Quietish

Done.

Pattern:
Calla
Yarn:
Knit Picks’ CotLin in Moroccan Red, just under 5 balls.
Comments:
Lengthened it by about 3.5 inches, pre-block. What is it with these short and cropped tops? Knit it in the round and only did the cables on the front. Ribbed on the back. Pattern = pretty. Yarn = melikes.

What am I knitting now? At the moment, nothing. I am napping. After that, we’ll see.

I’ve gotten a fair bit of work done on Calla and I expect I’ll have her done sometime this week, especially since Justin is out of town again.

Calla is one of those projects that feel like it’s crawling even though it’s actually probably going pretty fast. With this finish being on the horizon and only having one other thing (simple sock) on the needles, I’ve spent some time wondering what I’ll work on next.

I have the yarn for Justin’s sweater, which I had decided I could put off til the end of Summer or so. I have the yarn for Eunny’s Deep V Vest but don’t particularly feel like working on something I won’t wear til October at the very earliest. I’ve also sort of been itching to start another big lace project. It’s been awhile and I love me some lace.

At the same time, I’m feeling a bit blah about starting anything major just now. It would be nice not to have a work-in-progress hanging over my head. I uploaded some of my completed cross stitch pictures (just the ones with dragons so far) to Flickr the other day to show the Leaky Crafty Witches, which has got me thinking about working on cross stitch things for awhile. Over the last month I have been putting stitches into a Gryffindor crest for the SAL Harry Potter Crafts has going, and I can’t even tell you how long it’s been since I picked up Fortunate Traveler. I’d love to make some headway on those.

I’ll get it figured out.

In the meantime, my WOMBAT score has arrived. I got an E, which is fine. I would be more interested in the scores if the quizzes required more actual knowledge than guesswork and speculation. Justin, however, got a P because he guessed at random through most of it the morning it came out while Mary and I were on our way to MuggleFest.

Staying in tonight to avoid the torrential rain. Sigh.

Random kittenspam for you this morning.

Pic of my fuzzbucket kittenhead, who is growing too fast.

And a vid of her purring.

Enjoy.

I noticed a moment ago that I haven’t updated on my knitting since I finished Parvati. When I finished them, I was down to one sock on the needles and THAT’S IT. Crazy stuff. Here’s that sock now:

I’ve not finalized my name for this pair, but I have distinct leanings. Simple 2×2 rib sock with Scout’s Death Eaters sock yarn.

With the Summer heat terrorizing me, I was inspired to go ahead and knit up some of my summery yarn stash. Here’s Calla, in Knit Picks’ CotLin.

I’ve changed it up a bit and I hope to crank this one out fairly quick so I can actually wear it this season.

“Grab a kitteh.”

or “Can’t talk. Playing new game.”

Like last year, the whole of Wednesday I was to be found at the Norman Library for MuggleFest.

While Kelly couldn’t make it this year (we missed you!), Mary and I got to watch hundreds of people stream through the library to celebrate the Harry Potter series. Always a very good thing. We were glad to help and hope that we contributed in causing the librarians and staff from having their heads exploded in the chaos.

Some of my favorite pics:

Finished socks! Really pretty and time consuming finished socks.

I call these Parvati.

Firstly, because Parvati’s Yule Ball robes were “shocking pink.” Secondly, and this is rather obscure I know, but I always seem to remember the moment in Goblet of Fire when McGonagall made Parvati remove an ornamental butterfly from her hair as they awaited the arrival of the other Triwizard schools. When I first saw the Gothic Spire pattern I saw butterflies within the design and my mind went from there.

Pattern:
Gothic Spire by Cookie A.
Yarn:
Ruby Socks that Rock by Blue Moon Fiber Arts. Leftover from Clapotis.
Comments:
Ditched one of the leg repeats. I’m short and my calves would be half covered by and utterly crammed into socks that long. Pretty though, no?

You know, small thing = cute. However, multiple and similar small things = tooooo cute.

I was distracted this weekend with these, otherwise I would have had my current sock finished. (Pictured below in my late and rather lame webcam sps.)

This morning the cover art for the deluxe edition of Deathly Hallows was debuted on NBC’s Today Show. Click here for article. While I’m excited to have seen it and thrilled with the design, it reminds me that I have intended to post about my plans for the Dealthy Hallows release and my personal spoiler policy.

We’re coming close to the release of both the last book and the new movie.

Many of you that come here are HP fandom folk, but I know that for many of you I’m like THE Harry Potter fan in your life. To be honest, on the days there are HP-related headlines, I get no less than several instant messages and a dozen emails. This of course is natural and I completely understand everyone’s excitement.

As the day of the book release in particular approaches though, I would like to respectfully ask for a little space. As completely dorky as it makes me sound, Harry Potter has been extremely special to me for some years now. I intend to spend the remaining time rereading the prior books yet again and thinking. There is so little time left before canon is done and set and whether it makes sense or not I would like to make sure I don’t miss the opportunity to finish forming my own conclusions about things.

I find myself almost totally uninterested in the theory and debate that is currently happening in the various communities. The most exciting thing about this fandom is that it has been the first one I’ve been involved in where the author in question was still active and writing. The books themselves are so deep and many-layered, but the status of “unfinished” has made the theorizing especially exciting. For now though, I have had my fill. I have felt for awhile like it is not really worth it to me to stress about what’s going to happen to who and why and how. The book is written and whatever happens, it’s going to be excellent and moving. I’d rather relax and enjoy my time with Harry as we know him til we know what happens next.

All that to say: Unless I’ve brought up XYZ HP headline, please assume that I either (a) know about it already or (b) don’t want to know. I haven’t completely decided which types of news I’m going to avoid, but from now until I meet up with Kelly in our undisclosed location to read through DH together I will be moving cautiously. I’d say that I’ll be glad to share my thoughts after the release, but judging by my general (non) response to Half-Blood Prince I can’t promise I’ll be very chatty about it.

Thank you so much in advance for your consideration, and for not laughing at me too much for how totally silly I sound. (Hm, the silliness is probably why I don’t actually talk too much about my love for Harry.)

As typical of any event in which I would like to take lots of photos, I discovered too late that my camera battery was running low. So I took pics of Jamie’s first costume and shut it off until she was dressed for the 2nd act and only when I had pics of that costume did I decide I could probably get some shots of the actual number.

Tap number, the bumblebee getup:

Ballet number, the flowery getup:

Wouldn’t You Like Me For Your Very Own? (Jamie is 2nd from the left.)

Jamie had a really good time. Being a year older really seemed to improve things from last year where we were very angsty about waiting around for so long between dances. The recitals tend to go very long. Shelly and Rebecca are so awesome that they broke away from a knitting shindig in town to come see Jamie’s first number and brought her flowers. She loved them and showed them off when we met daddy and Cian afterwards.

Now to see if the professional pics come out nice :)