From the Desk of the Spreadsheet Sorceress: Fall 2015 Progress--Pie and other Noms!

It's that time of term again: time for the start-of-the-last-month update!  Can you believe that there are less than three weeks to go in term?  This spreadsheet sorceress can't! 

There is plenty of good news to report, though, and Tower residents have been crafting busily all term!  As we predicted in at the start of term, Advanced Studies are an area where the house is excelling!  Those Order Missions are starting to come in, and so are completed OWLs!  As usual, Ravenclaw has achieved above-average completion rates for the Advanced Studies milestones.  Let's keep it up and get those projects done!  Remember, Order Missions are due November 18!

Ravenclaws have also been collecting books left and right in classes.  We've really answered the Prefects' call to #RestoreTheLibrary!  The speed-reading Flight of the First badge has been a big hit, and so have the Detention badges!  There's one detention badge to go: get Detention in by November 29 for the Madeleine L'Engle badge!  And don't forget about that awesome Completionist badge if you're still on track!  I know I'm going for that one!

Possibly the most exciting race right now is for the Quiddy Cup.  Ravenclaw is only about 100 points behind the leaders, Hufflepuff, and only about 50 points ahead of Gryffindor!  And Slytherin is only a few hundred points behind Gryffindor!  With the largest number of eligible players, Ravenclaw is in a good position to take the Quiddy Cup.  But with yardage bonus back in play and 22 base points per project, it's going to be a very tight contest!  Remember, Quiddy Task 4 is due on November 25!  So get on those brooms if you're eligible, and turn out to the pitch to cheer on your housemates if you're not!

In the race for the House Cup, Ravenclaw has a solid lead, but the race for second is fierce.  Let's finish the term strong and keep up this momentum we've built all term!  Let's beat those personal bests, keep finding books, and SOAR!!

Firstie Friday - October Stats Showcase!

Can you believe it's November already?  I'm hoping we will be getting some posts from our Firsties over the next couple of weeks, but in the meantime, how about some October Firstie Statistics?

I'm going to start with Advanced Studies again because I am so tickled with how well everyone is doing.  Every single First Year who put in an OWL proposal got her midterm in! 100%!  A couple of favorites:

EngineersFalcon has finished half of her proposed 3 pairs of socks:

 

and ccgal220 and kaddidly are making great progress on their sweaters:

I'm sure Missions are proceeding apace as well; I can't wait to see what everyone turns in!

The Firsies were well represented in Quidditch, too.  Seven students turned in projects for Task 2 and five continued of to Task 3. LeahandtheDragon crocheted a bunch (herd? crowd?) of skrewts:

kvaustin knitted this lovely bookmark:

and so did Anniewithsticks:

The  second Headmistress Challenge was well attended with nine Firsties bringing fourteen projects to the ball!  Turn ins included balletisthebest's cowl:

 her very first knitted project (!) and ccgal220's birthday shawl and socks:

Not that they neglected their classwork!  The Ravenclaw First Years submitted forty one classes and eight detentions in October!  Among my favorites is this beautiful necklace cacaogoddess made for DADA:

j0ke's innocent hats:

-- these two were submitted for DADA and Beauxbatons -- and sesalem82's version of Turanga Leela's wrist Lojackimator:

also for DADA.  (There was a lot of cool stuff in that class!)

I hope you have enjoyed this little look into what the Firsties were up to in October. I'm looking forward to seeing how they finish out the term!

Weekly Showcase Wednesday… on Thursday!!!

I'm so sorry this Wednesday's showcase is a little late!  There were just so many fabulous projects at the end of October and it took quite a while to gather them all.  This may be the largest collection of awesome projects I've put together yet!

