Badger Badger Mushroom

Our Giraffe Stampede for History of Magic was a huge success, and in keeping with that, I'm proposing a Mushroom Stomp for DADA this month. Craftyshanna introduced me (and many others, I'm sure!) to the badger-badger-mushroom video, and I think it would be a great start to a group project submission. We're still working out the story bits, but it promises to be a lot of fun. All you have to do is craft something mushroom related, and Ravelry has 65 free patterns to help you do just that. We'll be posting them on the 22nd, to get them finished up and submitted before our House Pride Exhibition starts. To keep up with the Stomp, check in regularly with the Badgertastic Group Projects thread.

Speaking of the HPE, Minsue had the fabulous idea to do a HPE HECK project this month with a House Elf House Pride Drill Team. We're still ironing out the details, but I'll let you know once all the decisions have been finalized. The Quidditch Tie-along is still going strong, as well. Will you be ready to show off your tie during the HPE?

Finally, the October yardage challenge in underway. Congratulations to epazia for using up 5235 yards last month! That's amazing! Even more amazing are the final tally numbers for September: 1300 woven yards, 2614 spun yards, and 38,335.8 knit/crocheted yards. I'm in awe, guys. And I totally need to start calculating my yardage ;)

Stampede On!

The Giraffe Stampede is offically live. It began here in History of Magic, but we've already seen some spottings in Transfiguration and Herbology. You have all weekend to join in. The giraffes are stampeding the 24th and 25th, leaf-related items to help coax the giraffes back to the Chamber of Spots are scheduled to go out the 25th and 26th, and the clean-up crew will be in full force the 26th and 27th.

Sorry for the short post this week. It's the end of the month...I'm knitting like there's no tomorrow ;) Have a fabulous last week of September!

First Half-Way Check

So we're officially into the second half of September. How are your projects going? Do you need inspiration?

The Quidditch Tie-Along is expanding to include other houses, and our Captain, Yarnvista, had a Badgertastic idea for our House Pride Exhibition in October:

As Captain, I’d like to make the suggestion that maybe as many ‘Puffs as possible make a House Tie for Regular Quidditch and then we could maybe make a massive Cheer during one of the Exhibition Days, maybe the first day, where we could post pictures of ourselves, loved ones, and pets wearing said ties in a huge yellow and black wave of House Pride!!! That would also free up our Exhibition days to make the other kinds of projects that don’t qualify for regular Quidditch, like bags and washcloths and bookmarks and blankets and every other thing that isn’t a garment. Of course, if you really want to make a garment for the Exhibition, that’s okay too.

The Giraffe Stampede is progressing! We've made the following outline for project submission dates:

So, I’m thinking that the giraffes could stampede on the 24th and 25th. Then any leaf-related projects could help round them up on the 25th and 26th. Finally (this is a new twist because I’m not going to get a giraffe made, but do want to stampede), the giraffe cleanup crew will be along to sweep up any ‘debris’ on the 26th and 27th (I’m going to make a swiffer cover, but a dishcloth would do -- lots of giraffe nose-snuffle marks to wipe up). ~Minsue

This is what we have for the story, which is a compilation of story bits from needlesnswiffers, vspringer, tiggersjp, purplesparkler, and myself. The adorable giraffe picture was created by bellymonster.

The Room of Requirement, a magical part of Hogwarts Castle, is many different things to many different people. Hufflepuffs through the centuries have utilized the Room of Requirement as the Chamber of Spots to study kindness, being gentle, meditation, hugs, and baking. You enter the Chamber of Spots once you have mastered enough purpletongue from your Mama or Papa Badgers to ask the room to enter. The Chamber of Spots earned its name, because Hufflepuffs love giraffes. Giraffes have a quiet, serene nature; they so closely match our colors, and because they’re highly useful when you need to pull ingredients for recipes off of top shelves.

