Pride Roundup

This week in the Sugar Quills, Flat Harry visited Seattle, a delightful collection of blanket squares was submitted to classes, some convenient flat pins for knitting were displayed, and some crochet humor was posted.

An alert Acid Pop posted links to some beautiful free patterns, a lovely OWL was submitted, and advice was offered on when not to use Deep Heat.

The Pepper Imps showed off some hats, shared a spreadsheet for tracking points, updated on
this month's progress  and shared first swap pictures.


The Canary Creams submitted a lovely blanket for Quidditch, posted some cute baby hats, came up with a whole list of class submissions, and came up with a good way to do class postings.

The Fizzing Whizbees got a nomination for a January prize, posted a delicious looking cake, submitted an incredible dress for a 50% detention OWL, and debated project monogamy.

The Animal Crackers posted a lovely 50% Charms OWL, learned how to use a sewing machine, and finished some ornaments for an Arithmancy OWL.

The Exploding Bonbons found some fun costumes, encouraged Snape to knit, and spun some great yarn for classes.

The Common Room, 17-23 February

Folks must have been busy with Ravellinics, Quidditch, or being snowbound this week, because the Common Room was unusually quiet.  However, we did get to celebrate 7 more OWL 50% hand-ins, one student received her black-out prize for Bingo (good job!), some great socks were finished, and one mother has come up with a guaranteed method of ensuring that the kids are not bored.

For the week coming - Quidditch ends on the 26th, classes and 50% have to be in on the 28th, so the week could be very quiet or very busy. 

Featured Classroom: Potions

We're almost finished with the month and there have been many wonderful turn ins. Today, lets see what a few of our fellow Gryffindor students have submitted for Potions.

Fitzie turned in this great handspun on the bottom of the picture.

This Follow Your Arrow shawl was turned in by jrf1977.

Knitbunnie turned in this cute little fox hat she knit for her grandson, who looks ever so fetching in it!

Maryb1983 turned in these lovely crocheted hearts to represent the love potion.

Mrsdanvers created this cute stuffed kitty after putting off her obsession for a while.

Phoenixonfire7 created this great rainbow hat to shake off an obsession with multiple sizes of the same hat stitch pattern.

Sameoldknit made these bright socks in an attempt to create a love potion of her own.

Simplyme5252 decided to show off several of the potions colors with these fabulous swirly mittens.

There are plenty more great class turn ins, keep up the good work, Gryffindor!

Pride Roundup

Hello all! Your weekly pride roundup is finally here.

In the Sugar Quills, everyone got ready for Hogsmeade, but then decided to stay in the castle to study and score for Quidditch. OWL halfway turn ins have continued. Finally, Ron took a little tour of Nebraska.

In the Pepper Imps, people made plans for the week, and prepared for Hogsmeade as well. During the Hogsmeade weekend, cupcakes became a minor obsession.

The Exploding Bonbons seem to have gotten a lot of snow in the way of their potions lab. On the other side of their dorm, however, they had a little bit of a flooding problem. One member seems to have knit the sky into a cute little dress. Luckily, they have access to a secondary potions lab and some gorgeous greens.

In the Acid Pops, they got a lot done while on a trip, or even while sick. There was also some sharing of planned projects for the rest of the month, and a few finished ones as well!

The Canary Creams have a lot of mittens finished for 50% of an OWL. There was also an impressive amount of spinning. A lot of hats were made for quidditch and classes, too.

The Fizzing Whizbees were busy talking about a very versatile pattern, had a little prize drawing, and found some cool sounding stamps.

Last, but not least, are the Animal Crackers! They planned for the current Quidditch match, and got pumped up for Hogsmeade. Despite a few setbacks, classes are still being handed in.

The Common Room, 10-16 February

Between illness, snow and the Hogsmeade weekend, it was a fairly slow week in the common room but some interesting items were posted. 

