantity is up to you, but it should, more or less, match the amount of storm you're expecting.


2. Then, knit it up during the storm. It helps if there's some sort of cool pattern... er...


... um, okay, some sort of cool VISIBLE pattern in it. It also helps if it is....


3. Wearable in more than one way. Here, we have a lovely neckwarmer, or ...


... headscarf!


And yes, I only knitted during Irene, which (for us) wasn't very long, but I only had 93 yards of bamboo. I think I called it just about right!

Children require space, I'm told.

For those who envy my computer room *and* craft room... we're able to have these luxuries by not having any children that need space. (From what I've heard, children require space 'of their own' and things like food, clothing, playthings and other not-yarn items.) If we suddenly developed "children", my craft room would be history. (We'd need the computer at home to keep me sane.)

Back to yarn: About that headscarf... yeah, the one I accidentally started during last Thursday's "Yarn on Thursday" bamboo-fest. Here it is last week, with George:


I was a bit distressed, after my glowing review last Thursday, to discover that, after about 1/3 of a scarf (I think, it might be less), the tips of my lovely bamboo needles have been dyed blue. This is distressing mostly because (a) this isn't the way I want to turn my hair blue and (b) these are the needles I use to knit up my TKGA class stuff. Needless (or needleless) to say, I was a mite miffed. Wendy Johnson thought Murphy's Oil Soap might remove the dye, so I'm going to try that once the headscarf is done. When I block it (yep, we're gonna find out if bamboo blocks at all!), There will be a light layer of toweling betwixt the scarf and my little makeshift blocking board - because that has to survive for more TKGA class stuff, as well.


There's the scarf as of Monday - and you can see the blue stain on the needles pretty clearly. *Sigh*

On the other hand, I'm totally loving the way the pattern is working out, and it will be available as soon as I get the Final Pretty Pictures up and running. (I'm flirting with the idea of a free Ravelry download. Just for cred. Thankfully, the pattern is easy enough that I'm pretty sure I can write it correctly right out of the gate.)

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