The 13th Triangle

Dear J,

A lot has happened since I wrote you last.  Today I made a significant breakthrough in the case!  I was knitting a purse in the common room and Belladonna Boomslang, a fellow Slytherin, stood up and asked if anyone wanted to raid the kitchens for some hot beverages.  Even with the fireplace, it is always damp in the common room under the lake, so I went with.  We started talking, and it turns out she is Mad-Eye Moody's daughter!  So I turned the conversation towards the Ackerly girl's disappearance, and the end result is we're launching our own covert investigation into the matter.

In other news, I am having a blast in class.  Literally, Hagrid had us tending Blast-Ended Skrewts again :D  I love animals that can take of themselves in a fight, if ya know what I mean.

My fellow Slytherins and I have been knitting a lot in our common room.  I am getting all caught up on the House gossip.  Miss Lovegood is already mooning over the DADA professor, and some of the girls have a plan to... shall we say, nip the romance in the bud.  Tee hee. 

It's hard to concentrate on the pattern for my lace shawl with all the bawdy suggestions being flung around the room - I've dropped more stitches than I care to think about!  It's a fun project, I am basically combining 4 different types of lace repeats in my own order.  It's hard to say exactly how much yarn it will take but I'm aiming for a 5-6" wide shawl, and the estimates at the back of the book say around 800 yards.  I have 3 400+ yard skeins of a pretty purple yarn, so I have room to play without worrying about running short.

One thing that would make the project a bit easier - a row counter.  I can never remember from one day to the next what row I left off on, but luckily I am good at "reading my knitting" so I can match my previous row to the pattern, and figure out what I should be doing for this row.  Some of the gals have very pretty ones in their knitting bags.  Looks like I'll be pulling out the beading supplies this weekend and tinkering with a design.  I'm sure the gals will be happy to help, right?

Hope all is well by you.  Are you remembering to water my plants?  Twice a week, and extra before a holiday.  Ttys,

Q