QUIDDITCH ~ QUIDDITCH ~ QUIDDITCH

This morning Ian and I were involved in a Quidditch match on our Ravelry group, HSKS (Hogwarts Sock Kit Swap) group. We are in the house of Ravenclaw. This season, I am Team Captain for the Ravenclaws as well as a Chaser. Ian is a Beater.

What does all this mean? For non-Quidditch playing folks, here is a quick synopsis of Quidditch. You can read about on this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quidditch or you can read what I gathered here from another source.

Quidditch is the fantastic sport created by J.K. Rowling in her series of Harry Potter books. Rowling further explored the origins of the sport in a short book specifically devoted to Quidditch, Quidditch through The Ages. The great popularity of the Harry Potter books has led muggles, or non-magic folk, to develop muggle Quidditch.

As defined by Rowling, Quidditch is played on flying broomsticks. Each team has seven members. On each side of the field there are three goal hoops that stand vertically. Part of the goal of Quidditch is to score points by getting the quaffle, a ball similar to a soccer ball, through any of the team’s three goals.

The three chasers on the team are the only ones allowed to shoot the quaffle into the hoops. While they attempt to score goals, worth 10 points each, the opposing team’s keeper attempts to block the goals. In addition to the quaffle, there are two bludgers, enchanted balls that fly around the stadium. The bludgers can be partly controlled by the team’s two beaters, who carry cricket-like bats. When a bludger comes near the team, the beaters hit it away with the bat, hoping to knock it into members of the opposing team.

The fourth ball in Quidditch is the enchanted golden snitch. It is approximately the size of a golf ball and is very fast. It can also appear or disappear, and generally is not present when the game first begins.

The seeker must catch the golden snitch, and the catch earns the seeker’s team 150 points. Catching the golden snitch usually ends the game, and results in a win for the team that caught the snitch. However, in one famous game in the fourth Harry Potter book at the World Quidditch Cup, the Belgian Seeker catches the snitch, but the Belgian team still loses to Ireland.

Quidditch can be a brutal sport, often resulting in injuries as people fall off broomsticks or get slammed by bludgers. Fortunately, the magical world can usually address injuries almost immediately. For muggle Quidditch, certain modifications to the game had to be made to reduce possible injuries, since we are not so good at instant cures to broken bones.

Naturally, muggle Quidditch cannot be played on flying broomsticks, though many fans of the Harry Potter world wish it could. Neither the bludgers nor the snitch can be enchanted. Therefore, muggle Quidditch must be played on the ground, and adds to the team’s seven members two players called bludgerers, who throw the bludger around to mimic the enchanted movement of magic bludgers.

To keep things safe, bludgers tend to be made of soft foam, so anyone coming into contact with a bludger will not suffer injury. The beaters still try to repel the bludger, but if someone is hit by a bludger, they are temporarily “out” of the game. The tagged player must usually sit on the sidelines for an agreed upon time period before rejoining the game.

The quaffle is still handled by the three chasers, and is usually a size three or four soccer ball. In some variants, players use a basketball, which must be dribbled and passed to get to the team’s goal posts. The keeper is still the only one who can attempt to block shots to the goals. The chasers can kick or throw the ball into the hoops. Each goal still earns 10 points.

At some point in the game, the two referees or other designated persons, such as parents, release the snitch. Two more players may be added, snitchers to throw the snitch through the field at varying intervals. This position is excellent for differently abled adults or children who may not be able to run through the field well or hold some of the other team positions. The muggle snitch is a tiny, high-bouncing ball. Depending on the variants, the snitch may be released more than once, with the 150 points going to the seeker who catches the snitch most often, or it may be released only once as in wizard Quidditch.

Both muggle and wizard Quidditch are co-ed sports. For non-magic folk, the adaptations have created a fun, rather confusing game that is a chaotic mix of basketball, soccer, dodge ball, cricket, and simple catch. Most muggles will agree, though, that they would prefer to play Rowlings’ original sport, as we secretly desire a flying broomstick.

At any rate, if you have read the above information, you now know what the jobs are for Chasers and Beaters. However, in the knitting and crocheting world, Chasers have to knit/crochet a provided pattern in as short amount of time as possible, post the photo, and get started on another project. There are three knitting and three crocheting patterns released at the time of the Snitch.

The Beater in our little fiber world has previously provided numerous trivia questions to the referees (which the entire teams can help compile), and when the Beater receives the bludger, a trivia question is thrown out to the other team against another player. The other team has 5 minutes to answer it or there will be a penalty. Some penalties are, "You were hit in the nose and now have a bad nosebleed. Eat a nosebleed nougat for 1 minute until the bleeding stops." That means, if it was hit against a Chaser or Seeker or Keeper ... they have to stop what they are doing for 1 minute. This can be crucial if the Chaser and Keeper are close to finishing a project.

Once your team's Chaser posts a finished project, the other team's Keeper has 20 minutes to make the exact same pattern and get it posted. In this instance, it's a mad dash. After today, they are increasing that time, as 20 minutes was just not long enough for some patterns.

