Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Time for something new

It's been ages since I posted anything to this blog. Ravelry does so much of what I originally did here. It tracks everything about my knitting projects, not to mention the groups inspire half of what I'm doing anyway. I'm particularly devoted to the Harry Potter Knit-Crochet House Cup group. Basically, the founders of the group put together a way to bring knitting smack into Hogwarts. All the members playing in a particular "term" are sorted into the four houses. Each term is three months long. I've already played two terms, so this term I am a third-year Gryffindor. There are six "classes" for which we may submit items knitted, crocheted, or spun during the month. This month, for instance, I submitted homework in Transfiguration (transfigure your ravelry queue from a disorganized mess to an organized project planning resource), Divination (figure out which type of palm you have and make something to keep yours warm), Potions (focusing on aconite, craft something either dangerous or that would delight Dumbledore), Arithmancy (an item illustrating the Droste effect), Charms (the rictusempra charm--craft something to tickle someone or that tickles the professor's funny bone), and Defense Against the Dark Arts (make something that represents a resolution you know you can keep). Each assignment earns 15 points for Gryffindor house. I'm also attempting two OWLs this term: Arithmancy, multiples option in which I propose to finish 8 individual socks in three months; and Muggle Studies in which I attempt to knit a sweater to help me blend in with the Muggles. Each completed OWL is worth 150 points for the house. There's also Quidditch going on, but I haven't played except in my first term. This whole idea is fabulous, and I so much enjoy taking part. I know it's somewhat silly, but as a fan of Harry Potter, I can't help but love it.

In life in general, my son with autism continues to perform well academically and struggle somewhat behaviorally and socially. He's such a smart little stinker. His latest obsession is with Star Wars and Legos and the combination, Lego Star Wars. When he's not wanting to play it on the Wii, he's making ships and setting up elaborate scenes with his Legos. It's interesting to us that his favorite character of the entire saga is Anakin. Because he watched the movies from Episode 1 through Episode 6, he gets that the whole thing is about Anakin, not Luke and Leia as it always seemed to those of us who started with Episode 4. The Clone Wars show on the Cartoon Network helps with that, too, of course, since Anakin and his padawan are the heroes of that show.

Now that the kids are home from school for the day, I really must end this post and get on with the homework battle. I'll post some pictures of my HPKCHC homework when I get a chance.