OWL progress

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And now to show you all how I am faring with my two large projects. These are the ones that must be completed by the last day of July. Whew, it's going to be a busy month.

The Back of Sylvi


The Sleeves of Syvli


Swallowtail Shawl - It looks all bunched up here because my lifelines are short and pulling it together.

Lifeline = A separate thread run through live stitches while they are on the needle and fastened off to itself. This holds your place basically. Then if you make a mistake and need to rip the stitches back, they won't unravel all of the way back to the beginning.

June Projects

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It is once again time to show what I have been working on in the month of June. There will be one project not shown until sometimes later however. I try not to show gifts until they have been delivered after all. :) So without further ado, this months objects, and the Harry Potter inspired stories that accompanied them to class.



Do NOT Look at the following website if you have issues with seizures.

Inspired by this language in the omniglot. http://www.omniglot.com/writing/alfakinetix.php

Specifically by Libo (thousand) and Laksa (10,000).

Dear Professor,

Silverwing26 of Ravenclaw Tower submitting this months assignment.

You charged us with studying another language form the Omniglot this month. When I happen to stumble across the Alfa-Kinetix writing system developed by Frederick Victor Paredes Añana. It is based on the Baybayin alphabet both of which are used to write the language Tagalog. Tagalog is a language spoken by approximately 57 million speakers in the Philippines. Tagalog means Resident Beside the River. However, now, the actual Baybayin writing is used only decoratively as the Latin alphabet is used to write Tagalog now.

The Alfa-Kinetic alphabet takes the same principles of Baybayin and adds motion. Each of the symbols has characteristic movement of some sort. Most of the letters have a dot that moves around the symbol or as part of the symbol, while numbers and punctuation deal more with blinking lines and symbols such as squares.

I have chosen to represent the language by two of its symbols. The symbol for 1000 is a circle with a line moving through its center. The symbol for 10,000 is a circle with two lines moving across its inside.

According to the creator of the alphabet, Frederick Victor Paredes Añana, his goal has to been to save his dying language. The Baybayin writing system has become almost extinct. Since he is of the Philippines himself, his goal is to make the language more complete by the creation of his alphabet. He sited how the Chinese alphabet has changed over time to make it more complete and he reasons doing the same for his own language will help preserver it.

He does point out, his only goal is to modify the extinct language and not the ones still in use. This is quoted from his site where he talks about his E-Book and the creation of the writing system.

“My goal is to modify only the extinct Baybayin variants and not those that are still surviving. The Mangyans (Buhid & Hanunuo)of Mindoro and the Tagbanwas of Palawan are still using their ancestral script. So let’s not meddle with their writing system. I’m not sure if they”ll allow someone else to modify their script.”

Thank you for this chance to learn a little more about the way other people speak and write.





All finished, stuffed with catnip, and ready to go off to the needy kitties at WARL.

Dear Professor,

Silverwing26 of Ravenclaw turning in her Herbology assignment! For an assignment based on food, I took a walk down into the Hogwarts garden. I do believe I have spent this entire month inside and around the place! I decided to create something from the garden for my assignment. Also, taking a page out of the classroom as it were…

Leaping Toadstools - or - Dude, You Gonna Eat That?

I decided to create something I don’t eat very much off. On that note, I present to you…. RADISHES! Yes radishes. Lovely little red white and green bundles of goodness… that I don’t especially enjoy. However, these radishes will be dearly loved. LOVED I tell you. And now I shall tell you why. These radishes are simply STUFFED with catnip. Each one has been stuffed full of this herb that drives cats mad. At the end of the term these radishes shall be winging their way to Washington DC to some kitties that have not yet found their forever homes and are still living at the Washington Animal Rescue League (WARL)






Dear Professor,

Thank you for making us study the marvel that is the Mirror or Erised. Sometimes being faced clearly with your desires, gives you a new perspective on how to go after them.

Silverwing26 of Ravenclaw turning in her assignment. When faced with my most coveted desire, I was not surprised to find an image of hubby and I with our first child. This desire has been eluding us for several years now due to several factors. However, it is my most desired wish to have a family of my own. Faced with this, I am working harder than ever to attain this.

While I won’t get into all of the sordid details, part of the assignment was to think about how one might attain such goal. Well some of my obstacles are health related. So I have, this year, been working on a healthier living lifestyle. In celebration of this class and chasing my desire, I vow to become more accountable to myself.

And so I have something to remind me of this and keep me going on the days when I am not feeling strongly that I can do this, I have created a two (a pair of) miniature baby booties. To ensure I can take them with me wherever I go, I have fashioned them into earrings!







Dear Professor,

Silverwing26 of Ravenclaw turning in her Charms assignment. When you charged us to explore the relationship between light and dark, my mind immediately went to nature. After all, magic is a natural force and is best studied under those conditions. While I was contemplating how to best show how light and dark could live harmoniously together, a large bumble bee went zooming past. Clearly the bee exhibits such properties of light and dark as its bright yellow and black stripes coincide together on its fuzzy bumbley body! I followed the bee around all day noting how it gathered it’s nectar from the beautiful flowers blooming in daylight and then took it back to the dark hive it resides in to turn it into beautiful golden honey that I will store in a dark dark cupboard!

