Advanced Studies Saturday: NEWT NEWT NEWT!!!

Nineteen Ravenclaws reached the 50% point on their NEWTs by the September 30th deadline, so it's time for another showcase of some of the stunning crafting being done around the Tower!

akasha111182 was the first to turn in her 50%, with three (!!) shawls completed--Bryce Canyon, Merope, and Zuzu's Petals:

IAmACuttlefish is studying Ancient Runes and Herbology for her NEWT and has reached 50% on her Aeolian Shawl (all those beads!!):

Hreow has already crafted over 2000 yards for her NEWT, with a neckwarmer of her own design and her Glimfeather shawl:

Bacs has a truly mad NEWT planned--crocheting 150 washcloths.  Here are her first 75:

maggievanderstok has finished three of her six planned items--her Kara Poncho and her Evenstar Hat and Mittens:

kaypendragon has finished her Baby Surprise Snowsuit (for a well-dressed Squid) and is halfway through her Fairy Tale Poncho:

indigoroses has finished six of her twelve planned socks in her paddock of magical creatures--her Ukranian Ironbelly, Firecrab, Leprechaun, and Streeler:

lsgarner is knitting nine planets plus the Kuiper Belt for her NEWT.  She has finished her cruciatus Kuiper Belt blanket and two hats, representing Mars and Jupiter:

Webschaf finished her Hitofude, representing the air, and is halfway through her Rebecca shawl, representing fire in the form of a Chinese Fireball:

xamonster is hatching eggs and working on four different shawls for her NEWT--Esjan (an Occamy), Arroway (an Augurey), Exploration Station (a Fwooper), and Batad (a Diricawl):

PorcupineSnuggles is studying the cherry blossom dragon for her NEWT and has knit the first of her three cherry blossoms and is also partway through her Sakura Dragon Scarf and her Lilli Pilli:

blairistan studied complex constellations and hit the 50% point by finishing her Rowe Cardigan:

bijou3owl is studying the solar system and is partway through her Astonish Top and has spun over 1600 yards:

rebuky is doing a NEWT all about lace and has completed her Juno Regina shawl and her Cold Mountain shawl and has spun some mystery yarn:

GarnGlad is studying the fashion of the 14th century and has finished her Tracery Vest and has gotten through the yoke of her Cabled Yoke Tunic:

deetyblue has deciphered some runes and has gotten to the halfway point of her Evenstar shawl, knit in a lovely gradient yarn:

CathyCake has managed to translate all that German and figure out all those strange stitches in her vintage pattern, and she has reached 50% of her Albrecht shawl:

SarahTheEntwife is converting ten different sock patterns into mittens and gloves, and has finished five pairs of hand-wear, representing Aurora Sinistra, Sybill Trelawney, Severus Snape, Charity Burbage, and Minerva McGonagall:

And last but not least, senkatnovo has been observing a Portuguese Long-Snout (and has knit part of her Zemy socks) and has also hatched and started raising an Antipodean Opaleye (spun the yarn for her High Desert shawl and then knit almost half of it):

There is an enormous amount of work represented in these projects, and these nineteen Ravenclaws have earned 1425 points for our house in September!  Make sure you commend them on their efforts when you see them around the Tower!

Firstie Friday -- Meet ccgal220!

Our next introduction comes to us from Big Eagle Bacs:

Coffee is the fuel of choice for my Little Eagle ccgal220, a homeschooling mother of four who tends to have multiple projects on the needles. Knitting (sometimes crochet) and coffee are what helps her maintain some semblance of sanity while she takes care of and teaches her children and endeavors to make ALL the things. Helping her with the wrangling of children (besides the coffee, of course) is her husband, whom she met at a castle (although those who are more familiar with the area would refer to it as a manor house, it’s castle enough for this Big Eagle). They are celebrating their 10th anniversary this term! Congratulations!

