The 2 hour handbag

For my Hogwarts swap I was tasked to create a pouch or bag for our Flying class. I've been playing catch up since I joined the swap late, so I've been fiercely trying to get on top of my homework! I've always been a honor student, and there's no stopping me now 8-)

I improvised this pattern, used chunky yarn, and knitted this pouch up. The entire thing was knitted and crocheted from the same strand of working yarn, not once did I break to continue elsewhere, I figured out the best way to seam it up and add the crocheted embellishments plus the crocheted chained straps. I casted on just before the Superbowl yesterday, and finished up by the end of the game. The only part that wasn't in the "2 hour" timeframe was the Golden Snitch emblem on the front, which I just crocheted a circle and then added wings, again improvisation on this. I'm just a beginner at crochet, but I can feel my skills gaining speed. I'm most proud of 2 things for this project 1) That I was able to knit & crochet the entire pouch from one working strand of yarn and 2) That I created something out of crochet that turned out so cute.

I don't have a name for it, and I'll put a pattern up on Ravelry for free if anyone wants it, just let me know 8-)







I hope my Professor Madam Jak likes my homework **crosses fingers**

And onto other fun news, here are some snapshots of my Swallowtail, yes, still on the Budding Lace, I just need to dedicate more time to it, but it is turning out so pretty.





I need to get busy on this, ooh, and guess who I found snoozing beside my bed...



Oops! I disturbed her sleep! Bad Mommy!



Darn, scared her away!



She has a look like she's thinking about what to do, and yep, I did scare her away, "Bright Light" as Gizmo says!

More to come tomorrow 8) Happy Monday!

An interesting day

What did a majority of American's do today? Get ready to either host or attend or simply watch the NFL Superbowl, correct? That's what we planned to do, host to be more specific. My hubby and I planned a little BBQ for the big day, inviting some close friends and family to share with, but our day didn't start that way.

Late Saturday night my hubby's cell phone rang, we weren't in the mood to answer, so we let it go to voicemail. The next morning, about 6:00 a.m., we awoke, and enjoyed our morning relaxing in bed watching Howard Stern shows (yes a guilty pleasure of ours). At about 7:30 a.m., my hubby decided to check his voicemail, but before he could, the phone rang and it wasn't good news. Apparantly, my Mother-in-Law's husband, Ed, died Saturday night. The cause is not known yet, but based off of the description of how he was found and the position his body was in, it appears to be a heart attack or unfortunately drugs. I won't be around the bush, my hubby's Mother, I love her, and we get along like best friends, but she's made her own choices in the last 10 or so years, so it's been not that often we talk to her. We love her dearly, and her husband isn't my husband's Father nor was he ever considered a Step-Father by my hubby. It's a troubled past, but an unfortunate end. We spent a portion of our morning checking on my husband's little sister, she's about 18 years, but slow, so she's special, and visiting with my hubby's Grandma. To make this more unfortunate, his Mother wasn't around to know her husband died, she's at the moment "taking a vacation", which will hopefully end come tomorrow. I think most of us have that part of the family that just seems to have troubles. So that was our morning, by noon, we tried to shrug off the sadness and get ready for our little get together, but amidst all this, all I could think of was "I could never handle losing my husband, he's my life, literally, he's all that I cherish, him and my kids", when things like this happen, it makes you stop and think. I'm so thankful to have to him here with me and I pray that God allows us to be with each other until were 90 years old.

Once things got going for the BBQ, our moods lightened, we had a few drinks that did help, and got into the game. I was rooting for Arizona, because I didn't want Pittsburgh to win a 6th ring, but in the end, Arizona just couldn't hold onto the lead, and Pittsburgh won. It was a rookie defense that needed to hold their ground until the play clock expired, but they didn't and allowed Pittsburgh to score the winning touchdown. A slow starter game, but a good ending one, I did enjoy it regardless of the outcome.

In other swappy news, I received 2 great packages from 2 different spoilers in 2 different swap groups I'm in on Ravelry.

First off, my "Rubberswap Redux" swap, apart of the RR group on Ravelry. This is from AngelaRae, and I love everything in it.







–1lb of fresh 100% Fair Trade coffee from Planet Bean
I love this, and made a fresh brew this morning, very smooth and tasteful!
–1 bottle of real Canadian Maple Syrup
hmm… I’m thinking freshly homemade waffles next weekend!
–1 pure beeswax pinecone
This smells so fresh and is hanging in my office, it’s smells so nice now, it cleans out impurities in the air
–3 packages of Origami papers, for making different fishes, dinosaurs, and animals
My hubby and I already made 2 fishees
–1 bar of handmade soap in the shape of a sheep face?
I love this, smells awesome, AngelaRae can you share the store for this? I’d love to get some more
–1 pair of green earrings
Very pretty
–1 skein of 50% mohair, 50% merino in “disagreen� colorway
Very soft and a very gorgeous disagreen color
–A lovely card with a picture of the oldest church in Guelph
I love the story behind this, it’s a church believed to have a vortex in it that pulls people to Guelph, I love that type of stuff!

I can't thank AngelaRae enough!

Onto my lovely "Love Bites" swap package from the group on Ravelry, this comes from Gherkin who is just an awesome spoiler.