However, I spent so much time examining the bee, I completely lost track of time and found myself alone in the dark near a bee hive.

This is how I stumbled onto my potions assignment Professor!

Silverwing26 of Ravenclaw Turning in Potions! This month we were to demonstrate something that lights the way. Boy did I ever need something to light the way as I was lost in the dark next to a bee hive! I didn’t want to draw my wand and cast lumos. What if I woke the bees up!? Are they light sleepers? Would I suddenly be chased through the darkness by a million groggy bees!?

But just then, I noticed a gentle glowing. It appeared first near my feet, and then along the bark of the tree that the hive hung on. Soon the shrubs, grasses and air dance with small twinkling lights. For here and there flew Lightning Bugs! Yes, cute adorable bugs with blinky butts I could follow back to the castle! Some of them floated about in the air trying to attract mates, and some landed on the ground to lay their eggs so the next generation could come forth and save poor lost witches and wizards from the darkness! Thank you little glowy butt bugs!

Stitch Markers

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I found these little charms on Clearance one time and absolutely fell in love with them. I am glad I bought an extra set so that I could have one, and give one away. This set is for Margie in the HPKCHC. I am sending her a little something because she wasn't eligible to win the prize for the may Flowers competition. It was entirely my fault. I host the competition and I left her off the list entirely. So, in light of spring, June and Flowers... I made here this growing, blooming, beauty, thriving, sprouting set of stitch markers. These are really neat actually and I am hoping to find more of these findings soon in different sizes. These probably won't fit needles above a 9 or so. But they make complete closed circles, however they can be opened if you should accidentally run your life line through one. They won't just pop open on you however though. I really like them. I hope she does too.

What do you think?

I hope I can find more of these. I would love to put some of these on Etsy.

Sylvi

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I am currently working on the Jacket called Sylvi.

This is what it looks like. Mine will be in green, and in an extra large. This one I think is probably the extra small. It is the largest project I have ever undertaken. It is also the most complex cable work I have ever attempted. Now, I finished the sleeves with relative ease. I had a small freak out from not understanding the instructions, but the 'Claws straightened me out. I have also been going along merrily on the back and getting through all of those cables and enjoying myself. And then I hit the decreases. The decrease section of the back is so ungodly confusing. Maybe if you are used to raglan decreases it makes sense to you, but for me it's like it's written in Greek. No worse than that. I was translating the Greek that is working from charts. The decreases are like being written in cuneiform!

It took probably 10 hours yesterday from me to get from row 100 to row 109. That's more than an hour per row folks. The most frustrating part is if a few sentences had just been written into the pattern to explain some of the directions, I wouldn't have been in such a mess yesterday trying to figure out why it wasn't working.

What is the point of having a chart if the stitches you are actually knitting don't match? Why then wouldn't the information be presented in written form which is so much easier to understand! (for me anyway) The part that exploded my brain last night was that k2tog are marked in the chart with this symbol '/', So you k2tog and continue on with the pattern as written. Once you get to the dec rows, the symbol appears to k2tog just as normal, but you somehow magically need to know that you now need to SKIP the next stitch as it is written. You don't do it later, you just SKIP the thing. HOW IN THE WILD WORLD OF SPORTS are you supposed to know this?

Fortunately my husband is very mathematically minded and after I completely lost it with this pattern he sat down with me. He had me explain all of the stitches and what they did and then he worked on the pattern mathematically. He is the one who figured you that you need to skip the next stitch. OH and to make it more fun, you also need to skip the stitch BEFORE the SSK... fun eh?

And to think... I am actually thinking ahead to making another one of these? At least I will have been through all of the crap first!

Stories as Promised #6...

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HPKCHC Spring2010 Potions

Dear Professor,

Silverwing26 of Ravenclaw submitting her Potions Assignment.

I was ever so glad to don my gloves, goggles and robes and begin experimentation with potions! I spent a good deal of time perusing my manual of potion ingredients trying to find the perfect combination. I had known the effect I was going for. If my experimentation in the fine art of potion brewery was successful, I would have something to adorn myself with that would be both alluring, lovely, and sweet.

So into my cauldron I added one part Chinese Chomping Cabbage, one part part Unicorn Hair, and one part Powdered Sugar. The mixture started out a sickly green, then turned a muddy yellow. After a few hours it became a lovely shade of purple and when it finally finished brewing, it was an iridescent white color. My results were as follows…


Stories as Promised #5...

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HPKCHC Spring2010 Herbology



Dear Professor,

Silverwing26 of Ravenclaw submitting my Herbology assignemnt.

THe Puffapods were so exciting to work with! I watched carefully in the greenhouse while you showed us how easily they were to get to root. Just drop one down and POOF!!! A flower! How amazing.

Unfortunately, I was a bit careless with my puffapod and accidentally dropped it right on top of my assignment I had turned in for Ancient Runes! Within a moment it had sprouted into a lovely bloom right on my protective headband. Well, since the headband will protect me I consider it good luck the Puffapod was able to bloom there!

