The winner of the Ravenclaw Week 1 Posting Prize is..........

Congratulations!! Watch your mailbox!

Ravenclaws, your homework assignment will be posted to The Raven's Nest by 8:00 p.m. Hogwarts time on February 9.

This week's Gryffindor homework is to list words of 4 letters or more made from the letters contained in "Muggle Studies". You are limited to the number of times the letters appear, i.e. you can use "g" twice in a word, but "m" can only be used once in a word.

Students will be marked according to how many words they list, their longest word, and definitions of words - particularly if useful in understanding the Muggle world.

Homework is due for submission before the witching hour (midnight) on Saturday. The top student will be awarded a house prize.

Congratulations, Minerva!
I am having lots of fun so far in the swap! I am ready for the games!
Hexy

We have a winner in the Gryffindor first House Assignment ... we had many worthy entries, and thanks to all students for getting their homework done!

Our winner is .... Minerva Lovegood !

Congratulations! Your assignment was quite creative - an Owl is headed your way with your prize.

And the winner of the 1st Slytherin House Quiz is . . . (drumroll please) . . .
ESMERELDA BEANSWALLOW! Congratulations Esme!!!!! Your prize will be sent by Royal Coach over the weekend!

All names were placed into a bowl and Prince Corey, assisted by Sir Jinx, drew the winning name before departing to visit his loyal subjects this morning!



Thanks, everyone, for 100% participation in our first House Quiz. Let that set the standard for Slytherin House this term---100% Excellence!

For those in the U.S. you will be required to purchase a Delivery Confirmation when you send your package off. Delivery Confirmation provides both proof of mailing and allows you to track your package to make sure that it gets to it's destination. When you purchase the Delivery Confirmation option you will need to email your tracking # to your Head Girl

Delivery Confirmation provides proof of mailing at the time of mailing and date and time of delivery or attempted delivery. A delivery record is maintained by the USPS. Delivery Confirmation is available with First-Class Mail and Priority Mail. For an additional fee, Delivery Confirmation may be combined with restricted delivery or return receipt.

Flat Rate Boxes
Hopefully many of you know about this option, which the postal service provides. Flat Rate boxes!! Whatever you can fit into this box will only cost you $9.95 to ship, plus your Certified Mail. The joy of it is that you can get the boxes from the postal service for free. You can either order them online or visit your local postal site and request them in person. There is also a larger box option at $12.95.

Good Evening Hogwarts Students! I’m Agatha Vablatsky and I will be acting as the dueling club coordinator for this term.

For new students, here is an explanation of how the dueling club will work:

Essentially, all participants will be organized into brackets where everyone will be paired up with one person. The pattern will be released, and the first person to receive a hat or a pair of gloves/mittens in the mail from their opponent will be dead. The person who is left standing will advance to the next round and will be paired with the winner from another pairing within the bracket. In the end, there will be one person standing from each bracket and they will be dubbed the dueling winner.

Patterns will start out easy and progressively get harder as the rounds progress. I will post the materials required 2 - 3 days before the duel officially begins. This will give you time to contact your dueling partner to get their shipping and sizing information. I will post a yarn weight, amount of yarn required and needle size along with any other notions or tools that the pattern requires. The dueling club is meant to be a stash busting event so you don't have to go out and buy specific yarns. The duel will officially begin 2 - 3 days later (at a specified time) with the posting of a pattern on the HSKS7 blog.

This term, there will be a bracket for hat knitters and a bracket for fingerless gloves/mittens knitters. You do not have to be a fast knitter to participate, but you should be able to finish a hat within 5 days and a pair of gloves / mittens in 1 1/2 to 2 weeks at minimum. In the HSKS6 dueling club, many of the hat knitters finished their hats within 1 – 2 days after the pattern was released. This is our first time for a gloves/mittens bracket but as a comparison, the fastest sock knitters from HSKS6 completed a pair of socks in about 2 days although many took between 3 – 5 days to complete a pair of socks.

Keep in mind that sometimes it comes down to a race of the owls, with the post office being the deciding factor. Completing a project a day or two before your dueling partner doesn't mean anything if your post office decides to mail your package out a day late.

As far as shipping requirements, overnight mail is NOT allowed. It must go Priority. We recommend mailing your projects with delivery confirmation because if projects are received on the same day, the delivery confirmation will let us know when it was delivered. This will help us to alleviate any possible disputes as to who killed whom first.

We will be including crocheters again this time around if we have enough interest! In the beginning rounds of the competition, you will have the option to knit or crochet within your bracket. I’ll pair knitters with knitters and crocheters with crocheters within the hat or gloves/mittens bracket. However, please note that the final round(s) will be knitting ONLY, so you must be able to knit to participate.

More than anything, this is just a fun project. Don't NOT join just because you think you are a slow knitter.

Interested? If you would like to join, e-mail me at hsksduelclub at gmail dot com with the following information:

Potter Name
Bracket: Hat or Gloves/Mittens
Craft: Crochet or Knit

Signups will continue through midnight CST on Tuesday, February 10th and the materials for round one will be posted on Wednesday, February 11th (time TBA). Round one will officially begin on Friday, February 13th (time TBA).

If you have further questions about the dueling club, please comment to this post and I will answer them in the comments so that others may get their questions answered too.

Agatha

Greetings everyone,

I am so excited to be in this swap. This is the first time I have participated in the HSKS swap; I have only been in the Hogwarts Sock Swap.

I have been in touch with my spoiler and spoilee this week.


Everyone have a great weekend,

Mafalda (Hufflepuff)

Would you like to help your House win the House Cup?? Look to the list below, students!

