We’ve got a new designer blogger joining us next week, and to celebrate his/her arrival, we’re holding a contest to reveal the designer’s name.
What kind of contest? A puzzle contest (surprise, surprise)! This is a literacy site, you know, and puzzle-solving promotes and exercises literacy. Plus, I like making them.
Contest Details
Here’s the deal:
- Collect the puzzle pieces and put them together in order, separating letters into words, if needed (instructions below).
- Solve the puzzle.
- Use the puzzle solution to decipher our new designer blogger’s name.
- Email the de-coded puzzle, our blogger’s name, and whether you are a stitcher or non-stitcher to mail AT funkandweber DOT com, using “BLOGGER CONTEST” as the subject of the email. Be sure to let us know if you are a stitcher or non-stitcher so you will be in the correct drawing for prizes. Non-stitchers probably don’t want embroidery raw materials.
- Cross your fingers and get back to reading and/or stitching. Stitching’s just a little slower with crossed fingers.
Contest entries must be received by Tuesday, January 25, at 3:00 p.m. Alaska Time (we’re 4 hours earlier than Eastern time in the US).
Winners will be randomly selected from all correct entries in each of the two segments: stitchers and non-stitchers.
Play
Our puzzle is a cryptogram, which is a letter substitution code. Each letter in the code represents a different letter of the alphabet. Once you’ve figured out what one letter or word is, use those letters to help decipher other words.
Our blogger’s name uses the same code:
R H W Y M L N J J Z M
The cryptogram is in eight pieces. You’ll find the pieces on the following blogs sometime today (Friday, January 21). Please be patient, what with time differences and all. If there’s a hiccup in the program, corrections will be made here.
- Kreinik Thread Blog
- Jen Robinson’s Book Page
- Pin Tangle
- Loose Thread Stitchers
- Stitch Bitch
- Readergirlz
- Funk & Weber World
- Sublime Stitching
If the letters of a line aren’t separated into words, separate them as follows:
- Line 1: 4, 2, 3, 7
- Line 2: 4, 2, 3, 7
- Line 3: 4, 4, 8
- Line 4: 4, 7, 7
- Line 5: 9, 2, 8
- Line 6: 5, 4, 4, 6, 3
- Line 7: 3, 3, 7, 3, 4
- Line 8: 3, 4, 4, 5, 3—5, 5
These are some of the blogs I visit regularly. I hope you’ll like them, too.
Prizes
Everyone who enters the contest gets a coupon for the new Funk & Weber Designs online shop; that is, assuming I get the whole coupon thing figured out. I appreciate it when you play my games with me.
Two non-stitchers will receive Funk & Weber-made hand-stitched bookmarks. The red and green mini-mark is two-sided and employs specialty fibers: net-like ribbon, sparkly fiber, and hand-died pearl cotton. A close blanket stitch finishes the edges of the front and back pieces, and another row of blanket stitches binds the two sides together.
If you read to escape, you might enjoy marking your page with silhouetted palm trees at sunset. This bookmark uses cross stitch and a picot edge stitch and is backed with hand-dyed wool felt.
Both bookmarks include glass beads, swivel, and metal hook.
One stitcher will receive a Funk & Weber Designs Going, Going, Gone! baseball bookmark kit.
A second stitcher will receive a bookmark-maker’s toolkit, with assorted backing fabrics, stitchbands, hardware, beads, ribbons, and whatever else I think of between now and when I mail it.
Three more stitchers will receive a new downloadable pattern from our new blogger. I didn’t ask our new blogger to contribute to the prizes–I mean, “come join us and bring us presents” is hardly a way to welcome someone–but s/he generously and gently insisted. Lucky us!
I think that covers everything. If you have questions, please post them in the comments so others can see the answer, too. If you have a question, someone else probably does, too.
I’ll bend my No-Internet Sunday rule and check in here now and then to address questions.
You have until 3:00 p.m. Alaska time on Tuesday to send me
- the decoded cryptogram
- our new blogger’s name
- whether you are a stitcher or non-stitcher
The email addy is mail @ funkandweber . com (remove the spaces).
On your mark.
Get Set.
Puzzle!
Categories: Needle and ThREAD
I need a hint
Okay, Bev. When solving cryptograms, I start by looking for one-letter words–you know, “a” and “I.” We have none of those.
Next, I look for small words, noting which ones are repeated and which ones share letters.
In two letter words, one letter will be a vowel.
Common three-letter words are “the” and “and.” Both of those contain potential 2-letter words “an” and “he.”
I scan for repeated pairs and trios of letters. I’m looking for patterns and comparing those patterns to commonly used words.
Look for contractions: can’t, don’t, wasn’t, he’s, person’s, they’ll. What letters follow an apostrophe?
Look for double letters. What letters commonly occur together? In that sentence, we have a double t, a double m, and a double c.
If the letter following an apostrophe is also used at the beginning of a three-letter word used frequently…maybe it’s a t.
Look for letters that are repeated in a word. What words follow that pattern?
Look for common word endings, like “ing” or “ed.”
Think about Wheel of Fortune: which letters are called most often? Letters that appear often in the code are probably those letters.
After getting a sense of the possibilities, I just jump in with a guess and see how it plays out. Sometimes I do a lot of erasing.
Stick with it!
I know who the new blogger is.
I know who the new blogger is. (Big cheesey grin)
Sorry, it posted twice. (Red-faced with shame)
I could fix that for you, Becca, but it’s funnier if I don’t. 🙂
Thanks I will try harder.. and I do not know who the blogger is ~ YET..
I love to stitch AND read! I was happy to find your blog; THEN I found the links to more stitchers and bloggers…even better! FINALLY you were having a contest involving a puzzle, fun!
I’m sending you an email.