In the spirit of kindness and hugs, the House Elf Crafting Klatch decided to bring some good cheer to the free elf Winky. As everyone who has read Goblet of Fire will know, Winky didn’t enter the ranks of the free house elves gracefully. The members of HECK felt that Winky could find comfort in the giraffes, and learn to be at peace with her new lot in life. We entered the Chamber of Spots looking for gifts for her. We found coasters and cozies, garments and toys. All things we felt would lift the spirits of dear Winky. Upon leaving, however, we discovered that the door to Chamber was ajar, and one of the most curious giraffes had escaped!

After spending most of his Sunday afternoon following the Hufflepuffs as they ran round the corridors attempting to retrieve the Giraffe, Hagrid told us that “giraffes oughter be able to run free”. We didn’t quite like to release it into the Forbidden Forest (how would we look after it?), so we coaxed the giraffe with leaves, leading it to the Transfiguration room. Professor McGonagall enchanted the giraffe into a painting, which we put down in the kitchen for Winky. You can now find our gentle friend wandering paintings throughout the castle.

Currently, I'm planning to post the story to History of Magic the morning of the 24th, and then it will all progress from there. I'm super excited to see all of the giraffe projects come together!

A Good Ol' Fashioned Challenge

It's week 2, and the group projects are rolling along. Several students are preparing to storm History of Magic later in the month with the Giraffe Stampede, and maybe a few other classes. We're aiming to submit the giraffes the weekend of the 24th. So far we have a couple of ideas going for the story...Chamber of Spots, Giraffes roaming the castle pictures, and some combination of the two. I'll (hopefully) post the final story next week to get you inspired to finish your giraffes!

The September Yardage Challenge is underway, as well. Calculate the yardage of every project you finish in September. It's ok if it started the month as a wip, just calculate the total yardage for the project and post it in the challenge thread with your running tally. Our Badgertastic winner for August is SuperM, with ~1860 yards. Wow!

Finally, we had our first Yarntastic Yellow Huffleteer last week. Briezee made some badgertastic yellow accented socks and shoes for her 27 year old cabbage patch kid, Tania, and submitted it to Potions. Way to go, Briezee!

House Unity and House Elves with a stampede of Giraffes

September is finally here, and classes are posted for the 7th term of the Harry Potter Knitting/Crochet House Cup. We have some fabulously badgertastic group projects going on that I hope will inspire you to craft and be merry. You can see a list of our current group projects here. I’ll be updating this list montly with the changing of the classes.

First, I would like to remind everyone that Quidditch is underway, and it’s really easy to participate. The goal is to prepare for the release of the first Deathly Hallows movie in November with a lot of house pride. All you have to do is craft a garment in house colors. That’s it! You don’t even have to craft in your own house’s colors. For anyone who needs a reminder: Gryffindor is red and gold, Hufflepuff is black and yellow, Ravenclaw is blue and silver/bronze, and Slytherin is silver and green. Our lovely keeper is Yarnvista. She’s currently accepting applications for the roles of Beater (x2) and Seeker. Please contact her if you’re interested in joining the team! All people who craft for quidditch are considered Chasers this term, so no sign ups are necessary there.

Next, we have HECK, the House Elf Crafting Klatch. Last July, we crafted to send our elves to camp. Now, we’re focusing on the free elves, Dobby and Winky. You’ll find a ton of project ideas in the HECK! It’s September thread in the Hufflepuff House Group on Ravelry. Namely, GIRAFFES! This month, Hufflepuff has been overrun with giraffe-fever. I haven’t contacted the school nurse yet, but if this gets out of hand, you can bet that I will ;) The main idea here is to craft something that would benefit Dobby or Winky, so the options are limitless. I bet Winky would get a lot of comfort out of a little giraffe stuffed animal, though.

Finally, the other idea that seems to be generating a lot of excitement is the house unity color theme. TheAlexKlein got us rolling with a great post of possible color themes in the Badgertastic Group Projects thread. For September, we’re going with the theme proposed by Needlesnswiffers – Yarntastic Yellow! How many projects can you craft in yellow in the month of September?

In the coming weeks, I’ll bring you updates to any cete-based group projects that might be happening, along with quidditch updates and general project progress. Happy Crafting, Everyone!

