Monday, September 25, 2006

OotP official photos!

I was just discussing this with a friend a few weeks ago -- the lack of official pics from OotP. No longer!

The Scotsman ran three pictures in their print edition this morning -- one of Harry fighting a dementor, one of Umbridge, McGonagall, Trelawney, and Filch, and one of Luna. You can see them in a slightly grainy scan here on HPANA, and the first two are also in clearer-but-smaller form on the Scotsman's online article. Umbridge is wearing a pink tweed poncho -- I'm guessing it's sewn, but I bet you could knit something similar in structure -- and Luna's got a great turquoise pullover. (I think I'm gonna love Luna's costumes, given that I dress like a color-blind twelve-year-old half the time anyway.)

Hopefully the big fansites will finagle high-res pics soon, and then we can really get started on the analysis.

Lauren posted at 11.20 on 09.25.06 comments (7)

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

pwnage!

At some point last year, I plotzed all over LJ about the way that Jany Temime has the Trio rewear clothing during the course of PoA, as though it's their favorite outfit -- Harry's navy tracksuit jacket, Hermione's pink zip-up, and Ron's Fair Isle Sweater of Hotness come to mind first. I was really tickled to see that level of attention being paid to the development of the kids' different styles, especially since the casualwear in SS and CoS was pretty disinteresting.

But now Jany's one-upped herself, because Fred and George's offwhite-and-blue hat from PoA is set to make an appearance at the Quidditch World Cup. Not only does that make me all sorts of happy as a geek in general, it ought to light a fire under my knitterly butt about finishing off (or, really, getting started on) the pattern for it. If the animal cracker hat turns up too, I give you all permission to prod me daily, because I'm sorta stalled out as it stands now.

(Also, plz to nag me about sending my camera for repair. I've got the funds -- about $200 -- set aside, I've just been too lazy to go get it packed and sent. I feel like a very bad person.)

Speaking of stalling out... apparently all I needed to do with the vest for String was bitch about it a bit, because I cast on the front on Saturday and finished it this afternoon. The ladies really like it, so I'm happy. I get my next project tomorrow or the day after, although I ought to start knocking out the super-cabley turtleneck my landlady wants. (She's got all this sportweight alpaca she bought in Bolivia and insists on paying me -- don't gotta tell me twice!)

The rest of this post will be spent replying to comments on the last few entries, so if you think it's awfully conceited when bloggers do this, you might as well scroll...

Laurence directed me to her free Kiri shawl pattern, which is currently duking it out with Peacock for the right to come into existence. I think Kiri may win, and not only because I shouldn't be spending $9.50 on a pattern right now. I think Peacock deserves to be done in some opulent variegated hair-of-some-sort/silk blend. I'm trying to be responsible for now, but I'm sure I'll be casting on in no time, because me? willpower? nuh uh.

Suzanne says that Alpaca Cloud is thicker(?!) than most laceweights, which makes me quake visibly in my flipflops. I'm sensing this is a very slippery slope, and one I'm likely to wind up at the bottom of in no time.

Knittingnurse asks which shade of Alpaca Cloud I got, and the answer is Stream. It took a lot of effort not to go with a shade of green, but I'm pleased with my choice. And as far as the Flirty Ruffles shawl goes, the ruffle is exactly the part that I like. I have 1760 yards of yarn, so I may just tack a ruffle onto whatever I make. For a girl who wears predominantly t-shirts and jeans, I sure do like my girly things.

And last but certainly not least, Karen encouraged me on the job front, which is muchly appreciated, because I've felt a bit woe-is-me the last few days. I have two interviews with temp agencies tomorrow (which doesn't quite explain why I'm up now blogging instead of sleeping) and an appointment about a permanent position on Wednesday, so fingers crossed. I know these things take time, but dammit, I need a job yesterday!

Lauren posted at 2.41 on 09.20.05 comments (0)

Friday, August 12, 2005

this hat will eat your soul

A note to anyone who ever plans to knit an animal cracker hat:
Never work on it before bed. Ever. I know it seems, between the big gauge and the kiddie crayon-sized needles and the simple color chart, like you can just knit a couple rows and then stop.

You can't. You may never be able to stop.

