So like I mentioned on Thursday, I went to the midnight premiere of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollow Part One. I went with a huge group of friends and arrived at the theater three hours early (it’s a small theater so there was no one else there really until like, 45 minutes before midnight) and it was super fun. I dressed up sort of as a Slytherin:


(Image by Caitlin Murphy)

Sweater dress, tights, pumps. I also drew myself a dark mark tattoo:


(sorry for the crappy phone photo).

The premiere was tons of fun, and a bunch of my friends dressed up too:


(Image by Caitlin Murphy)

Okay, this is muchly the fencing and renaissance clubs, neither of which I am a part of, but many of my friends are. So yay.

Anyway, my thoughts on the film, let me show you them (spoilers ahead, obviously).

I liked the movie a lot, but this is mostly because I’ve only seen it once, so my reactions are more like, “It’s things from the book! They’re on the screen! Squee!”. I have to see it again to really judge it thought. I think the direction could have been better (it was very artsy), and it’s annoying that they split the book into two films but still left a TON of important stuff out. And they had time to add in the whole Deathly Hollows story but not to mention A that Xenophillius’s necklace was also Grindewald’s sign and B, who the hell Grindewald was. As a Harry Potter fan and someone who’s read the books, I liked the film, but if you don’t already know what’s going on, you’re going to be totally lost and not have any idea who anyone is (for example who the hell Bill Weasley is) or how they connect (certainly they’ve played down the Harry has his mother’s eyes thing which is important to Snape’s redemption).

So how bout you guys? What were your thoughts on the film?

Sneaking in a picture-less post under the wire to accomplish another day of NaBloPoMo.

Today was spent at the Manassas/Prince William County Fairgrounds for the Holiday Fair. There were lots of people dressed up in Renaissance garb (I was basically the only one NOT in garb; I was wearing jeans and a long sleeved shirt), tons of vendors, and lots of lovely things to buy.

I was pleased that there were several fibery vendors, including Unplanned Peacock. They had a TON of yarn (almost all of which was basically out of my price range). I splurged on a nice skein of sock yarn (pictures tomorrow).

At a different both, I bought a hank of really nice alpaca yarn (sport weight two-ply for FIVE DOLLARS) and at another booth, I bought two silk caps to spin. I’ve never spun silk before so it should be… an experience. I also bought a floofy skirt and some knee socks (pictures of all these tomorrow, as I said).

I also got basically a bajillion orders for shark mittens over the last couple of days, so I’ll be knitting them until I die.

FINALLY, here’s a post for the second of three (the Aviatrix hat and Cloud Bolero) items for OliviaGoddess on Ravelry.

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Pattern: Improvisation
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran
Needles: US 7/4.5 mm, two at a time magic loop
Mods: None.

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So these are cute little mitts and they’re REALLY stretchy. The yarn is soft and I am a little sad I don’t get to keep them, but a pair of fingerless gloves are on my list of things to make for myself when I get the chance. There’s not really a whole lot to say about the mitts, other than you might want to knit more than an inch before knitting back and forth for the thumb hole. Also I prefer gusseted thumbs. And thumb covering bits (you know, instead of just a hole).

But let me talk about these photos. It gets dark so early that I haven’t had time while it’s still light out to wrangle my boyfriend into taking pictures for me. Fed up with it, I finally just did it myself.

But you’ll notice how I have both hands in the pictures. I didn’t use a timer (which possibly would have been easier). I didn’t use my chin. I put the camera on the table, put my hands on the table in front of the camera, then swung my leg up on the table and pressed the shutter with my toe.

Never let it be said I’m not flexible.

So… I forgot to blog yesterday. Bad NaBloPoMo participant. Oh well. One of these days I’ll do two posts to make up for yesterday. But not today because it’s already after four and I have plans tonight. What plans, you ask?

HARRY POTTER PREMIERE, OF COURSE.

That’s right, folks, I’m going to the premiere of the seventh Harry Potter movie because I am completely obsessed with Harry Potter. I’m sort of dressing up (I’ll be Slytherin-themed with a grey and green striped sweater dress and black tights) and I’ll be drawing a dark mark on my arm. Hopefully I’ll have some pictures of other people’s costumes for tomorrow. : )

As for the WIP:

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It’s the Cloud Bolero for a WWFY swap. I think I’ll be casting off soon, but I have to make sure it’s long enough for the recipient’s daughter. I also finished the mitten part of a pair of shark mittens (still need to do mouths and fins). That’s the first of three pairs that were ordered from my Etsy shop the other day. One of them will be in acrylic though, which my brother is sending me from home since I don’t have any grey acrylic yarn here at school.

Is anyone else going to see Harry Potter tonight? Are you dressing up? Tell me in the comments! (No, really, I’m interested. I love people who dress up for movie premieres.)

