Potterversely, here's a swap spoiler or two!

No peeking Feline!

Well, my familial orders to 'take it easy' means that I've been spending alot of time reading (hurray for book swap sites!), crafting and watching my film collection (the weather's rubbish at the moment, I think we've had our summer, grrr). My current Craftster HP swap partner Feline, is a Gryffindor and I had the perfect House colours in my stash to make this set of House winter apparel. I love making corkscrew scarves, so I just had to crochet this for her. It's long enough to wrap round the neck too and has cute tassels on the ends for a touch of glamour. The yarn is a chunky kind so it should be nice and warm for the harsh Hogwarts winters.

No winter collection is complete without a nice warm hat, so I made this one to go with the scarf. Inspired by Fred and George Weasley, it's loosely based on the Boy Beanie (from the Happy Hooker), but designed to be a little bigger and longer so that you could fold the brim up. I added the contrasting house colour stripe in reverse so that when it was folded up, the stripe would be the right way round.

The wizarding world seems to favour pompoms (well, the Weasleys seem to anyway), so I made a cute pompom for the top. I danced around in it for a few minutes when I'd finished it and on my way to the fridge for a drink, M raised an eyebrow and asked me if I was wearing it because I was cold, or because I'd just finished it! His next question was whether it was for me, or for a swap. I guess he knows me too well!

As I was on a yarn roll by this time, and the cheesy sci-fi film I was watching hadn't finished yet, I busted out the flower loom and created this brooch to match the hat and scarf combo. I've had a round flower loom and a square loom for absolutely ages, but I've not really played with them yet, so I was really pleased at the chance to experiment, and I love how it turned out! I was lucky enough to find a button in my *ahem* considerable button stash that was not only the right colour, but also this very cute flower design that went with the flower theme perfectly. Hurray!! I know my swap partner is not a knitter or crocheter, so hopefully she'll appreciate everything. I think it's so nice to get gifts that you can't make for yourself!

My adventures with Fimo continue. I did make another Bic wand, but I brushed it with some mystery copper powder that I have, that I sort of know is for varnishing (I was given it, so I'm not 100% sure what it is) and the next morning I got up and went to put it in the oven, and the fimo had cracked and I hadn't even baked it yet! It looks like the powder contains some sort of chemical that had reacted with the Fimo because it's covered in a sort of sticky residue. I think the project has been cursed *lol* I also made these lentil (shape, not pulse) beads which will eventually become a bracelet (I hope); they're not fired yet, but I'll have another go at the wand pens and fire them all together then. 

I claimed Urvi in India for some yoga socks in the OWS swap over on Craftster, mainly because I've wanted to try this pattern for myself for a while, and I thought this might get my arse into gear! She wanted a dark colour, so I started with this rich chocolate brown; most people seem to like brown at the moment, so I thought it was a safe bet. I've finished them now, but it doesn't seem like much, so I'm just about to start a second pair for her in a navy blue. I know I still need to weave the ends in, but I'll do that all together. I may fiddle with the pattern a little bit because you cast on 42 stitches, the first few rows are in a k1p1 rib, and then you switch to a k2p2 rib, which means that at the join, you end up with a rib band of k4. I don't think I'm doing it wrong, so I was thinking if I cast on 44 stitches instead of 42, that should solve that, shouldn't it? It's a little tight in my opinion too, so 2 extra stitches should make it a little more comfy. I tried one on my foot and it was a little tight on me and I have tiny feet. I used an acrylic based yarn, mainly because I wanted Urvi to be able to chuck them in the washing machine and dryer without worrying, and also because that's what I had in my stash *lol*

Even though the weather's not brilliant at the moment, I was able to take a couple of photos in the garden because my passion flower's in bloom! Aren't the colours lovely? Who says that purple and green should never be seen?

And the bees are happy on the lavender bush at the moment too.