Announcement from the Headmistress…
While everyone else is busy cancelling events, your Headmistress is expanding some! For this term only, I will be increasing the number of times you may complete the Detention prompts. You may now complete Work In Progress, Reparo, and Advanced Studies twice each, and you may complete Stash up to five times!
These changes are intended to give you something fun to focus on while staying home, but as always, you are free to do as many or as few prompts as you wish.
class Herb
House Ravenclaw
Project Rhubarb pie, something edible.
I bought a lot of fresh food last week as I wanted to have plenty in the house without having to go to the shops. So now I am trying to use it all up. There was some ready made pastry in the fridge, so this was dead easy.
Peel and chop rhubarb to fill a pie crust, add plenty of sugar (I used about 10 stalks of rhubarb and about 3 tbsp sugar. I could have doubled up on the sugar! and I don’t like things that sweet) and top with more pastry. Bake at about 160C until well browned.
Class Bookclub, chapter 3-letters
prompt-something that allows you to escape stress. I go for a walk first thing these mornings, in the woods there was a load of wild garlic. I have never collected it for food before, So I got a bunch and made this wild garlic pesto. The recipe is here. Wild garlic pesto
Class Detention-repair
Project, this was an old wooden cutlery (silverware) box from the salvage yard, I ripped out the old plastic flocked lining and painted it white. Then topped it with some fabric and used an old piece of a dyed woollen blanket to line it-the more I look at the photo of the lining the more it annoys me that the lines are not aligned. But the box is only for storage on shelves so I am going to leave it.
Class or Challenge Title: Detention - Stash LC ChallengeD&F Spring Cleaning with a Twist! House: Gryffindor! Project Name: Makers Gonna Make Canister Brief Description: I repurposed a utensil canister that would have otherwise gone into the recycling, to hold rulers in my craft room, and it was for one of the new LC challenges! Project Picture:
Class or Challenge Title: Herbology House: Gryffindor! Project Name: Adhesive Vinyl Decorations Brief Description: I spent the afternoon cutting some vinyl pieces as party decoration for an upcoming event that PerfectlyBohemian is hosting. I have to admit that while I don’t use my Silhouette for adhesive vinyl all that much, this project was so much fun! The image was nice and clear and weeded so easily. Project Picture:
Note from the Headmistress… I’ve added another prompt for the term. From now until the end of term, you can do the new Make Your Own Holiday prompt up to two times!
Class or Challenge Title: History of Magic House: Gryffindor Project Name & Page Link: “All You Need is Tea” Wall Hanging Brief Description: It’s cute. It’s pastel. It’s tea-related. It would totally fit right in with Madam Puddifoot’s. Project Picture:
Class or Challenge Title: Potions House: Gryffindor Project Name & Page Link: “Where There’s Tea There’s Hope” Wall Hanging Brief Description: I made this with the intention of sending it to my tea-loving friend who’s currently battling cancer. I hope it’ll bring a smile to her face! Project Picture:
Class or Challenge Title: Book Club Chapter 4 - Keeper of the Keys House: Gryffindor Project Name & Page Link: Our Traditional St. Paddy’s Day meal! Brief Description: My grandmother was from Ireland. My dad lived there for several years. I got to visit when I turned 18 with my grandmother who was always very proud to be Irish. There are several “traditional” foods that I will not touch at all but corned beef? I can do some corned beef and cabbage! The ultimate comfort food - especially as we celebrated alone since we’re not allowed to have people over.
I didn’t follow a real recipe but I’ll tell you how I made it.
Chop up carrots, onions, potatoes and place them in the slow cooker.
Add your corned beef roast on top of veggies.
Add 6 oz of beer (if you have it, which we didn’t - still delish!), and cover with the seasoning packet that came with the corned beef.
Cook on high for 6-8 hours.
I ran out of room in my slow cooker for cabbage so I cooked it separately. (Cabbage: boil salted water, add cabbage wedges, boil for 10 minutes, drain, cover in delicious butter and salt.)
We usually have rolls too because I love making little sandwiches out of them with plain yellow mustard.
Project Picture: Late night lighting so it doesn’t look as appetizing but I promise it was delicious!
~ ADVANCED STUDIES PROPOSAL ~ Project Name: Klaziena Shawl House: Gryffindor! Brief Description: Well, it’s time I come to terms with the fact that my latest shawl project is in fact, an Advanced Studies project. I started my Klaziena Shawl back on Christmas Eve, thinking I’d work on it over Christmas through New Year’s, while Craftster was down. But after a promising beginning, it got put on hold for other projects for friends. With us all social distancing, I pulled it back out on Monday and was all ‘F- yeah! I’m gonna bust through this project!’ Little did I know…
Despite my enthusiasm, on Monday I got all of two rows done, and on Tuesday I only got one done. The yarn is just so thin, that not even a quarter of the way through the project, and each row is already hundreds of stitches long. And every row is different, with a 20 row-repeat, that you just can’t memorize and zone out on. I’m fairly certain that even if I do work on it a minimum of 2 hours per night, every night, it will take several weeks to complete.
Here’s where I was as of Monday night. The pattern is supposed to take the entire cake of yarn, plus another mini cake. You can see I’ve just begun to make a dent in the first cake. So Advanced Studies to hold myself accountable on this project!
Note from the Headmistress
Friends, you will have noticed that I’ve increased the number of Detentions you can do for this term, and added the Create Your Own Holiday prompt. This is of course, in reaction to the Coronavirus keeping us all at home. My goal is to give you all the chance to craft and play along with the HPC during this unprecidented moment. To hopefully keep spirits up, and cheer each other on. I don’t want anyone to be sad because they’ve filled all the crafting prompts and have nothing to inspire them.
I know some of us will be home and bored, and will get tons of crafting done. Meanwhile some of us will be at home suddenly surrounded by spouses and kids and pets, who seem to suck up all our time, and leave none for crafting and creativity. So this is just a reminder, as always, that you can participate as much, or as little as you wish here in the HPC. Don’t let my additional prompts make you feel as though you are ‘behind’. You aren’t.
And on the other side of the coin, if you find you have filled all the prompts, including my new ones, and are eager for a few more categories to fill, please, please let me know. I’m happy to add or adjust prompt limits, to keep this cheerful little corner of the internet going for you all, during a surreal & scary time. I want you all to feel like even if you’re social distancing, through the use of Muggle-magic, we can all be together here in our very own online-Burrow.
Class: Herbology House: Hufflepuff Project name and link: knitted floor mat Knitted floor mat Brief Description: I got this really lovely deep purple stretchy yarn that’s actually up cycled teeshirt scraps. I tried a quick floor mat, and it turned out to be a nice rug to stand on at the sink while vanquishing the dirty dishes.
Class or Challenge Title: Detention: Reparo House: Slytherin Project Name & Page Link: Pillow Mending Brief Description: Sometime in Autumn my dog was kind enough to give us her opinion on two decorative pillows. This was the salvageable one of the two. I restitched it closed and then added a blanket stitch border around it hoping to shore up the seams a bit. Project Picture:
Class or Challenge Title: HM Challenge March - Vernal Equinox House: Hufflepuff Project Name & Page Link: Colorful Blending Board Spin Brief Description: I was finally able to spin up the blending board batts I made with a little bit of everything last term. The color scheme for me is very spring-y, in contrast to the constant grey and rainy that is the reality of spring in Pittsburgh. My plan for this yarn is to use in weaving scarves for my nieces, once I finally get around to setting the loom up. Project Picture:
Announcement from the Headmistress… 
Note from the Headmistress 
