Exciting witches..

Things are getting very exciting in the preparations for the next sock kit swap. Headmistress Wartbobble has set up all kinds of marvellous wheezes for those witches and wizards who will be taking part. She's even going to have knitting duels! Amazing!! I do hope I will be able to have a go at this, although the first one takes place when Clan Wigworthy are camping with the Pendle Witches Institute.

While the group has a rather tragic history we have fared very well since the Statute of Secrecy was introduced, and now number some 200 witches and wizards from Pennine districts. The end of May sees our annual meet which, although it includes some serious political discussion, is mostly a week of fun and games. The boys are practising hard for the under 8s quidditch match! Fortunately we are not affected by the traditional rivalry between Lancashire and Yorkshire that exists in local muggle communities. Well, perhaps we are just a little - last year I caught Terry (5 at the time) hexing a 7-year-old wizard from Trawden who had called him a 'Dirty Tyke' ('Tyke' being slang for a native of Yorkshire).

In knitting news I am glad to report that I have now finished and published my designs for house socks for Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. They are for sale in the wonderful witches knitting forum, Ravelry, and in my Etsy shop.

Since my kit arrived last week a spinning friend of mine has suggested that I could make some beaded yarn with the beads that Lily Finnegan had included in the kit. What an excellent idea! So I've bought some beading needles and something called 'nymo' from 'Crafty Witches R Us', and am all ready to have a go. Alas, I think I will have to get the time-turner out to be able to do it, for I feel utterly overfaced just with completing the house sock designs I commited myself to doing. I would also love to do a bag for Professor Wartbobble's current design competition, especially as I've paraded a little as a 'designer', which makes it embarassing not to enter something. Would Gryffindors and Slytherins mind awfully if I took time out from the sock marathon to do so?

Most exciting of all is that my twin-sister, Lizzie Wychwood, has decided to join the sock kit swap. While Lizzie is not much of a knitter (she has already asked if I could knit for her the yarn she gets in her package!), she is keen on muggle crafting in general, and particularly good at quilting. We've discussed how I can support her with the swap, and I've already agreed to dye yarn for her to put in the package for her spoilee! She is quite excited about doing it, and will be setting up her own magical portal soon to aid social communication with other swappers.

Lizzie is an accountant for Gringotts - a much more modern career-minded witch than housewifely me. Despite differences in outlook like this we are actually identical twins, at least as identical as the famous Weasley twins. Luckily as the swap is not conducted in person we won't be encountering the usual confusions and mix-ups that have peppered our lives because of the similarity between us (honestly - I'm scared someone is going to start asking me complicated banking questions every time I pop into Diagon Alley to do a bit of shopping!). I think my friends in the swap will like her, and I'm sure they will make her very welcome.

Owl delivery

Yes- it's here!! An owl arrived this morning with a very exciting package, my sock kit from Lily Finnegan. I was so excited I nearly tore it open straight away, then remembered that my dear friends in the swap would want to share the excitement of discovery with me, so I ran for the camera. First I got a picture of the unopened parcel. I noted with delight that it had some very interesting Swedish delivery markings upon it. I love to experience things from other cultures that I don't normally see, so I took a close-up of the markings for posterity.

Despite the care Lily had so obviously taken in packaging the kit there was a rip in the back of the packet - I think her owl must have been as curious as me to know what was inside and attempted to claw it open! There was all kinds of packaging fluff sticking to the bag inside. Luckily a quick hoovering spell sorted it out, and I laid everything out so that I could show you what I got:

Next to the stitchmarkers (beautiful aren't they?) you can see a little tube filled with tiny bronze beads. I'm going to have loads of fun thinking of things to make with them. The edible/drinkable goodies were really interesting because they were labelled in Swedish. I had no idea what they were until I opened them! One of them said "Emma's skafferi" on the packet - very clever of Lily to find a personalized treat for me! Apparently it means 'Emma's Pantry' (my translation tool from Skrivenshafts came in very handy this morning!), and the packet contained a baked liquorice sweet bread-type delight! The other brown packet says "Önskebrunnen, Önskebrunnsblandning, sort: svart" on it!! I can't find what the first two words mean, but I think they have something to do with potion ingredients because the stuff inside looks like tea. As well as the little pieces of dried leaf material there are little pink hearts in it - I think they might melt to add a particular flavour to the draught? "Sort: svart" means "Kind: black"! The red and gold packet contains little chocolate horses filled with caramel. The packet tells me that they are a gift from Sweden. I'm sure my little wizards are going to enjoy helping me to eat them!
The stitchmarker bag also contained a cute leather and braid bracelet that fastens with a button. I think Lily may have made it herself?