Before I go into today’s subject matter, I just want to note that my shark mittens were featured on the Meet Me at Mike’s blog! And I’m super chuffed about it. : )

Anyway, so I got the yarn yesterday for another WWFY swap that I am super excited about. I’m knitting for Stuffycat, and she sent six skeins of Bugga:

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The brown that’s partially balled will be made into Cookie A’s Monkey socks and the other two will be made into Kitty Hawk, a steampunk-errific set of mitts and a hat.

In return, I received the following three skeins of yarn:

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And I already know what I’m going to knit with them. The blue will be made into Viper Pilots and the other two are for my own set of Kitty Hawk mitts and hat. Yay!

I have a bunch of other things I have to knit before I can start any of these (including THREE PAIRS of shark mittens I got orders for yesterday), but I can’t wait to be able to knit with the Bugga. It’s super soft and lovely. And now I have three!

I recently participated in a frugal themed swap–saving money through resuable items. I received my package from my partner today, and it was full of wonderful things:

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She sent me a great laptop sleeve, yarn made from t-shirts (which I’ll probably crochet into a rug), a bunch of cloth napkins, and some nommy bath stuff:

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Some sugar scrub, a soap, and a tub of chapstick, which I love and is fantastic. I have a serious addiction to chapstick, and this one is peppermint flavored and it makes my lips tingly. : )

I sent my swap package out this morning, so after my partner receives, I can show what I sent. And I still have to take pictures of the Improvisation Mitts, which I hope to do tomorrow.

Another NaBloPoMo day accomplished.

As I mentioned yesterday, last night I attended a Masquerade ball. Every year the Renaissance Club and the Fencers put on Masquerade and everyone dresses up in costumes and masks and dances. I’m in neither of those clubs, but most of my friends are, so my boyfriend and I attended. It’s great fun and I had a blast last night.

I made my own mask shortly before the dance and I helped my boyfriend make his. I made a template out of paper, traced it onto cardboard and cut it out with an X-acto knife. Here’s mine:

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It’s covered in leather and decorated from there. Lace trim from a thrifted shawl/lace handkerchief (or something; it was at the Goodwill outlet), a couple of beads glued to the corners of the eyes and a butterfly that used to be attached to a bobby pin I never wore. I love how it came out. : )

Here’s the one Joe wore:

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Same deal, cardboard covered with leather. The design was his idea–crossed ribbon and a shank button with the shank snipped off.

Anyway, yeah, it was tons of fun. I do love an excuse to dress up. : )

So… the day got away from me and I didn’t get a chance to snap any pictures of the thing I finished knitting yesterday or the things I was working on today. I’m heading out to a party in a little bit so I don’t have time now (and it’s dark anyway), so today marks NaBloPoMo day number one with no pictures. I did make it all the way to day thirteen though, so go me!

The party I am going to tonight is a masquerade ball, which means I had to make a masquerade mask. I was going to knit it but time got away from me, so I made it out of cardboard and leather. I want to show it off (as well as the one I helped my boyfriend make), but I’ll do it when there’s more light (tomorrow probably).

Coming up this week will be FO posts about a couple of little things, WIP posts about a new WWFY swap (for some really awesome thing), and SOMETIME this month I want to do a tut on grafting in pattern (which I figured out how to do from grafting the cabled top of my Red Riding Hood cape). I haven’t seen a tut like this around (I know, I was looking for one), so I’m hoping when I get it up, it’ll be a pretty valuable resource.

Til then, cheers!

I currently have two wips in progress for a WWFY trade. As I mentioned before, the trade was for three items. I finished the Aviatrix hat, which I showed you the other day. I started the second item yesterday:

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A Cloud Bolero in Claudia Handpainted Chunky. Unfortunately, the yarn sent wasn’t quite enough–I am about three rows after the sleeve bind off with no more yarn. Fortunately, OliviaGoddess is sending a coordinating yarn to finish the bolero with.

I just today started the third item, a pair of Improvisation fingerless mittens:

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I’m using Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran and knitting them two at a time. I split the ball in two using my wonderful new scale. : ) Yay.

I finished another thing today. A pair of baby shark mittens for an Etsy customer:

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Pattern: Deep Blue Sea, my shark mittens pattern
Yarn: Cascade Ecological Wool and Vally Northampton
Needles: US 6/4 mm

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They’re tiny and adorable and took like five minutes to knit. I love shark mittens, especially baby ones.

In other news, I’m considering listing custom dino mittens on my Etsy. I only have one skein of green Lamb’s Pride, so I can only do like two pairs before I have to order more, but does anyone think there’d be interest? I know the dino mitts pattern has sold a lot less well than the sharks, but there’s no harm in listing the mittens I guess.

In other news: Another NaBloPoMo post accomplished.