Here is my (now) embellished Headband featuring my new sprouted Puffapods.

Stories as Promised #4...

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HPKCHC DADA Spring2010


Dear Professor,

Silverwing26 of Ravenclaw submitting her DADA assignment.

I had never seen an extendable ear in person before. It kind of grossed me out to be honest, but the possibilities for mischief.. err, I mean LEARNING were endless!

I spent a great deal of time just nonchalantly listening about as students walked by. Then something caught my interest! vacantmuse was mentioning a project she had lined up to work on. It was Knitted Bunny! Well I could barely keep my wand still. I needed to bring this little bundle of fluff into existance!

And now this little fellow will be gifted to my best friends baby son.

Stories as Promised #3...

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HPKCHC Spring2010 Charms



Dear Professor,

Silverwing26 of Ravenclaw submitting her Charms assignment.

I was most intrigued by the study of the Draconifors charm. I’ve read the stories from the last Tri-Wizard tournament to take place at Hogwarts countless times! Let’s be honest though, I really just want to meet Viktor Krum… ahem..

As was clearly reported, the dragon he so bravely fought off with the Conjunctivitus Curse, was a Chinese Fireball. My text states…

Chinese Fireball (Liondragon)
native to: China
habitat: mountains (?)
appearance: scarlet with a fringe of golden spikes around its face
eyes: protruding
flame: mushroom-shaped
food: pigs, humans
eggs: vivid crimson speckled with gold

How gorgeous this must have been in real life. Determined to see one of these magnificent creatures for myself… (after all, I CAN cast the conjunctivitus curse) I set about Charming the picture on my text to life!

Clearly I need more work on this spell Professor. All I was able to bring forth to life was a ring of scales in the brilliant reds of the Dragon. However, the scales do fit nicely around my head!

Stories as Promised #2...

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hpkchc spring2010 History Of Magic




Dear Professor,

Silverwing26 of Ravenclaw submitting her HoM assignment. Since we began studying the Chamber of Secrets, I have been enthralled with the idea of the basilisk. I had real all of the information provided in class!

Basilisk: A wizard-bred Dark creature of enormous power, this extremely poisonous giant serpent (up to 50 feet in length) is brilliant green in color with long thin saber-like fangs and bulbous yellow eyes. A basilisk can live for at least 900 years given an adequate food supply, and as it can eat most vertebrates (including humans), this is not difficult to achieve. The male can be distinguished from the female by the scarlet plume on its head, but basilisks are usually magically rather than normally bred.

How terrifying! I was on a mission to find evidence of this enormous and deadly creature. Armed with my wand I descended into the depths of the Chamber. I brought the illustration from our text!

Stumbling around in the semidarkness my foot caught in something and I took a spill forward! My wand skittered out of my hand and bumped against the wall of the Chamber. Something was under my hands, it felt like leathery paper. I picked up my wand and called forth Lumos Maximus!

In my wand light I saw the shed skin of a massive serpent! This was it! This is what I came looking for. The green had gone out of the skin and it was a pale papery color. I cut a piece of the skin from the mass of shed coils and Tucked it into my bag.

When I had finished exploring the Chamber with the class and returned to Ravenclaw Tower, I took the skin into the lab. A bit of magical experimentation later, I had fashioned it into a continuous circle, returned the flexibility of its original state, and enchanted it to no longer decay. I present to you with pride, my Basilisk Headband!

Stories as Promised...

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HPKCHC Spring2010 AncientRunes



Dear Professor,

Silverwing26 of Ravenclaw turning in her Ancient Runes assignment. Naturally being a Ravenclaw I was eager to begin studying. I creaked open “Magical Mysteries Resolved: Interpreting your Runes 2nd edition” to begin reading. Naturally, I got a paper cut the moment I opened the book. I scanned briefly over all of the descriptions and meanings. With my nose jammed in the book, I wasn’t watching where I was going and tripped right over my Fabulous Twin boppingbeth while she was busy studying.

Just then, our Head of House drew our attention to a magical door that had appeared in the common room! It caused such a flurry of excitement that I momentarily forgot about my studies. There was a lot of chatter about how we might get such a mysterious door OPEN!

Of course we tried Alohamora… and for some reason my wand backfired and I got a nasty sting in my hand. Thinking it might have been an odd sort of boggart that took the form of an unsolvable riddle, I tried Ridikkulus!! But It sort of rebounded and I got a nasty headache.

Well I gave up and went back to my studies. My eyes fell on the rune Algiz.

Algiz - Protection, a shield. The protective urge to shelter oneself or others. Defense, warding off of evil, shield, guardian. Connection with the gods, awakening, higher life. It can be used to channel energies appropriately. Follow your instincts. Keep hold of success or maintain a position won or earned. Algiz Reversed: or Merkstave: Hidden danger, consumption by divine forces, loss of divine link. Taboo, warning, turning away, that which repels.

With the luck I had been having, and this new adventure of trying to get this mysterious door open, I decided THIS was the rune for me. So I whipped out my wand and embedded the rune over and over and over again into my headband.