Harry Potter House Scarves

In honor of my birthday week, I'd like to talk about something I love - Harry Potter (big surprise).  In November, the penultimate movie was released.  I decided this was an excellent time to try my hand at making some scarves in the style of the latter movies.    It was quite a learning process.  I used a technique that was new to me called tunisian crochet and did some blocking for the first time.  In total, I made 8 scarves - 5 Gryffindor, 2 Ravenclaw, and 1 Syltherin.

I started by buying all the yarn I needed.  My table looked like it vomited Harry Potter Yarn.



I used this pattern to make the scarves.  The pattern calls for an I hook to be used with worsted weight yarn, but I ended up moving up to a J and it was so much easier to work with.  Also, I think on the next round I will try putting the bars a little further apart, maybe 21 main color rows rather than 14.  I finished about 5 and then blocked them all together on the table.  I  use the foam puzzle mats they make for kids' rooms under a towel to block.  It gives me something the stick pins in that will also keep the table dry.



I didn't know it, but cats have a thing for wet wool.  I came home from work the next day and had to shoo Mendel off the table all day.  The last 3 scarves were blocked in my room with the door shut.

After 3 months and almost 3 miles of yarn, I finished all 8 scarves in time for them to be packed and shipped to their recipients before the opening of the 7th movie.



I definitely found some things I didn't love about the pattern and learned a lot about what blocking can do, so I'm looking forward to the next bunch (2 Gryffindor and 4 Ravenclaw), knowing what to expect.

Fibonacci Scarf

I made this scarf for my mom for Christmas.  It's based on the Fibonacci sequence.  It can be done with any number of colors and any weight yarn.

Suggested Supplies:
Cascade 128 Superwash Chunky
A - #1960 Pacific 32 yds
B - #859 Lake Chelan 45 yds
C - #1910 Summer Sky Heather 64 yds
D - #1968 Rainier Heather 96 yds
E - #1948 Mystic Purple 167 yds
J Hook

Abbreviations:
ch - Chain
sts - Stitches
sl - Slip Stitch
dc - Double Crochet

Throughout pattern, ch 3 counts as 1 st

Pattern:
Ch 27
Row 1:  With A, dc in 3rd ch from hook.  dc in each ch across (25 sts)
Row 2:  Join B with sl, ch 3.  dc in each st across (25 sts)
Rows 3 & 4: Repeat row 2 with Color C
Rows 5 - 7: Repeat row 2 with Color D
Rows 8 - 12: Repeat row 2 with Color E
Rows 13 - 20: Repeat row 2 with Color A
Rows 21 - 33:  Repeat row 2 with Color B
Rows 34 - 54:  Repeat row 2 with Color C
Rows 55 - 88:  Repeat row 2 with Color D
Rows 89 - 143:  Repeat row 2 with Color E
Fasten off and weave in ends.

Potato Corn Chowder

I totally lucked out this year.  Mayu split a CSA basket with some friends.  For those of you who don't know, CSA is Community Supported Agriculture.  At the beginning of the planting season, you buy into a farm and each week you pick up your share of the produce at the Farmer's Market.  Even with splitting the basket, Mayu had a ton of veggies.  When she wasn't actually cooking my meals, she was sending me home with yummy produce, including massive quantities of potatoes and some corn.  What better to make than potato corn chowder?  I made it up as I went along, using what I already had in the kitchen.  Here's my recipe:

2 T butter
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup green onions, sliced
3 T flour
2 cups heavy cream
2 cups chicken stock
1 1/2 lbs potatoes, peeled and diced
1/2 cup ham, diced (or cooked, crumbled bacon if you prefer)
3 ears corn, kernels removed
extra milk for thinning, if desired

Saute garlic and green onion in butter until soft.
Add flour and stir until flour starts to color
Add about 1/2 cup cream, stirring constantly until smooth
Add about 1/2 cup chicken stock and bring to a boil, continuing to stir throughout
Add the rest of the cream and just bring to boil
Add remainder of stock, ham, and potatoes, bringing to a boil
Continue to cook until potatoes are done
Add corn and cook a few minutes more
Soup will be chunky and fairly thick.  Add milk to thin if desired.

Makes 4 - 6 servings and freezes pretty well.  I hope y'all enjoy it!

Happy Halloween!

Just a quick note from Mendel and me to say Happy Halloween!  We hope y'all are enjoying the day.  Some of you have seen Mendel's panda costume on Facebook, but here he is again - all angry and cute!  Pattern to come some day when I get it written...

Before:

After:

Random Finished Stuff

Since I'm still trying to get some patterns written for projects I've already finished, I thought I'd take this opportunity to show some of the things I've finished that were designed by other people, mostly.  I'll link to the Ravelry design page or the blog they came from.

Granny Square Earrings (granny squares are the name of a basic crochet motif):




Baby Set:
A friend asked me to make a pumpkin hat for her baby that's coming any day now.  I had some leftover green yarn, so I made the booties and mittens to go along with it.  The hat is my own design and will be posted once i finish writing it ;)



Booties:


Mittens:


Laptop Case:

 

Star Baby Blanket:


And lastly, for this time, Little Owlets:

Yarn Dyeing

I'm really excited about this.  For months I've been seeing pictures on Ravelry of people who dye yarn with everything from Kool-Aid to food coloring and I've really wanted to try it.  I finally decided to do it.  A couple of notes: Ravelry is a sort of social network for yarn crafters - knitters, crocheters, spinners, weavers, and dyers.  There are all kinds of people and companies available for help and information.  I think I spend more time there than anywhere.  One of the groups I joined does monthly Harry Potter based challenges and classes.  Both of these dyeing experiments were for that group.

The first experiment was with wine (the challenge was to use tea, coffee, or wine to dye yarn).  I had a couple of bottles of wine that didn't weather the Summer very well and turned to vinegar (I really need to get a wine cooler for those couple of weeks that get seriously hot).  I didn't want to waste it and it was more than I could cook with in a very long time, so I tried the dyeing.  I used organic cotton yarn and pinot noir.

Ingredients:

Boiling wine + Yarn:

End Results:

I don't really love how it turned out.  I think a wool might have been better and also a wine with a little more color saturation, like a burgandy.  Lessons learned.

The second challenge I dyed for was to dye in a Fall color.  I used turmeric on an angora/bamboo yarn.  This one turned out much better.

Ingredients:

Boiling water + Turmeric + Yarn:

FInished Product with my inspiration (leaves from the tree outside my office):

I really enjoyed the experience and I will definitely be trying some other techniques.

Promises, Promises

Maybe I'm not responsible enough for a blog.  When I started this I was all "Sure, I can make it happen once a week."  You've seen how well that's going...But I'm back with a new plan for productivity and some new ideas and a lot of lessons learned (like pattern writing is hard and it takes a long time).  It's probably going to be pretty yarny for a while, but I hope even the non-yarners will find it fun. I have recipes, finished projects, and patterns to share.  This week there's even going to be some expirmenting! (I'm insanely excited about doing and sharing my results).  So, stay tuned!