Congrats! It's FALL!!!

Oh, how wonderful! It is FINALLY September 1st, and the classes are posted. I (Fluttervale, that is...) finally got to cast on something new. I was So Good in August with my Snap stuff.

Anyways, let's talk a little bit about Quidditch. Quidditch seems to be the most confusing of the classes, so let's break it down. Unless you are a Keeper or Beater (in which case you already know your role and what you've gotta do), you are a Chaser.

Chasers have to knit garments (not headband, not wristie, but gloves/mittens/scarf/sweater/etc.) which are in the colors of one, and only one, house. But the upside: You can make stuff for ANY house, it just has to be consistent: Red & Gold, Yellow & Black, Silver or Bronze & Blue, Silver & Green, OR it can be one of the acceptable House Unity items listed in the first post in the Quidditch thread. Colors are very important this term, so if you aren't sure if your yarn is the "right" color, you'll want to ask in the Quidditch thread.

Here's the great part: You can make as many of these items as you want. The more you make, the more points we get. So me? I have like 20 miles of white Caron Simply Soft. It's going to turn into a big pile of House Unity scarves. And that's in addition to your classwork. The sky is the limit with Quidditch, folks.

Now let's play a clean game, and have fun!

Are you ready for September 1st?

Hi! I'm Fluttervale, TA for DADA this term, and one of your house Bloggers. Are you ready for the Fall Term? Here's what I do before each term.

1. I get the main forum ready to read. I start by ignoring all the old threads (because I find lots of threads visually distracting). Today, I removed everything that wasn't stickied except the Hufflepuff Common Room. (I ignored a few stickies, too, that I'm not participating in.) Just click in the "status" box next to each thread, and the option to ignore comes up. Once term starts, I'll ignore all of the common rooms except my own, and I generally ignore old class threads as well from previous months.

2. I read all of the remaining threads until I was caught up. Because, you know, I get behind on these things.

3. I visited the Hufflepuff House Group and did the same. I checked in on the Blog post (since I'm obviously part of the Blog team!) and will shortly be active in that group, just as soon as this post is posted.

4. I checked my Queue, and made sure that all the patterns that I'd like to work on this term are in my queue, and that all my patterns are printed. I even set aside the yarn in a special bin for classes. My goal this term is to knit up scarves and dishcloths, and I have some mittens/handwear patterns as well that I'd like to do for classes.

Fall 2010 Mentoring!

MENTORING!!!

Fall 2010 Cetes

In fall 2010, we will have 10 Cetes of Badgers. Each Cete will have at least one 4th year or higher leader ("Mama Badger" or "Papa Badger"), one 2nd or 3rd year, and however many firsties that balances out to. If I have more than 10 volunteers from each group, some groups may have additional upperclassmen to help out the firsties.

Each Cete will be given a name (a species/sub-species of Badger) and we will carry those Cetes forward so you can be a permanent member of that Cete. We'll make it up as we go along with the various what-ifs. Members are always welcome to Cete-hop and visit the others, of course, or do one of those "visit to stay" sorts of things! Each Cete will have it's own thread in the Hufflepuff House Group which should make it easier for everyone to stay in touch.

So, if you'd like to be part of the mentoring program, please PM Fluttervale on Ravelry and let her know, as well as your year, so I can make sure to balance out everyone. I need Upperclassman sign-ups by the 28th, please. (If you sign up later, that's cool, I'll still stick you in a Cete, I just would really like to get the upperclassmen figured out before the Firsties.)

If you are a firstie and asked for Hufflepuff, you will almost certainly become a Huff--we are the least-requested house since the books make us out to be the least competitive. But we have a great supportive atmosphere, and at least once a term discuss just about every topic on the planet. Firsties, please do NOT PM me letting me know you want a mentor, you will get one, I promise! ScarlettB gives me a list so that I can match you up.

Remember: Of all the species representing the various houses, we are the highest up on the food chain! Let's have a great term and be welcoming to our Firsties!