Being a knitter the things that most delighted me were, of course, the handknitted and felted bag, and the yarn. I like the bag so much that it is going into use as my everyday handbag! And the yarn is just to die for, don't you agree? I'm thinking of using some of the silver I have left from making Emma Gorordok's bag to knit a lacy cuff at the top of the socks I make with it. I know really I should use bronze, because it's meant to be for Ravenclaw socks. Nevertheless I think a sparkly whitish silver will look awesome with that shade of blue. What do y'all think?

Jumping Wizards!

What an exciting week! Would you believe some visitors like my ramblings here so much that they've awarded me a prize? A dear girl called Cecilia is sending me some lovely yarn in Ravenclaw colours from Knitpickery (witches knitting mall). I can hardly wait and am already pondering possible designs for a hat or mittens with it. Thank you Cecilia!!

Following the difficulties we had with the camera on holiday, Mr. Wigworthy has bought us a new one. Unbelievably it was a lot less galleons than our old one even though it takes better pictures. The magical features work very well, so I am at last able to decoarate this portal with some proper moving portraits of family and friends. This one is of our two littlest wizards. Very bouncy boys!!

Saints and Dragons

We're back!! It has been such a wonderful holiday, and I wish I had lots of pictures to show you of it. Alas - our camera is rather poorly and didn't travel well at all, so I'm going to have to pinch other people's photos to show you some of the exciting things we have done.

The 'cottage' turned out to be an ancient farmhouse at the end of a very remote Welsh valley. Slate floor in the kitchen, stone walls at least three feet thick, and internal walls and floors of oak. Even the toilets had oak cisterns!! My absolute dream home and location. Our house was at the very end (head) of the valley, not far from the waterfall you can just see in this picture:

It being Wales there were pictures of dragons everywhere we went, and we managed to find some live ones at King Arthur's Labyrinth. Welsh muggles depict red dragons in all their patriotic bits and pieces, a red dragon being the national symbol that appears on the Welsh flag:

Of course, this is rather amusing to magical folk as we all know that the main breed of dragon in Wales is actually green. A rather artistic wizard has set up shop in one of the valleys near the Tanat valley (where we were staying) making and selling ornamental dragons which he sculpts from glass. At his studio I found a beautiful representation of a Welsh Green. Sadly we did not spot any live ones (Welsh Greens that is) during our stay. Perhaps we will see some next time we visit when I hope we will get up to some of the lesser known mountain tops which are their natural habitat (we couldn't this week as our youngest little wizard isn't yet up to such high-level flying).

The boys especially loved our trip on the Bala Lake Railway - a company that takes tourists up and down the Bala lakeside in little steam trains:


Mr. Wigworthy most loved our visit to something called the 'Centre for Alternative Technology' which shows lots of ways muggles can make and use electricity in a manner that will be less harmful to our dear planet. This is of special interest to Mr. Wigworthy due to its relationship to his engineering specialism (vortex management). I didn't realise how much of a problem rubbish is to muggles - they have to do something called 'recycling' to try and reduce it. I think this has something to do with 'saving energy' too - I didn't really understand it properly, and luckily of course I didn't have to because we just disappear ours, or transfigure it into something we want (like soil for Mr. Wigworthy's vegetables).

Oh dear - I nearly didn't tell you about the saint! In the lounge of our farmhouse there was a big metal plaque behind the stove with a hare, some oak leaves, and the name 'Melangell' cast into it. We found out when we visited the little church in the valley that Melangell was a 7th century saint in the valley who saved a hare from being killed by the local prince's hounds (it hid under her robes while she was praying). The prince was so impressed by her holiness that he gave her the valley for her own and she founded a religious community there (now gone, all but the church which still has an ancient Romanesque shrine to her - the only remaining Romanesque Christian shrine in the UK apparently). This story particularly interested me as my patronus is a hare!! I've found a picture of the shrine and an icon of Saint Melangell for you:

Ravenclaw Quiz

This is the last Ravenclaw quiz for the current sock kit swap, so I have a break coming up before the next one (Professor Wartbobble has told us she will run another swap beginning at the end of May). Meantime some of the girls are doing a 'readalong' of one of the series of biographies that have been published concerning the incredible schooldays of our greatest hero, Harry Potter. I'm looking forward to learning more detail of his amazing deeds.
I'm also excited about seeing all the kits that should be received over the next couple of weeks. I'm away to Wales for a 'welcome in the hillsides' next week with Mr. Wigworthy and our little wizards (when will I stop calling my strapping fifteen-year-old 'little?) - we will be staying in a remote cottage on a mountainside, without access to the Floo Network. So I look forward to seeing lots of kits when we return, including (I hope) my own!
1. Who loves containers of all sorts?
Esmerelda Beanswallow
2. Who dyed her fingers blue?
Lavender Ackerly
3. Who is related to William Shakespeare?
Celestina Cadogan (purportedly)
4. Who wants to own an alpaca farm?
Victoria Black
5. Who hates carrots?
Selina Starfire
6. Who is from the Muggle town of Bagshot in Surrey?
Patonga Pinkstone
7. Who was searching for radishes in the winter?
Madam Ferula McGonagall
8. Who got a gift certificate to a LYS from a Slytherin boy for Valentine's Day?
Cecilia Kettleburn
9. Who discovered ghosts and house elves drinking tea in the Great Hall at midnight?
Ophelia Hopkirk
10. Who took an extra credit class called Muggle Fantasy Literature?
Selina Starflame
11. Who attended a Muggle music convention?
Patonga Wigworthy
12. Who taught herself to purl backwards?
Serafina Starfire
13. Who sports Ravenclaw Spirit socks?
Minerva Kwikspell
14. Who would like to work in Muggle Relations after graduation?
Allitrya Spelling
15. Whose Mum is named Henrietta?
Avada Finch-Fletchley

Quidditch Round 3

1. When Rita Skeeter prints a bad article about Hagrid in the Daily Prophet, which Professor teaches Hagrid's Care of Magical Creatures class while he is away?

c. Professor Grubbly-Plank

2. What was the article Rita Skeeter wrote about Hagrid called?

c. Dumbledore's Giant Mistake

3. When the school champions were being chosen from the Goblet of Fire, whose name came out first?

b. Viktor Krum

4. What is the spell Ludo bagman says to magically magnify his voice when he commentates?

a. Sonorus

5. What kind of dragon did Cedric have to face in the first task?

b. A Swedish Short-Snout

6. Who raised the trophy after winning the world cup?

b. Troy and Quigley

7. How many bedrooms did Mundungus Fletcher claim to have?

d. 12

8. For what did Moody mistake his birthday gift of a carriage clock?

b. A basilisk egg

9. What did Mr. Ollivander produce for the end of Cedric's wand?

d. Silver smoke rings

10. The dark mark is on Snape's left arm.

a. Yes

Picture Scavenger Hunt

Karkaroff

A Basilisk

Mundungus Fletcher

Amos Diggory

Snape

Yarn and Bag

My poor spoilee has been a little sick this weekend, and I think that must be why she hasn't yet released pictures of the yarn and bag I sent her. I'm so proud of them I've decided to enchant some pictures of them to appear here, hoping she doesn't mind! Why am I so proud? Well, I've rarely dyed yarn myself before, and never in variegated colours. I've never spun with angel moulitngs before (properly called 'angelina'). And I've never knitted a bag before. So I'm rather excited by my results in all three areas. Given the history of how I discovered the process (documented here a few weeks ago), I made yarn labels with the 'company' name of 'Rumpelstiltskin'. Since doing this I have set up shop under that same name at the magical mall 'Etsy' where I intend to offer more of my own dyed yarns, and perhaps even some handspun, for sale. Meantime I've got a sock pattern and some spinning wheel oil for sale there.

Emma's yarn is silk, both the commercial undyed yarn I used for the green, and the fibre I used to make silver yarn (apart from the silver angelina, which while not silk is very soft and, of course, even shinier). I named the green yarn 'Salazar' after the founder of her house. The handspun silk and angelina I named 'Darke Sylver', as it was dark in colour, and followed the technique (albeit in a non-evil manner) of the nefarious dark operator, Rumpelstiltskin. I hope you can see the sparkly bits of angelina - difficult to capture in a picture. As usual, if you let your mouse nibble the picture, you'll see a Hagrid-sized version.

The bag was knitted from a pattern I found in that amazing forum for magical knitters 'Ravelry'. I really like the button I found for the side pocket which, I hope you can see, is a witches hat. There are three more pockets inside that I sewed into the lining (I love the stars - they remind me of astronomy lessons in my Hogwarts days - fortunately I have lots of the fabric left to use for future projects). This was my first go at i-cord too - attached to the pocket flap, the top of the bag, and used for the drawstring.