5 pts - Post Wish list in sidebar of your blog - Deadline Feb. 7
5 pts - Post HSKS Logo in the sidebar your blog - Deadline Feb. 11
10 pts. - Handmade Item Completed - Deadline April 3rd
10 pts. Purchased Items Deadline - April 10
50 pts. - Early Owl Period - March 27 to April 17
10 pts. - Blog Posting per Week
20 pts. - Quidditch Trivia
5 pts. - Quidditch Picture Scavenger Hunt
50 pts. - 100% Participation on Quidditch Trivia (bonus)
150 pts. - Finding the Snitch

Please feel to highlight some of your favorite Etsy shops or novelty sellers here on the blog. I'm sure there are many sellers out there that we are unaware of. Two of my favorite Etsy sellers are highlighted below:

Please note! The link to this calender is located in the navigation bar at the top of this page.

Hello, everyone! First, this was formally called the Daily Prophet. Life is just too busy for me at the moment to make this a daily thing, but please do look for these from me at least on a weekly basis.

Posting on this Blog
You have all been sent an invitation to post on this blog. Please check your email boxes for the invite. The only thing that I ask is that you be mindful of not posting around the times when we will be hunting the Snitch and or when another announcement is expected from on of the Head Girls or activity organizers - Bevin or Agatha.

Posting To Your Blogs!
Every student must post on his or her blog weekly. If two full posting periods have gone by without a blog post (and without some type of communication between you and your Head Girl) you will be dropped from the swap! We understand that things happen, but if you choose not to communicate with anyone for two posting periods you will be dropped.

Posting periods run from 12:01 a.m. PST Sunday to 11:59 p.m. PST Saturday. If you post right at the witching hour - well, whose to say that you didn't post at all???

TipJoy
Some of you may have noticed the little Tip Jar in the sidebar. Many of you know that running a swap does incur it's own expenses for the organizers. We are extremely blessed in volunteers every term. No, I don't mean the people that offer donations for prizes, though we would not be able to put together the wonderful angel kits and prizes without you! I mean the ladies that offer to send (sometimes) multiple angel kits/prizes and spend lots of money in postage from their own pockets to get the packages in the mail. Our dear Wisteria, who has been my coordinator of angel packages and swap prizes for the last 3 swaps, has often paid for postage herself. So, to compensate and give a little back to Wisty and others that sacrifice I have added the tip jar. Whatever monies we do not use for Angel Kits will go towards the prizes that are awarded for finding the Snitch, Best Kit, and other activities of Hogwarts.

To those of you who have already donated - Thank You!

Upcoming Activities

Dueling Club
The Dueling Club is a competitive mini-game that we play. If you have every played SmackDown then you'll understand the concept of this game that we play. For more information you can visit the information page on the HSKS site. The dates need to be updated, so please ignore those for now. Will we be making further announcements in a day or two to let you know when the exact start date will be.

Quidditch
The first round of Quidditch begins in just a couple of weeks. Please note that the calendar in the sidebar will alert you to upcoming events.

First Opportunity for Points
This was previously an Early Points activity, but this time I chose to make this a requirement for after the swap started.

Posting HSKS Logo on Your Blog = 5 House Points


Please feel free to use the above image if you do not have and HSKS 7 logo on your blog. To receive credit the logo must be posted in the sidebar of your blog and not within a post.

A History Lesson

To kick off this term we will be having two Beginning of Term Feasts in the Great Hall on Tuesday, February 3rd. Times are listed below:


10 a.m. PST
11 a.m. Mountain
Noon Central
1 p.m. EST
6 p.m. London

5 p.m. PST
6 p.m. Mountain
7 p.m. Central
8 p.m. EST
1 a.m. London



I hope that you will be able to join us for one of these times!

I know that everyone is anxious to meet the new Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor. Since the term has already started and most of us have DADA on our schedules, I guess it's time to introduce him. He's quite shy and it wasn't easy for me to convince him that Hogwarts students are well behaved and will act with decorum. So, please, no squealing, lunging, touching or drooling!

I am proud to introduce Professor Fervens Solum!



This is Professor Solum's first teaching position. He has been very involved in private research and, of course, I've made myself available to help him continue that private research. He's really quite talented!

He has told me that there is something embarrassing about his name, but he won't tell me what. Hmmmm...must figure this out.

/* Posting for Queen Frysia because she doesn't have access to this blog yet.  She's also sponsoring a most excellent prize.  Thanks HRH! */


First Slytherin House Quiz

1. 
   
   
   What are your three most favorite colors?
2. 
   
   
   What are you three least favorite colors?
3. 
   
   
   Your favorite candy is _________________.
4. 
   
   
   Draco, Lucius, or Snape?
5. 
   
   
   Do you knit, crochet, or both?
6. 
   
   
   What type of kit did you ask for?
7. 
   
   
   Acrylic—has its uses, should all be burned, best yarn to work with (choose one)?
8. 
   
   
   Who is the Slytherin Head Girl this term?
9. 
   
   
   Name four “extras” you would love to receive in your kit.
10. 
    
    
    What are your three most favorite scents?
11. 
    
    
    Do you prefer salty or sweet snacks?
12. 
    
    
    Which Slytherin is the Keeper of the Crucio List?
13. 
    
    
    Do you really need more stitch markers?
14. 
    
    
    Dpns, circular, or straight?
15. 
    
    
    What yarn makes you squee?
16. 
    
    
    Favorite HP Movie?
17. 
    
    
    Favorite HP character?
18. 
    
    
    Who was your first choice for DADA professor?
19. 
    
    
    What is the Slytherin Common Room called?
20. 
    
    
    What makes you worthy of being in Slytherin House?