But you've waited long enough, so without further ado, let me present this week's winners of the Golden Pickle Award!

kandbpurple knit an elegant silvery grey shawl for CoMC:

Laceknitting knit a fabulous beret for CoMC:

CacaoGoddess made a beautiful necklace for DADA:

Jozefeen knit and crocheted several awesome strings of lights that can be connected together for DADA, Herbology, and Durmstrang:

roocmc knit a delightful pair of rainbow fingerless mitts for Flying and made a lovely shawl for Beauxbatons:

secrettrail made this adorable egg that turns into a penguin for Flying:

ravenclawamber wove a fantastic scarf with a subtle rainbow:

LeahandtheDragon designed a very cool cowl--or is it a hat? or maybe even a bag?--for Flying:

FeoragRuadh made a wonderful (and deceiving!) tunisian crochet cowl (it really does look like knitting, doesn't it?) for Flying:

senkatnovo spun a gorgeous skein of yarn for Herbology:

ah77 made a great papier mâché mask for Journalism:

jayanell made a magnificent Maleficent costume for Journalism and the Headmistress Challenge:

tikabelle spun a fantastic skein of yarn for Journalism:

NoNeinNyet knit a beautiful lacy shawl for Beauxbatons:

Aourai knit a marvelous pair of socks for Durmstrang:

IggyLinda knit a splendid cabled hat for Hogwarts:

Bijou3owl knit some of her own handspun into a lovely stripey scarf for Hogwarts:

knotnknit knit a fabulous pair of socks for Hogwarts:

tkannon knit a stunning colorwork hat for Hogwarts:

akasha111182 knit an elegant lacy shawl for the Headmistress Challenge:

isisonearth silkscreened some awesome napkins and a tea towel for the Headmistress Challenge:

ccgal220 knit a delicate lacy shawl for the Headmistress Challenge:

dnatheory made a very cool leather cuff for the Headmistress Challenge:

TheBeadyHooker made an exquisite beaded necklace for the Headmistress Challenge:

SaskiaBr made a dazzling beaded cuff for the Headmistress Challenge:

quiltyone made an impressive owl bib for the Headmistress Challenge:

Bacs made an adorable rainbow dress for the Headmistress Challenge:

Chrissyteenychan made a remarkable leather mask for the Headmistress Challenge:

SadieLou knit a fabulous pair of fingerless mitts for Quidditch:

ec0g33k knit an extremely cute stuffed moon (with a crater!) for Quidditch:

There were also a few 'Claws who took on a challenge and escaped the Mallet of Sanity to win the Pickle of Sanity Badge.

omeletsmom knit two yards of I-cord on size 000 needles (!!!) to make the drawstrings for this pretty bag for DADA:

LeahandtheDragon made not one, not two, but six little lobsters, each with multiple tiny pieces for Quidditch.  All those pieces!  All those ends!  All that seaming!

And did you really think that bigsnakes could back down from the insane yardage she has been putting out already this term?  She outdid her September total and turned in almost 15,000 yards (14,903 yards to be exact) in October!

We have one winner of the Electric Pickle Badge this week.  It may not exactly be science, but it's certainly mathematical, and llim herself called it "highly experimental."  I'm not even quite sure I understand it, but llim designed a deconstructed moebius cowl for Quidditch:

And finally, the laughs.  There were a lot of them this week.  Possibly because so many people were casting the Riddikulus spell in Quidditch, although I found myself laughing not only at Quiddy projects.  These 'Claws earned the Darth Pickle Badge for inciting the giggles…

TindraTieren made Iron Snailman for the Headmistress Challenge and told an amusing story as well:

FeoragRuadh staged quite a collection of scenes to tell the story of her hedgehog patronus for Quidditch:

Then I discovered a theme…  It seemed that everyone wanted to dress up someone this month.  There were muggles!  There were cats!  A dog!  And a few other more unique creatures…

knotnknit made pretty hilarious sushi costumes for herself and her muggle friends for the Headmistress Challenge:

librarygurl didn't want her Hufflepuff dog (who is named Cedric Doggery!) to look like a bumblebee, so she made him a skull and crossbones sweater for Hogwarts:

irreverentyarns dressed her cat in a rainbow sweater for the Headmistress Challenge (I think the cat looks a little unsure about this new attire):

3trees made her cat wear a hat meant for a nursing baby for Quidditch:

And then there were the manes…

Auora made one for her cat for Quidditch:

FangAili also tried a mane on her cats for Quidditch:

And CathyCake's cat was quite miffed when she put a mane on him for Quidditch:

DrusillaWormwood went a step further and put the mane on one of her chickens for her Quidditch project:

And just when I thought the costumed couldn't get any stranger, omeletsmom dressed a group of skeletons for the Headmistress Challenge:

This was a fun week to go through all the Ravenclaw projects!  Congrats to all the badge winners, and I'll see you again in about two weeks!