The Same Old NEW About Me for HSKS 13

Copied and pasted from last year with a few changes. I'm a creature of habit! :)

The Crafty Things:

Craft: I both knit and crochet. I also kool aid dye. I'm also learning to spin on a little bitty toy wheel spindle.

Fiber: I have no wool allergies, but prefer to avoid the itchier wools, and haven't ever really gotten around too many other animal fibers, like angora or mohair, etc, for fear of allergies. My favorite is merino wool, because it's generally pretty soft and fluffy. :)  I'm also not into felting at all, but I am a learning spinner, so roving in small quantities would be appreciated.

Brand: I'm pretty easy. I like everything from the pretty cheaper stuff (I love Wool Ease and Patons Classic Wool, for example) to Kureyon and so on. I also recently discovered I have a love affair with Moda Dea's Tweedle Dee, which of course is discontinued.  Some yarns I've really been wanting to try are Cascade 220 Wool, Mission Falls Wool (I love their cotton!), anything by Koigu (because they look so gorgeous!), and Fisherman's Wool by Lion Brand. I've also discovered several yarns that are trying to be like Noro Kureyon, with the radical color changes (Bernat's mosaic, for example) I'm open to lots of yarn options, and of course, I love Knit Picks! Who doesn't?

Weight: I love the bulky, chunky yarns. But I love all yarn! (Well, except lace weight, because my HPKCHC OWL is lace weight and I'd rather not look at it anymore...)

Color:  I really love greens and purples. I tend to like the darker parts of the spectrum in both those colors (sage, olive green, etc) but like the lighter ones too. I'm also pretty fond of burnt-orange, brown, and blue (like medium blue). There aren't many colors I don't like, except pink. Hogwarts colors wise, I'm a true Slytherin at heart. :)

Needles: I always want needles! The main thing I can think I need is a set of tips for my Knit Picks Zephyrs, size 5. I have plenty of cables and I think needles in other sizes too...My Needles Library on Rav's needs to be updated!  My small needle area's pretty lacking even now...I have a size 1 sock needle and that's about it until I get above 3. I prefer circs to dpns (magic loop all the way!) and anything I might receive would be awesome. :) Also, I would love to try a crochet hook bigger than a Q. I think they make an S. :)

Types of Patterns: I have a bit of a sock phobia after I spent forever making my first pair (Skew) only to accidentally felt them in my shoes! So I'm on hold for making more socks, but next is going to be Helix.  I enjoy making amigurumi, scarves, gloves, hats, you name it! :) I love knitting magazines!  I have started a Queue Wishlist. My favorites are a dangerous place to browse for ideas because it's a disorganized mess! I'll work on that. :) I have yet to try anything at all by Stephen West and it's a crying shame. His shawls are gorgeous! (I also think I'm becoming a small shawl addict...)

Snacks: I love Dark Chocolate (but I like my chocolate without nuts in it!). I also love mint, so anything with Dark Chocolate + Mint = Win. I don't like peanut butter mixed with chocolate. I also like Wonka stuff like Gobstoppers, Runts, Nerds, etc... all that bad for you candy, and Sour Patch kids and those neon sour worms...yum....I also like coffee (just about anything coffee or coffee flavored), love the little instant mix "coffee" drinks (like lattes and such) hot chocolate (yum!) and tea (any kind of tea, but i especially like fruit related teas!). I've also been living off of the Maxwell House International Cafe line. Literally living at this point...

Other Small Things I like:

1. Big Buttons for cowls or scarves. Like quarter sized or bigger, and as wild and crazy as you please!
2. Soak Wash! I love the stuff, I've only tried a few samples that Soak sent me, but so far I love every scent and would love to have some more! I don't have a local yarn shop to get it at. Even little samples would be more than awesome!
3. Little notebooks for note taking, I can't ever get enough of those!
4. Tiny lotions or liquid bath soaps, things like Bath & Body Works, Burts Bees, etc. I love Cucumber Melon and Pomegranate anything. :) 
5. Lip balms, because I can't ever get enough of that stuff either

Allergies:  Wools are fine, but I might possibly have allergies to other animal fibers like mohair, etc, so I tend to avoid those in large percentages. (though I think a small % blend would be fine). Cigarettes, though unless someone smokes right into my package I'd probably be okay. Floral scents in things like candles and lotions tend to make me sneeze like mad. And potpourri too. Ick, I really don't like potpourri. I have no food allergies except the pepper family makes me sneeze. So don't mail me pepper and we'll be all right.