She’s now found chattering in the Common Room and Firstie Dorm, but ccgal220 actually took quite some time to get the courage to sign up for the House Cup. She saw a project tagged for the House Cup a waaaaaaay long time ago (like six years!) and was intrigued but too shy to sign up right away. She played in the Starfleet game on Ravelry earlier this year, and BeckTrek and Isilsartari convinced her to finally sign up for the House Cup. While she may be a bit of a Slytherclaw, ccgal220 finds herself at home in Ravenclaw (and has since reading the first book) because Ravenclaw Tower seems like the place to be a little bit wacky, curl up with a good book, and spout off random facts.

If you were to ask her to name her favourite Harry Potter character, ccgal220 would first ask you to not make her choose her favourite (something I’m sure many of us can sympathize with), and then list a few top choices. She identifies with Hermione a bit, a know-it-all with curly hair who she is sure gets her frantic look while studying from too much coffee (makes sense to me!), and would love to be friends with Tonks. She feels that Neville definitely matters, although most people overlook him, and appreciates the bit of subtle sass that Dumbledore’s polite insults bring to the story.

This post is being written before the end of the month, so ccgal220 is likely to have turned in more since I went looking through her turn-ins, but here’s a look at a couple of the things she has done in her quest to Make ALL the Things! this term. She’s also working on an OWL and Order Mission this term! Busy lady!

Here is her Journalism homework, complete with a picture of the castle/manor where she met her husband! 

And here is her submission for the first Headmistress Challenge for this term, which is a pair of socks I am completely in love with. 

Thank you for that introduction, Bacs!  I can't wait to see what ccgal220 turns in next month!

From the Desk of the Spreadsheet Sorceress: Quick Quidditch Q&A

This spreadsheet sorceress is all kinds of busy right now, so this time it's just a quick Q&A.  Our topic: Quidditch!

Q: I heard we did really well in Task 1!  Just how well did we do?
A: We did amazing!  Unofficially, we scored 136 goals, for a total of 2040 base points.  And that's 77.7% of the house participating in the first round of quidditch!  Just amazing turnout!

Q: Okay, but how did the other houses do?
A: It was actually a really close match, and ALL the houses had a really strong turnout.  Again unofficially, Gryffindor had 146 goals, Hufflepuff had 144, and Slytherin had 143.  That only puts us 150 base points behind the projected winner!

Q: Wow, that's a lot of goals!  Has there ever been a term with such high participation in quidditch?
A: Not since we've been keeping the Claw Lawg (est. Spring 2014)!  The best quidditch match any house has had in the last four terms was Slytherin, with 133 goals in Spring 2014 Quiddy Round 1.  And Ravenclaw's best was that same term, with 124 goals.  This term's interest in quidditch from all houses is really unprecedented!

Q: Has there ever been a term with this term's quiddy format?
A: Yes and no.  In all my terms of Lawging, I haven't seen this choose-your-own-adventure format with different prompts based on past choices.  However, we have had a term where you had to play in the previous round to progress on to the next round.

Q: When was that?  How did we do?
A: That was in Spring 2014, actually!  The term that we had our previous best quiddy participation!  And that term, we showed everyone that the Ravenclaw stereotype of not being good on the quidditch pitch was way off base.  We came in second in quidditch that term, just over 1000 points behind the Quidditch Cup winners, Slytherin, and about 2500 points ahead of the next house, Hufflepuff!

Q: So can we still win the Quidditch Cup this term?
A: ABSOLUTELY!!!  What we'll need is to keep our participation rates up, just like in Spring 2014, when we had between 77% and 87% retention from round to round.  If everyone who played in Task 1 continues on through the maze in Task 2 (starting Friday, October 2!) we will definitely have a good chance.  So if you played in Task 1, whip up something small and quick for Task 2!  (Remember that there's no yardage bonus for Task 2, so save those bigger projects for classes and HMC #2!  And Task 2 only lasts about two weeks!)  If you didn't play in Task 1, cheer on your housemates on the pitch!