Done!

Just finished the Ravenclaw Scarf I'm sending to Rachel, the winner of the February challenge on Harry Potter Crafts. Modeled by the lovely K:

I love this shot.

I'm quite pleased with it. In the post tomorrow!

Sweet old movies, knitting, and odd books.

When I'm home working on something, knitting, sewing that kind of thing, I like to listen to movies on Netflix. Mostly I listen to the same movies over and over. Old movies or BBC adaptations, that kind of thing. Last week I decided to branch out and I listened to a sweet old movie called "I know where I'm going." Just a little film, but it was nice, especially the second time around.

It was just the thing for finishing the prize for the February Harry Potter Crafts Challenge. It's a first year Ravenclaw scarf in movie colors. I machine knitted it on my Bond Fashion Knitter and I just need to put on the fringe. I used "I love this Yarn!" from Hobby Lobby in Royal Blue and Light grey. I followed the pattern in Charmed Knits for the longer version and it is really long!!! It feels wonderful. I hope Rachel and her daughter like it.

I'm going to make one for K in Ravenclaw Book colors. She has Gryffindor robes and a Ginny skirt, but hey, she's a kid and she doesn't care, so why not. I've actually been toying with the idea of making her robes with interchangeable linings and patches. With Velcro and Duc tape, we could conquer the world.

And I just finished "The Graveyard book" by Neil Gaiman, he also wrote "Coraline" and the Sandman Series. It was wonderful. His style is intriguing. The book is for young readers, but it's detailed and unpredictable and gentle. A person I used to work with tried to get me to read Sandman years ago, but I never got around to it. Might just have to get around to that now.

Linus Connection blanket in Starknuts colors.

My first Granny Square Blanket, almost! I made the 12 inch squares and Jennifer joined them into a blanket. I love the end result!

There's a Parthenon,... in Nashville? Really? Yup.

K, being a huge Percy Jackson fan, wanted to know if there was really a Parthenon in Nashville. Yes indeed there is.

And it is sooooo cool! We didn't know what to expect. We arrived around 10:30, just when a group tour was starting, looked like 6Th graders, maybe 7Th. The tour guide was really great, so we just kinda tagged along. And it was fantastic! Really well done and as authentic as a one can be using concrete and gold leaf. The coolest part are the castings taken from the original Parthenon statues. They were done really well and we were told they were some of the last castings the British Museum allowed to be made from the originals. They tried to accurately recreate the original structure and the Athena statue, which looks nothing like the one in the movie, but very much like the original. Minus the ivory, thank goodness.

K absolutely loved it. We stayed for three hours, and then she wanted to go back after lunch. And there was nothing to do with Percy Jackson, they don't even mention the movie. We asked another wonderful museum docent and she said, yes, the movie was filmed there, last August, but that was it. K was still all excited and walked all around trying to think where Percy and Annabeth might have stood. Fun.

And did I mention, there's an art gallery downstairs. Very cool.

Camp Half-Blood Gear

K and I made some gear for the Percy Jackson and the Olympians premiere.

I love this age because K is old enough to pretty much do whatever she thinks up. So we divided and conquered. I made the t-shirts. I messed up royally on K's but, she loved it, one of the many reasons I love that kid. I used freezer paper and spray t-shirt paint, which is more of a spray dye than a paint, which I didn't know. The watery dye seeped under the freezer paper and spread before I could mop it up and get the paper off. I made the second shirt with t-shirt transfer paper and gave K the choice. She picked the messy one, did I mention I love her.

K made necklaces for herself a couple of friends.

She wasn't exactly sure of the designs. After much deliberation she went with a trident on a black bead for the first year, the bright blue bead has a golden fleece (actually golden sheep, cause fleece was too gross) for the second year, a red bead with a gold maze for the third year, and a sky blue bead with the empire state building in gold for the fourth. She wanted to do Annabeth's necklace, but most of her beads aren't described in the book. So she just added Annabeth's father's class ring, and went with it. Don't tell her it isn't a class ring, she doesn't mind.

She and her friend E wore their gear, complete with silver Riptide's, and baseball caps, to opening night and were the envy of all. Even saw some boys K knew who had brought foil lightening bolts, hidden in their sleeves. They were all so excited.

Of course, K did not love the movie, the little book snob, but a good time was still had.

It's A Pen Valentine! Seriously, it's a Pen!

K is Percy Jackson CRAZY! She's read all the books again and again, it's all she talked about for weeks. And as a true book lover, she hated the movie to the point of planning to write a "strongly worded letter" to the director and writers.

Her whole class has the fever. Her literature class has been studying Mythology for the last two quarters and they are all so interested, their teacher just keeps finding new stuff for them to do. Way to go Mrs. C!

So, not unexpectedly, K wanted Percy Jackson Valentine's. There were, of course, none to be found. So, she got on our (virus infested) PC and designed her own.

The class LOVED them! She said there were screams of "Riptide!" and they all tore the caps off to see if a sword would pop out. They are still tucked in the back pocket of many of her classmates and Riptide is the most popular pen in the class to this day.

How did she put the name on the pen? Address labels! Yup, she printed them and put them on and they looked great! The original file for the card is lost, eaten by a Trojan, but she may redesign it and if she does, I'll post it.

Once you go mac,...

I'm back!

I've been offline about a month due to my computer being possessed by a nasty russian trojan. I was massively infected, it was bad, really bad. I still have a backdoor I don't know how to close. Don't know if I can. I have now given up and bought an imac. Expensive, but hopefully, safe and secure.

The washer, our standing lamp and the window shade in K's bedroom all died the same week as the computer. I fixed the lamp and rigged the shade to kinda work. The new washer and dryer will be delivered Wednesday.

What a month it has been.