 Cormic got his RN without becoming a nurse and shows off his ribbon here.  Thoughts on greatness were posted.  There was an easy chimichanga recipe and some real talent was demonstrated.  Apparently Gryffindor dogs are very smart, since they can read.  There was a special ring for Star Trek lovers.  The Great Hall had a special celebration for Valentine's day.  Our Gryffindor PHD shared a link to one of her papers.  A husband's hobby led to a great gift.   One student learned entrelac and another very successfully followed their Arrow.

 There were more owl completions and January class points (including bonus points) were posted for all the Houses.

Roving Reporting, The Epidemic

Hi everyone, there is an epidemic going around the castle a serious illness that is knocking down students left and right... They are calling it Hexipox. We are going to look at turn ins from January and February since we missed a roving report in January.

The symptoms of Hexipox might include:

Having multiple sets of DPNs

Finding yourself collecting piles and piles of mini skeins of yarn

Among other symptoms like collecting piles of Hexi charts.

We have students all over the castle who are showing the signs of cases of Hexipuff. Today we are going to take a look around at the castle and look at some of the known cases.

We see Hexipox in Gryffindor

guenevol:

ShelleyBarnes:

We see signs of Hexipox in Ravenclaw

lovetosnorkel:

briweldon:

Hexipox has made it into Hufflepuff to:

ellejellybean:

baxgirl:

Slytherin has not been spared the Hexipox epidemic either:

BlueTofu:

astradyne22:

Hexipox has also found its way to the NQFY Lounge

Einnako:

KhenaSanskula:

Now we all know that Hexipox is extremely contagious so proper precautions should be taken before doing to much study on the Hexipox cases around, unfortunately I was not sure the proper precautions before I started roving about and, well I caught it...

The dangers of reporting. Well I am off to make more hexipuffs, see you next time for our next report. And remember if you see yourself developing the symptoms, well all I can wish you is luck.....

Roving Reporting, Time Turner

Hey there everyone, sorry I have been MIA for awhile, the current ick going around slammed into my house and I was down for a week, then my small one and husband got it and are just now starting back to 100%

I know I took a poll for the last class in January, then missed out showing it off due to the ick I mentioned so we are going to use our handy time turner and take a look at some of the turn ins for the winner of the poll by 53% DADA/MuggleStudies

We see hats,

Snarkypirate:

Cakewalkqueen:

And cowls

maigret:

MeemejMoi

lshah77

And scarves, just to show a few things

Xallanthia:

NinaSherry:

AuroraSelene:

DADA/Muggle Studies proved to be a really amazing class.The talent and imagination and color were just amazing. I am very happy I was able to use the time turner to stop in a look around, I recommend you give the time turner a twist and go see for yourself.

A warning though, time turning can be tiring, and lead to staying up to late look at pretty things and looking for new patterns. I am quite drained and am going to go find some chocolate and rest up, tomorrow we will take a look around at what is happening now. Hope to see you there.

Study Hall Special

Let's catch up on a couple of Gryffindor's great study halls!

The Charity Hat Challenge has been chugging along with great progress. In January, 181 hats were completed for charity!

Several people are completing hats for their OWLs, including mio's colorful potions hats. She's going for an incredible 60 large hats with a loom. These are just five of the many hats she's made so far this year.

Hats are also being turned in for quidditch, especially the first challenges, which gave a bonus for charity items, or were specific patterns including a hat. This Gryffindor colored hat is from katiemc1229.

Hats are also showing up in classes, of course! This month, there's an extra little challenge to see how many different flags can be represented in Muggle Studies. These three represent Greece, Canada, and Sweden from dejapup.

Not to be outdone, there has been plenty of progress made in the Destash Study Hall. Many people are still going strong with their cold sheep vows, though a few have fallen off the wagon for particularly worthy yarns.

There are some great projects happening, including a cute little cube made out of dishcloth leftovers by Roseinstitches. It was so appealing, her doggy couldn't want to play with it and stole it out of her basket, but who could resist his little face after seeing him with it?!

Puffygriffinclaw was feeling charitable and crafted a pretty baby blanket and took a picture with a cute unicorn.

Jensta79 created a collage of her destash projects for the month, I can see how lots of blanket squares, an impressively done sweater, a great pair of socks, and more adds up to yardage flying out of her stash!