Wishlists: I have a small but growing Amazon list. 

It is current as of right now, so anything on it would be fair game.

Hope this helps!

The Kits, Part 2

I sent a kit to Daisymum, and she put up an awesome blog about it, here. (click that because its full of her squeeing and being cute in the hat i made)

But, I did take kit pictures, so I thought why not put them up? :)

My first ever stitch markers, two sets of five, knitted into a little swatch of handdyed (by me) sock yarn. 

 The goodies: the markers with some crochet fingerless gloves, a knitted hat (Turn A Square), and 2 skeins of Lace weight Forest Heather Knit Picks yarn. She loves shawls, so I'm hoping she can make a nice one with this.

 And the extras: I got loads of sweet stuff, since she's got a few little boys, I asked what they'd like, and went from there. I got her my favorite HP book (well, one of my favorites, its kind of a tie between POA and the last two), and found the other book (a non-HP canon Manual for New Wizards, totally cute!) by accident. I included a few postcards (you know, nice castle-type reminder of Hogwarts?), a notepad & some little playing cards, and a scented candle. I think that was all of it...

The Kits Arrived!

My time in HSKS 12 is complete, as my kit I sent has been received, and I just got my fab kit from Helena Lovegood (loverofallemo) today. I opened the box to find a basilisk (!!!) coiled in the top of it. Since I'm a Slytherin, of course I didn't panic, I just spoke to it in Parseltongue and told it not to be afraid, and of course everything went just fine. We're already like BFFs. :D

 

It seemed highly keen on protecting this striped package, which (duh) contained a journal, so of course it wanted to protect it! It seems even modern day versions of basilisks have an inexplicable desire to protect journals. This one (at least at this time) seems like a regular book and seems to contain no memories of any Dark Lords...

 After digging further down into the box, I realized the craft portion of the kit holds true to the HSKS tradition, she sent me a sock kit! Which is perfect, because I've never made socks before, and we're talking about doing an HSKS KAL after the new year, so now I'm ready! She also included a pattern for what looks like some beginner friendly socks that I'll definitely try, and a set of size 2 dpns. The yarn she got in a striking resemblance to Ron's family colors, so I think I'll have me some Muddle-Headed Socks in my future! So excited!

 Last but most certainly not least, all of the goodies. There's Goldfish (which I LOVE with an unhealthy obsession), a fruit tea sampler (that has some of my favorite teas in it so YAY!), Andes Mints (which ROCK), some yummy looking hot chocolate, pens to go with the journal & the DPNs previously mentioned.

A gloriously fantastic kit! And Helena Lovegood rocks! :)

(I'll post the kit I sent out in another post)

I'll See You All in 6 Weeks...

When I finally get over this!




If you don't recognize who that is singing, that's Darren Criss, from A Very Potter Musical. I'm totally obsessed with this clip now.

My Ability to Blog...

Sucks like woah.

I have just enough time to sneak in an update on my kit.

I'm fairly certain that I have all of the extras for my kit sitting here ready to go (I'm missing one thing that I know what it is, but I haven't bought it yet. I was hoping to have different options for it, so I will be getting it the lastest of minutes... :D )

The handmade items are slow moving, but are in progress, and will be ready to go when the kit is. I'm planning on swinging by the family blog in a few days when I have more time to post a photo update. 

Fall! It's here!

After an overwhelmingly hot summer (and really, spring while we're at it!) I never thought we'd ever see cooler weather. But somehow fall has managed to sneak up on us. It's cold enough outside right now (at 11:00 PM) to wear a sweater, which is awesome! I've been sleeping with the windows open at night, it's so amazingly awesome.

I'm moving right along with my slow kit progress. Something arrived in the mail yesterday for it, and something else is on its way. I also did some small shopping for it tonight. There are things! In a pile! (It's an exciting day, let me tell you. :D)

Always thinking...

I'm still in the planning stages of the package I'm sending out to daisymum this time. Of course, I can't really say any of that here, but I do have a plan! BWAHAHAHAHA!

Okay, just had to get that out of my system.

One thing that's fun for this particular kit is this is the first time that I've ever built a kit during the holiday season, and the stores are starting to get all sorts of neat little things that just scream KIT! So it's going to be hard to pick and choose. 

And I'm pretty sure I have the handmade items narrowed down, I just have to finalize it and get to crafting! Bwahahaha!

(I've really got to stop doing that)