No, instead you'll knit into the wee hours. You'll get a handful of hours of sleep -- and fitful sleep at that, because your mind will be craving another quick fix of super-bulky Fair Isle. You'll wake up feeling hungover and withdrawn*, and as you hurriedly get dressed and run to make your train, you'll contemplate shoving the hat in your bag even though, with 18 balls of yarn joined at once, it's possibly the least portable knitting project ever to grace the earth.

Aside from that, the hat's looking great. :D

I stopped by School Products after work yesterday, where I wanted to kiss the clerk for actually having dark green Lamb's Pride in stock. I left with a skein each of aran, sunburst gold, ruby red, Turkish olive, and onyx, all in worsted. I'd've preferred a slightly darker red, maybe raspberry or spice, but they were out of stock (Lamb's Pride, out of stock? never!) and the bright red looks just fine. I'm knitting a triple strand at the same ~2.5 sts/in that the Shannon knits at, and everything is pretty much ducky so far. A bonus of Lamb's Pride versus Cascade 220 is that the 15% mohair content helps fill in any, shall we say, handknitted charm in your Fair Isle. ;) Once again, if I had a working camera, I'd show you all the frightening 18-ball (6 colors x 3 small balls of each) mess on my sofa.

It also occurred to me last night that the reason no one can ever see the earflaps on the hat... could it be because they're black? There's no stitch detail to be seen in the black zigzag, even when you lighten it, while there's plenty in the green stripe. The shot is dynamic enough, I think, that if any light at all were reflected by the yarn as Ron moves around, we'd be able to see the earflaps themselves, not just a patch of obscured neck with a braid hanging from it. I'm gonna try it and see how it looks, but the more I think about it, the likelier it seems.

While I'm raving about the hat, I figure I might as well explain why I'm still working on the pattern now that djinnj has posted hers. The bottom line is that I want to fill in some of the gaps on the wearability of this beast. The movie-canon hat is a little beanie-like thing that must they must've pinned to Rupert's head to keep it on -- I know a hat won't stay on me unless it comes down over my ears. So I've got two color charts -- the canon one, for anyone who wants to go that route, and a slightly taller one that ought to at least partially cover the ears so that it stays on in regular winter wear.

I'm also gonna play around with using two strands of each yarn and a slightly larger number of stitches to make a child size, since this hat in particular (warm, colorful, and HP-related) is ideal for kids. The color pattern is 8 stitches wide, and the adult size is 48 stitches around, so I'm expecting the child size to be either 56 or 64 stitches at more like 3-3.5 sts/in. The beanie/full hat thing will happen here as well, since kids are crazy and will knock hats off themselves in two seconds.

So when I start talking about frogging and reknitting the hat over and over... that's why. :)

Djinnj also ordered some color cards from Knitpicks to pick HP colors. She got Wool of the Andes, Merino Style, Andean Silk, Andean Treasure, Sierra, Ambrosia, Panache, and Shine. The results are posted here.

For anyone planning a Beauxbatons uniform, there was a quick but helpful conversation on the topic here on hp_costuming. There's also a new picture in this week's Entertainment Weekly, which IMHO is most helpful because of Fleur in the background. Looks like there's a matching cornflower blue blazer with navy edging on the collar that's worn over that dress. I'm a sucker for blazers, so I love it. :)

In Soleil news, I think -- knock on wood -- that I've got a successful start after a week of trying.

First attempt: finished lace and realized it was too small. (The maternal unit and I are basically the same size, so fitting it is easy.) Frogged and increased a size.

Second attempt: that freakin' dyelot problem. Seems, naturally, to have only been the ball that I started with that doesn't match, and four skeins of Cotton-Ease is still way more than a sleeveless shell requires. Frogged and set aside mismatching yarn.

Third attempt: meant to cast on 160 sts but only cast on 150. I counted twice. I have no idea how this happened. Had finished lace and started increasing when I realized it. Frogged.

Fourth attempt: what on earth is left to go wrong?? I finished the second lace repeat on my way to work this morning. And I never thought I'd say it, but I really like knitting with cotton when it's so hot out. I'm already contemplating what I'll do with the leftovers.

Aaaand... I think that's it out of me for the time being.

*It's possible that this feeling may also be related to the 85°-plus-humidity weather that you tried to sleep in. This is the same weather in which you knitted with super-bulky yarn. This is further proof of the hat's evil addictive powers.