We'll catch up with the other study halls soon, keep an eye out for their impressive projects.

Common Room 2-8 February

Some of the highlights from this past week in the common room:
  The Book club is now reading the hobbit.  One Gryffindor, already a medical doctor, obtained her PHD with a thesis on dealing with chronic disease. There was an interesting discussion on the different attitudes toward using Midwives in Canada, the UK and Europe, and the U.S.  An alcoholic Butterbeer recipe was posted, as well as a link to a device to help make peanut butter.

Handsome Cormac had a couple of great days.   In more collie love, there was a great modification to a blanket. Another puppy delighted in the new ball knitted for him.

  The Animal Crackers became the 3rd and final pride to reach 100% participation in January.  There was extensive discussion of left-handed knitting and how best to teach it.  One person reached 75% on their NEWT and then more folks followed suit.  Some OWLs also reached their 50% mark..  A number of proposals were given for incorporating blanket squares into the February prompts
and a Sleeping beauty mKAL for a class turn-in was proposed.  A beautiful baby blanket was finished and a knitting coach was spotted at the Olympics.  There was also a link to an article on the  benefits of knitting.

Pride summary, Jan 30 - Feb 5

The Sugar Quills listed some idea for daily themes and posted a link to a useful spreadsheet from Hufflepuff as well as evidence that Quills are fierce but sweet too. Quirrell got a scarf and a lovely detention shawl was posted.  There was also a strong advocacy for a pom-pom maker.

The Acid Pops achieved 100% class participation in January.  This was helped when one member found her missing mustache and turned it in.  To give them incentives for February, a prize has been offered for 100% participation and another for turning in 50% on OWLs.  One Pop took the trouble to find and post links to some lovely free patterns.

The Fizzing Whizbees posted a  knitting bucket list.  Several members are considering doing temperature or sky scarves.  One member gave ideas on sightseeing and local yarn stores in Denmark.  The Pride was challenged to beat the Bonbons by making 100% class participation in February before the Bonbons do.  

The Exploding Bonbons rocked the pride challenge.  Their hair dye challenge still on, with Knitinferno allowing them to choose the color for her hair if everyone turns in a class by designated date.  They also provided some Quidditch inspiration (put on  your sunglasses before clicking) and suggestions for keeping your nose warm in this cold weather.

The Canary Creams finished a very challenging pair of  socks  and one demonstrated some true slipper love.  A fabulous Mario blanket was quickly adopted by some gamers.  One member missed the deadline for posting a last project in January, but consoled herself with a hat for detention.

The Animal Crackers made a strong case for Australian tourism.  They got some good guidance on counting yardage for marauders missions and for maximizing their points in the Cup.  One finished some delightful sprinkle socks, while another did some serious yarn organization.

The Pepper Imps made a great collages of their January projects, found ferrets who rightly think that knitting is more important than homework, and WIP'd the First.

Common Room, Jan 27 - Feb 1

It's been a quiet week in the common room, mostly  due to illness.  Some of our members continue to suffer bad weather and we all learned the official difference between sleet and freezing rain. Scores for the first Quidditch match were posted, as was a recipe for pizza casserole.  Wedding cakes and customs continued to be hot, with fun links to Harry Potter weddings and to diagrams on how to plan your wedding.  And since it is totally appropriate for a British wedding, some hats were recommended for the mother of the bride. There was even one with built-in snacks.   There was extensive discussion of regional accents, in the UK and the US.   A sweetheart of a puppy found a home. 

With the end of the month, there was a big push to finish classes and to get 100% participation.  An adorable baby dress was put in for this as were some lovely socks.  The Acid Pops became the second pride to reach 100%.  In  addition to classes, 3 Gryffindors reached the 50% mark on their NEWTs.   A call also went out for a "bunting along". We learned the value of procraftinating. and how knitting serves a social purpose.   There was an interesting discussion on whether continental knitting is faster than English style. GazeboGal also alerted the house to the latest saga in the Order thread, good guidelines for everybody.