Just signed up for the new term

Very excited. I signed up for HSKS 12 term. I'll learn all about Horcruxes this year.

I can't wait for the term to begin.

Ginger, the owl, flew up with my kit!

Yes it is finally here! My lovely Sirius Black kit from Megaera Black. Thank you so much for these lovely things! As you can see above, some of the items were sent through the Floo Network.

When I opened the box, it was so full of packages, I just couldn't count them all!

And here is all the loot unwrapped! What a haul! Here is a list of everything in the photo:

2 Balls of Nightfall Cotlin, 2 balls of Cedar Cotlin

2 Balls of Coto Canapone (Cotton/Hemp blend)

Sock Monkey

Book with photo of Sirius Black's motorcycle. Yes! The same bike that Hagrid borrowed to fly Harry Potter around.

Sirius Black Tumbler

2 Hand made cloths with paw prints on them

Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's Knitting Rules

KnitPicks Crochet Hook Set

Pattern Book Magnets

Instant Honey Ginger drink--yummy!

Cute pen

The most wondeful smelling Oriental Citrus moisturizing cream

Pattern for an adorable Pete, the puppy boy. This came in a neat envelope that can be reused yay!

And last, I will mention that the 2 balls of Cedar Cotlin is really a magic ball of Cedar that contains lots of goodies!! I'll get to the list of all the surprises my magic ball contained in a moment. Now for more photos!

These are the handmade items: Sock Monkey, 2 paw print cloths, Sirius Black motorcycle book, and of course Sirius Black Tumbler! Can't go anywhere without that!

This is all my yarn! Oh I love this yarn!

And here is my magic yarn ball. Now what in the world could be in here??

There were two stitch markers: Hope, Believe; Mini-sock blocker; strawberry sundae lip balm; a man ready to parachute; Some pretty variegated yarn for perhaps amigurumi embellishments; more honey ginger drink; a row counting bracelet; decorated hair pins; a neat tool for stuffing amigurumi (I had never even seen one of these before, how neat!); eyes for my puppy amigurumi; Emergency floo powder (also looks like I can use what is in the floo powder jar as crochet stitch markers!); a pendant that says: Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus (part of the Hogwarts shield I believe--Don't tickle sleeping dragons! A good warning for Hogwart's students); a Ravelry Bob lapel pin; a cute button with a girl holding her hand out for a dove to land on.

Whew that was lots of items! A wonderful Sirius Black kit! Thank you so much! This has been a really wonderful, and fun swap.

Embroidering my own designs

I've been downloading different software to use to make my own embroidery designs. I finally settled on one. These are the first attempts I made using a photo to embroider and some of my husband's art to embroider. I know there are flaws, but that means I know what I need to learn. And sadly, my thread palette is really small at the moment. I hope to change that slowly over time.

This is a robot my husband drew. There is a slight problem with the mouth. After I stitched this up, I learned how to change the order in which it stitches things, and I'm pretty sure that will help on my next attempt.

This is my dog! She doesn't really have maroon ears of course, but I used that as part of the shadow colors since my thread palette is kind of limited right now.

I really really love my new embroidery/sewing machine! I'm going to make some patches of my parrots to sew on various things as well.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Go go Gryffindor!!! We won the Quidditch match against Slytherin today. I was the Keeper for Gryffindor, but could not show up on time. I cast a Keeper Charm over the pitch and miraculously no goals were scored even though I was not there. The snitch was found before I arrived. I was a little sad that I missed the game, glad that we won, and happy that my Keeper Charm worked so well!

NEW sewing/embroidery machine!!!

OMG So excited. I got a Baby Lock Ellure Plus!

These are the first couple of designs I did. I cannot post the cute item I made today because it still has to go to Dragonsinger, but it is really cute!

Arithmancy Homework

Arithmancy homework this week was to complete three sudoku puzzles to discover the letters of a word scramble. I love sudoku. The sudoku didn't give me any trouble, but to be honest, Puzzle 2 word scramble did. *hanging head in shame* It was so obvious once I worked it out.

Puzzle 1 Letters: oydbb

Puzzle 1 = Dobby

Puzzle 2 Letters: ratrhoytepr

Puzzle 2 = Harry Potter

Puzzle 3 Letters: gdsehoha

Puzzle 3 = Hogs Head

A perfect kit for Dragonsinger

Well I finally sat down and thought out all the finishing touches I want to do for the kit for Dragonsinger. I'm going to go out hopefully on Tuesday and buy the last couple little extras I need. I have an order in for the yarn. It should arrive soon. And I'm spending today and tomorrow finishing up the handmade gift. I think it is going to be cute! At least I hope so.

As far as patterns are concerned. I'm very happy with my choice and I think Dragonsinger will like it as well.

In less than 2 weeks a little owl should be windings its way to Rowan Dragonsinger's house!

No homework. Catching up on crafts

Well since there is no homework this week. I've been trying to catchup on my crafts.

The first thing I finished was the shawl I was making my mom for Mother's day. It came out really pretty. I'm pretty sure I'll do this pattern again. Tunisian crochet was a change of pace and pretty fun. Though not as fast (for me anyway) as regular crochet, it is still faster for me than knitting.

Here is a close up of both front and back sides. This is before blocking.

I do love knitting even though I'm sort of slow at it. I am working on squares for a Lapghan. I have a Piecework magazine that has a Barbara Walker square that I want to try. That meant I needed to finish the last Barbara Walker square I was working on. The square is called Pavilion, and is from the 2nd Treasury of Knitting Patterns. I still have to bind off, but then the square is done and I can move on to the square in my Piecework Magazine.

For my third excursion this week, I was determined to finish a tiny tatted motif which for one reason or another has been daunting me for weeks. Every time I sat down to work on it, I would invariably do something wrong and have to untat, and then my time was up and I'd be off doing something else. I was determined to finish, and finish I did!

I'm working on 25 tatted motifs for the year. I was ahead early on, and slacked off. Now after this daunting little celtic cross from Tatting Collage by Lindsay, I'm behind 2 motifs. Have to hurry hurry. Don't get me wrong, the patterns in Tatting Collage all look easy, it was just the universe conspiring against me for this little piece.

And after finishing my tatted piece, I really wanted to work on some fun crochet. I just received a book called Creating Crochet Fabric, by Dora Ohrenstein. There are some fun looking fabrics in there. A few caught my eye. I think I would like to make some drapes or at least a valance out of some of her fun fabrics. But the piece that I sat down and thought would give me quick crochet satisfaction was a photo she labeled "Traditional Lacework Motifs." I searched the book front to back, and discovered she did not have the pattern. So I decided I would try to work out the pattern on my own. I ran into some troubles on the last round. I kept having to do single crochet around one spot everytime I ran across it. I think I must have covered that area about 3 times with 6sc. Oh well. It is a first attempt and it was late at night. I'll think of something else for the final row next time.