Quietish

to Mr. Harry Potter and his author, J. K. Rowling, my favorite celebrities.

Cut for slight spoilerage. Don’t click if you haven’t read.
(more…)

(Under an invisibility cloak.)

Sorry it’s been so long. I’ve needed the quiet time. I may require more, but I will at least be resuming blog posts. (Please, no book spoilers in the comments.)

Stay tuned for a new Potter-inspired knit pattern this week, at the very least.

(SPS info)

One last SPS before Deathly Hallows.

And with that, I shall now sign off and avoid the internet (minus my email that I’m checking carefully and parts of Ravelry… okay, and maybe CuteOverload) until at least a week from now.

See ya!

Birds of a Feather pattern

So I made a doll quilt, and took my time getting the binding on it.

Now that I look at it, I should say that it is made up of fabrics that Julie sent to me in a fit of get-rid-of-everything. I love them and when I came across them while rifling around in the closet I just had a sudden urge to make something.

Why a doll quilt? Well I don’t think I’m really all that much of a quilter, but sometimes have the urge to make something. I’m not really into potholders or place mats, but the small size is ideal for someone like me who would not usually devote weeks or months to a quilting project.

The online crafting community has recently seemed to explode with doll quilts. A quick search through my bookmarks shows plenty of inspiration:
Hillary Lang’s quilts
doll quilt swap on Flickr
doll quilt CrAzY on Flickr
memewatch: doll quilts - Whip Up

Fun! After all the HP craziness has passed and once my current projects have either been finished, I’m thinking I might like to play around with applique. Wheee!

As a bonus, here’s what happens if I don’t pick up my posterboard backdrop directly after I use it.

Yay for scrap denim!

There was a time that I’d save all of my/our old jeans in case I had a use for them. At some point I went so far as to cut out a bazillion 5 inch squares for a scrappy blanket. I never finished it though and eventually tossed the 8 tons of squares and scraps.

It helps to have something you can start and finish quickly so there is actually a finished object and little waste.

Today I probably should work a little on something that is in danger of becoming a unfinished object (UFO) if I don’t get past my frustration and learn to do binding neatly. As opposed to Rosemary-typical, half-assed, slapped-on binding, which makes the project as wasteful as a UFO.

One final point: I have not exactly been thrilled with my webhost for the 3.5 years I’ve been with them, but they have redeemed themselves a bit this week. When the Yarn Harlot randomly links to your site and it doesn’t blow up from the massive amounts of people opening your “closet door,” you know your host is pretty good afterall.

My whole weekend, yesterday, and today, have been full of completely random things to keep me occupied. I can detect no clear theme. I haven’t yet managed to complete the little project I was working on with Luna (heh, right) but got busy with a few other things.

First, I dug out Fortunate Traveler and pulled it out of the Q-Snaps it has been unwisely confined to for months and months. It is spending some time relaxing and I plan to make that my project for the evenings indefinitely. Here’s a pic, because it’s actually had some change since the last pic I posted.

Hopefully this means I’ll have some interesting content for my cross stitching friends, if any indeed have stuck around. I’ve been a neglectful and boring stitcher, it’s true. Well here, I’ll show you my little stitched Gryffindor crest to help make up for it.

I got the pattern from the Harry Potter Crafts yahoo group, where they are still currently holding a bit of a stitchalong.

By the way, have you noticed that it’s July? This means that we have LESS THAN 3 WEEKS ’til the release of Deathly Hallows, and even less time ’til the release of the Order of the Phoenix movie. As scary as that thought is, I’d like to point out that there is still time to do a little HP crafting. Please check out the above-mentioned yahoo group, as it is a great place for ideas, encouragement, and fun chat. Don’t forget the Leaky Crafts section for ideas, or the Crafts forum on the Leaky Lounge either. Eeeeeee, Harry!

In a spectacular show of just how short my useful but unstable ability to knit one thing at a time lasts, I managed to cast on 2 shawls. One is very simple and is out of my cone of Gourmet Yarn laceweight (no pic yet, it really is very plain and simple.) The other is for the Mystery Stole 3 knitalong.

I am still snickering every time I think about having cast on the Mystery Stole because up until Sunday I hadn’t once given it a thought. I wasn’t planning on starting anything new for awhile, you see. But then I came across someone’s progress picture on Ravelry, which led me to look at about 100 other progress pictures (side note: Mystery Stole 3 has surpassed Monkey has the top pattern there. Amazing), and before I knew what I was doing it was the wee hours of Monday morning and I was casting on the first “clue.” I’ve finished that part and now await Friday morning and the second clue. (Psst, you can sign up for that yahoo list until the 6th)

Ok, that’s enough for now. I’m off to find something to do with myself. I’m sure inspiration will randomly strike.

I may have a little craftiness to show off tomorrowish. But just a little, don’t get too excited.