-I received the most luscious fiber, 100% Imported British BFL, this is to die for, a full 6.7 ounces!
-3 cute white knitted sponges
-A cute decorative box
-The cutest knitted Vampire Heart that had a label "Careful he's a biter!", so cute!
-Custom Love Bites Stitch markers, one is heart with a bandaid, soo cute! Gherkin had these custom made by ScaryMerry on Etsy, you'll have to check these out.
-The prettiest and coolest hand made bracelet by Gherkin herself, check out her wonderful Etsy shop
-A knitted/felted Skull keychain, this was so thoughtful of Gherkin knowing that my spoilee from my previous Day of the Dead swap flaked, she knitted/felted me the skull in honor of that swap
-Yummy chocolates & Valentine’s stickers
-And the funnest “pull me� yarn ball with a prize in the middle, can I say the yarn scraps from this ball are so nice, I think I can knit a a small pouch out of it, and inside was 2 cute magnets!
-Ooh and a 50% off coupon for Gherkin’s Bucket.











Such great packages I received, I couldn't be more thankful. I have some other projects I'm working on, I'll share soon. I need to get a bit more headway on before I share, and also I'll need to provide some updates on my Swallowtail, which sadly has been moving slowly because of so many other things I've been working on. But I swear it will get done in order to show off at Stitches!

Hope you all had a good weekend, and now for the grown-up stuff, work 8)... I'll post tomorrow.

Calling all Ghosts!

For my Hogwarts swap...

All ghosts need to be accounted for here at Hogwarts, so I'll try to call all of them out, here we go:

--Nearly Headless Nick, or Sir Nicholas, my favorite
--The Bloody Baron of Slytherin
--Moaning Myrtle of the Girls Bathroom
--The Grey Lady of Raveclaw
--Professor Bins
--Fat Friar of Hufflepuff
--All those attending the Deathparty
--Sir Patrick Delaney Podmore
--The Wailing Widow
--Harry's Parents, they are ghosts technically

I'm sure I left out some, but this is the best list I could put together. Let's see who shows up!

~~Lady Arabella Carmichael of Gryffindor

Arithmancy, what is it?

For my Hogwart's swap....

Arithmancy is another area of magic, specifically revolving around the magical properties of numbers. It is said that the vast numerical charts if calculated correctly can predict the future. This is not only a subject envisioned by J.K. Rowlings but was practiced by Ancient Greeks. The name derives from two greek words, arithmos and manteia. Arithmancy is a very interesting subject, but not one easily learned or easily understood.

Hermione practices Arithmancy, but Harry and Ron don't, and I believe that makes Hermione one of the strongest muggles at Hogwarts. She is one of my favorite characters, one who really appreciates the craft of magic.

For a quick glimpse into Arithmancy, let's see what my name means:

My name is Raquel

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
A B C D E F G H I
J K L M N O P Q R
S T U V W X Y Z

The values of my name are

918353

Add them up to get 29

Add again to get to a value lesser than or equal to 9 11

And again to get 2

So who am I?

This is what 2 means:

Two represents interaction, two-way communication, cooperation, and balance. Twos are imaginative, creative, and sweet natured. Peace, harmony, commitment, loyalty, and fairness are characteristic. But two also introduces the idea of conflict, opposing forces, and the contrasting sides of things: night and day, good and evil. Twos can be withdrawn, moody, self-conscious and indecisive.

I can say that it's a pretty good match on who I am, you tell me? Those of you who know me, the good side 8) hee hee, is this me?

~~Lady Arabella Carmichael of Gryffindor

In a mellow mood

Lately I've been coveting more of the neutral colored yarns, the darks, but with a suttle hint of color. I visited Purlescence Yarns a few days ago, just needing to get a fix of yarnie goodness, and as dependable as can be, they always have such a good deep stock of BMF.

My stash is filled with lace, sock yarns, various amounts of worsted weight yarns, but not much of chunky or thicker yarns. There are a few projects that have caught my eye, and I need the thicker yarns to do it, say like a a litter thicker than your average worsted weight.

One of my little investments was Obsidian from Twisted BMF, it's 560 yds. of pure 100% Merino softness, I fell in love when I saw it.





I can make more than a few things out of this one skein, or hank? What would you call it? I'll have to dig up some of my saved "Planned Projects" patterns to start using this yarn. It will be quick and sweet satsifaction.

Another tidbit I've been just aching to get my hands on is the latest Knit1 mag, since you can't subscribe to the mag you really need to stalk your local carriers, mine being Barnes and Noble or Michael's, but it's very hard to catch one of these left behind there, so Barnes it is for me. Hey, I don't mind, any excuse to go to Barnes for me is a good one, I just love books.

One of my all time favorite designers, he's classic but fresh, simple yet intricate with his designs, is Jared Flood. I read his blog, Brooklyn Tweed, religiously, and he mentioned that he'll have his Relm Tam featured in the latest Knit1. Here's this pretty tam...



I have some gorgeous yarn I picked up last year at Stitches West 2008, it is from a newer yarn provider, East Port Yarns. Their yarn is literally super soft and the colors are so gorgeous reminiscent of the classic victorian era. I'll snap some pics of my EPY stash and show yah. I plan to use one of the skeins to make the Relm Tam.

Ooh, last but not least, one little scrumptous morsel left, I was "enabled" by a fellow RR member on Ravelry to visit this yarnie's site Dude Yarn. I picked up 1 skein of 100% wool in "Sunday Driver Grey" isn't that a cool name?





I'll catch you later, it's mid-week and I'm ready for the end of it. 8-)