And, why have I written all this? Because I wanted to share my finished projects ...

This washcloth took me 16 minutes to complete.
This rose took me 22 minutes to complete. There is a leaf behind that rose, you just can't see it. I didn't wrap the rose up very well. I was working VERY fast.

Lastly, three crocheted bats. These are a bit wonky looking, but I have since given them to each of the kids as a bookmark. They like them.

What's in the oven?

A friend and neighbor of ours recently got a juicer and she's been juicing up LOTS of carrots. She has more pulp than she knows what to do with ... so we are helping her out. We make a trade of cucumbers because we have so many. At any rate, we had two large bags of carrot pulp in the refrigerator. We've made several different kinds of muffins, but this afternoon I've decided to make carrot bread and used this recipe. Here's hoping it turns out as yummy as carrot cake ... I do love carrot cake!

http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,1654,142184-246198,00.html

Another day ... another dollar

Well, not for me, as I do not get paid for my job, at least not now. I think payment comes in the end, when you reap what you put into it. It's been a tough day. The biggest thing has been the bickering and the arguing as of late. I finally told the kids they were no longer allowed to argue and fight. If they wanted to do it, they had to do it on paper! I thought for sure that would end it.

Oh no!

Out came the paper and pencils/pens! I couldn't believe it! BUT ... it all ended in smiles. Which, I was sort of hoping would happen.

Love how things finally worked out in the end, but getting to that point was something else. I think this is just the age ... they are all just becoming little human beings. I wish they were little still. I miss them being little.

Latest Needle Mess

Trying to do a Super Secret KAL ... and I am having trouble. Wonder why?

When the cat's away ...

So, Daryn's off again for another week. Yuck! He left Friday night for Everett to go and "play" sailor for the weekend and returned home Sunday evening, only to have to turn around and repack for his departure the next day. He left here about 5:30 Monday morning and narrowly made his flight to Las Vegas with two and a half minutes to spare! Guess there was some traffic! He arrived in Vegas before noon, but it took him nearly two hours to get out of the airport ... have to love vehicle rentals! (Not!) Then he drove to China Lake, the first of several stops in the next couple weeks.

In the meantime, trying to keep the home fires burning, well, not literally, we have resumed our "normal" every day schedule. Amber went to sewing class Monday morning. Later in the afternoon she was caught in a lie. She said she had finished her spelling homework, when in fact, she just said she had. So, I told her she had to do say-spell-say and write the spelling and vocabulary THREE times instead of twice, AND there would be no dance class. That part killed me. However, punishing any other way has not had an impact on her as of late. I caught her several weeks ago lying about washing her hands after using the bathroom. We've had to resort to inspections after she goes now. At any rate, taking dance away was the worse thing I could think of and once I said it, I couldn't go back. URGH! She sure carried on. You would have thought the dog had been run over by a car. Poor Evyn had to endure her temper tantrum because he stayed home to make dinner. She was STILL doing her school work when we returned just over an hour later. I had to apologize to the dance teacher, too, but I am really praying this does the trick this time.

This afternoon Ian has decided to make some banana bread. We had three VERY ripe bananas. I also thought we could do breakfast night tonight as it's a late-ish dance night and with Daryn gone, no one to put dinner in the oven, etc. So, Ian is making a double batch, as we do have an abundance of bananas and they are all quickly ripening, and we shall have French Toast made with banana bread. Could prove interesting!

Ethan wins Weblos Pinewood Derby

Two weeks ago the Cub Scout pack held their Pinewood Derby. Ethan initially wanted to make his car into Anakin Skywalker's pod racer from Star Wars, but neither he nor Daryn could figure out how to achieve that.
Ethan's car is on the right of the orange car, black and red. The front and back, at one point in time, looked the same. But, he left it on the floor under his chair in the classroom and Joule got to it and gnawed away at it. So, Daryn performed some surgical cutting out in the garage. Ethan sanded down the whole thing. It was smooth as glass. Then they when and purchased spray paint in Ethan's color choices. After a few coats they varnished it. It was sleek.

Ethan stands at the ready near the start of the track, awaiting his turn to race.

Here Ethan places his car in Track 2.
On your marks ... get set ... GO!

Now Ethan places his car in Track 1. This is his second race. On your mark ... get set ...

GO! He had the fastest run of the night against the Webelos.
The announcement is made. Ethan placed first and moves on to the next level some time in April to race other area Webelos. However, he'll need to fix his car. He hit it on the table after the race and bent an axle.
Daryn was the announcer for the evening. Here he awards Ethan his first place ribbon!

Miniature Socks

Okay, so I wanted to see how small I could go when making socks. I used regular sock yarn, leftovers from the Harry Potter socks I made the boys for Christmas. I used the pattern from the keychain sock blocker kit I got last fall, and I went down to size 000 double point needles (from a size 1) to make these. Cute, huh? TINY! (yes!)


Incidentally, these photos were taken at about the same time. Notice the sun in one and the yucky weather in the other?