Lauren posted at 11.57 on 08.12.05 comments (0)

Thursday, August 04, 2005

various and sundry

Okay, first off, omg I want one. I'm fairly suspectible to the charm of gadgetry as it is (zoom in on 2 PDAs, sexy cellphone, iPod...), but knitting gadgets? Sign me up, baby.

Secondly - and I'd sworn to myself I wouldn't do it this time around - meet the Goblet of Fire costume reference page. I'd hoped it wouldn't be necessary, but two new, wholly different schools and twelve competition uniforms, not to mention a slew of new adults, mean there's actually so many new costumes that I can't believe no one's beaten me to the punch. As a bonus, my hosting package is now so beefy that I can spare the resources to host the full-sized high-res images that Warner Bros has been so generous with, this time around. I may be a bit slow in updating it, due to my limited internet access, but I'll do my bestest.

Thirdly, I've hit a new impasse with the animal cracker hat - I need to find a superbulky (~2.5 st/inch) forest green and yellow twist or tweed yarn for the top of the hat. Two colors of 220 held together just won't cut it, no matter how many times I try it. Yeah, I know. Good luck.

But! I've made some ridiculous headway on Jon's Koigu socks (nicknamed "Breakup Sox", haha). I've ditched the purl ridges in favor of a mistake rib, which looks really excellent in the brown/olive/burnt orange colorway I'm using. I started on, uh, Monday I think, and I'm already two inches past the heel. kasgofjsadhuio I love Koigu, especially after using Lion Brand for a few weeks.

And for anyone who doesn't knit but is itching for a Hatmione/Hermittens set nonetheless, I'll be knitting a set for the Witching Hour's auction during the Fall Festival. Be there or be, well, a bit chilly all winter. ;)

Lauren posted at 15.52 on 08.04.05 comments (0)

Tuesday, August 02, 2005

it never ends!

Oh man. A crap ton of new GoF pics, most in high-res, came out overnight (you can see them on Leaky or Mugglenet), including a picture of Cho that's so close up and big, you can count the stitches in her Ravenclaw scarf. The consensus on hp_knitting over on LJ seems to be that the PoA/GoF scarves have, all this time, been 1x1 ribbing in sport- or DK-weight yarn. Shoot me now. Seriously. Just shoot me. I'd rather die than betray my friends knit 700 rows of k1p1 ribbing.

Also of interest is this picture of Karkaroff; or rather, of the student standing to his right. The selfsame knitting nerds are theorizing that s/he is wearing, in addition to a house scarf, an all-Hogwarts scarf with narrow stripes of each house's dominant color set about 7" apart on a field of dark grey or black.

(And finally, clear, high-res pictures of the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff uniforms. Took long enough!)

Anyway, I guess I know what I'll be doing tonight, and it involves a lot of Photoshopping, squinting, and counting. Oh well. :p

Lauren posted at 14.01 on 08.02.05 comments (0)

Thursday, July 28, 2005

but hey, at least dumbledore likes knitting!

Hey, so I hear some book came out a few weeks ago? With, like, magic and snogging in it?

I can't say I was blown away by Half-Blood Prince. (I'll keep this spoiler-free, since there's no way to hide spoilers in an RSS feed.) I can say, though, that I read it so quickly (roughly 14 hours start to finish) and when I was so tired (I'd been up 21 hours when I started reading, do that math for yourself), that I don't really trust my first reaction to it. I got bored toward the middle; I was strangely underwhelmed by the ending. But we're well set up for book 7, and I can't wait.

But who cares about the book when there are costumes to talk about! I'm afraid that I dropped the ball (as always) on getting nice dignified costume pictures, but fortunately my friends and I wound up in the freaking NY Times (zoomed version here), so you can see our costumes decently there. I took some bad pictures of my Quidsocks, and in this one you can see my Quidditch sweater pretty well. I wound up not wearing my sweater sleeves at all - it was stiflingly humid, as July in NYC is apt to be, and I was sweating enough in just the sweater-vest. In case anyone's interested in more pictures from Union Square, all my pictures from the day are hosted here. Most of them are vaguely embarassing, but such is life.

