Meggie's Lullaby

Not sure what to expect during this event. But I've signed on via Team S.P.E.W. and will do my best to make my team proud.

I believe most of my work will be WIPS Dancing. I have a prayer shawl I started several years ago. It's time it was completed. I also have a variety of other started projects which need to be completed, but my main focus is going to be that shawl because it's for me.

If I get it done, I have some slippers in wool, which will need to be felted upon completion of being knitted, a headband that I'm learning to make with the fair isle technique, a pair of wool socks, and the second sock of a pair of baby socks.

If these all get done (yeah, right!), then I want to cast on a pair of mitts for the Mitten Moguls.

Time will tell what I will be able to complete!

GoTeam S.P.E.W. !

On break ...

While HSKS is on break until after the Ravelympics, I have cast on for Dobby's Socks KAL ... the socks will be for me, but they are not progressing. I'm not motivated to get them done for some reason. I also have a sweater for my DD on the needles, and that's kicking my backside because I'm rewriting the pattern to a size that will fit her (larger). I have to improvise the pattern repeat to make it work near the shoulders.

I also joined Hogwarts at Ravelry and am "taking classes" and have been challenged to become imaginative for some items. Today I'm working on another small item for one of the classes. I have also completed a couple baby hats (for flying class) and a binary code iPod cover/cozy (for arithmancy class and muggle studies). (I was sorted into Hufflepuff house for this particular group.)

My HSKS9 package arrived!

All the way from Maisy Muddlestix in Australia ... it was well worth the wait!

Here are the packages as they were wrapped in the box. I loved the polar bears on the wrapping paper!

This is what I found inside! A beautiful purple and gold/yellow crocheted bag. It's amazing! Perfect for taking my current project to the local yarn shop for social knitting!
Three skeins of spun yarn by Maisy herself! I hope she tells me how to care for it! I know nothing of the type of yarns she said it was spun from. Wondering if they would be considered worsted or bulky? Also 3 skeins of a yummy purple soy silk yarn. I've been wanting to try that type of yarn! Yeah! She also made me a burgundy and black bookmark to remember her by ... as she is from the Wigtown Wanderers team. There was also a 2010 Australian calendar (perfect for keeping track of swap requirements!), a reindeer Christmas magnet, some Sherbet Lemon hard candies, and chocolates (yum!).

Closeup of the wonderful bag.
The chocolates and a HUGE candy cane! Yeah! Love peppermint!
One of the three skeins of the purple soy silk and the little reindeer.
Last, but not least, the bookmark, homespun yarn, and lemon drops!

Thank you so much for spoiling me, Maisy!

The final decision on the thief and location

Well, I remain stumped.

I don't think it's Draco, as I thought we were led to believe the thief was a vampire.

And, as we were led to think that it could be actually in the muggle world, vice HP world, that would leave out any place like the Malfoy Mansion, Hogsmeade, Diagon Alley, or Hogwarts (more specifically Room of Requirement).

And, as we need more specific than a country, less specific than a city, I'm thinking you need to know a region, so I'd say somewhere in the UK the mid regions around London? Scotland? That's a region. Great Britain?

I have no idea. But time is drawing near and we have to have some sort of answer, don't we?

So, I'll say, the region of Great Britain because it's not a city.

(Deep down, personally, if it were in the HP world, I'd say it's in the Room of Requirement because all roads out of Diagon Alley and Hogsmead join to Hogwarts in one way or another either beneath the Whomping Willow or through the Room of Requirement or the One-Eyed Witch Passage.)

There, I think I've covered everything and I'm as vague as the clues seem to me!

Winnie's Pilfered Package

Okay, so, SirDancealot and I (that would be Gryphon the Great and I) have sat her pondering and wondering if the letters were all correct.

We quickly got the 9 letter word, but in trying to decipher the remaining letters, we seemed to come up a vowel short.

So, we have decided that perhaps there was a smudge on the first set of letters sent to us from Winnie, and perhaps one of the green letters should have been a U?

That would make the mystery words: Stolen Quidditch World Cup Trophy!

We hope we are correct!

Winnie? Where are you?

I'm going to say, by the clues, that Winnie needed garlic for some reason, and crosses, so she went to Rome. Perhaps Vatican City for the crosses? But Italy for the garlic, most assuredly.

As for after that, maybe she's in Transylvania?

Again with the hidden message of darkened letters. I still haven't figured out that puzzle, but we've been so busy with muggle holiday preparation ... most specifically, Nutcracker, that I have not been able to piece these letter together. Her latest: HPCHWPYIQ . Wonder if we'll find out?

She has also written that she is heading to a place where Christmas began. I can only think of a couple things here, and the quickest to mind is Bethlehem, in Judea, the City of David. For, that is where Christ was born! Now, if we go back further, I cannot recall where the Holy Spirit visited Mary, so if Winnie's going that far back, I don't know as I can answer that question.

At first I thought she was going to the North Pole, what with it being so cold, but again, I'm at a quandary, so everything is a guess!

Again with the letters. This time: IR. Hmmm?