As soon I'd recovered from HBP, I was knee-deep in preparations for moving to my new apartment in Brooklyn, which I did last Wednesday and Thursday. I'm fairly settled in, though not completely unpacked, and I still don't have internet access at home. Nor have I been at work, because on Saturday, in a show of spectacular klutziness, I slipped on wet tile and pulled a muscle in my back. So, instead of being productive, I've spent the last four days holed up in my room, propped up in a loveseat with little mobility from my waist, reading (I finished Tom Robbins' Jitterbug Perfume and am most of the way through The Hobbit; I can only deal with Tolkien when it's my only course of amusement). I only just picked up my knitting yesterday, to turn the heel of the second candy sock (I finished the first one while waiting for HBP and am wearing it here). I'm still waddling around with a grimace on my face, but between my PT (yes, I need physical therapy 'cause I fell three feet; how lame am I?) and the excellent care provided by my mom, I'm at least back in the office today, and much less grouchy to boot.

The one bit of good news I can report is that in the few days that I was internetless and uninjured, I finally got the Quidditch sock pictures off my camera (which, you might recall, broke in a most untimely fashion). They're now color-balanced and set into the pattern, which will officially be finished once I confirm my gauge. Once I have internet at home, I'll fiiiiinally be able to get the pattern online. About freaking time. :p

It's also cooling down a bit in the city, so I'm hoping that this weekend I can pop in my PoA DVD and take a couple last notes to get started in earnest on the animal cracker hat. I think I can deal with bulky-weight wool when the high is 76°, at least.

Lauren posted at 13.02 on 07.28.05 comments (0)

Thursday, June 23, 2005

a little good, a little bad

Okay, so. For once, I actually made good on my promise of FO pictures and dutifully brought the Quidditch sock and camera with me when I went to Long Island last week for the Pixies/Interpol show at Jones Beach. (The concert was amazing, for anyone who's interested.) Took plenty of pictures in Adrienne's yard, got back into the city... and my camera LCD had uncermoniously ceased to function. So, as it stands, I have an unfinalized mini-CD of socks pictures just waiting to be processed and inserted into an otherwise finished pattern, and now that I've upgraded my computer to XP it can't read unfinalized discs.

In short? Until I get the LCD fixed, I'm SOL. And given that I'm moving in the not-so-distant future, I have no clue when I'll have more disposable cash to throw at this camera. I love it to pieces, but it sure can be a pain in the arse.

In the meantime, I'm about a third of the way up the leg of the second sock. Thank you, too-hot-for-scarfknitting weather! I've been toting the sock with me everywhere I go, knitting on the bus, on the train, while walking, while my boss is gone. (Naturally the moment I typed that, my boss walks in. La dee da...) I'm very proud of myself, for a multitude of reasons:

1) I've mastered the fine art of working 4x2 ribbing without looking. Maybe this is easy for you, but until recently I had to glance down occasionally while purling. This is a huge step forward in my quest to knit 24-7.

2) I've never successfully met a costume deadline before, and it really seems like I might this time. (Actually, that's a bit of a lie. I finished my SS/CoS Ravenclaw sweater in time for the OotP release, except that I meant to go back and fix a *cough* slight dyelot problem across the yoke, so I didn't consider the sweater completed at the time. Needless to say, it's been two years and I haven't touched the sweater except to wear it.)

3) Quidditch socks are really damn cool, and I'm psyched beyond words to finally have a pair. I 100% intend to wear them during the HP off-season, especially in the winter. I live for kneesocks in the winter.

I washed the first of those many scarves this week. Naturally it was the only machine washable one, but I think I made up for the lack of effort there by spending three hours duplicate-stitching a rampant lion at one end. I refused to realize it at the time, but the lion looks much more like a rampaging monkey. The scarf is for my coworker's sister and he's going home this weekend. Oops.

I have to clean the bathroom sink before I can wash any more scarves. I predict that this (simple, you would assume) task will hold me up for at least a week. I'm not lazy, I'm busy. Honest.

I was at P&S yesterday buying more scarf yarn and made the fatal mistake of wandering through the fancy fabric section. What did I find, you ask? The perfect white silk for Padmé's lavender dress from Episode 3. Sonofabitch. It was exactly the right weight and texture on both sides (since both sides show), just gorgeous stuff. I died right there in the store. It wouldn't come cheap, though - it was $15/yd and I can't imagine I'd need less than 10 yards since all the pieces are on the bias. Plus the thought of dyeing $150 worth of fabric myself is scary enough to give me palpitations just thinking about it. I'm such a spazz.

Lauren posted at 11.52 on 06.23.05 comments (0)