A Magical Fairwell

This week marks the end of one of the most popular movie series of all time, Harry Potter. To celebrate the finale, many fiber enthusiasts are showing their love for the series by coming up with some truly amazing patterns, some with really innovated techniques. Even if you are a casual knitter, check out these patterns and challenge yourself to make something different and fun.




Best of Hand Knits
If you haven't seen some of the work by Steve Plummer of Wooly Thoughts, you're missing out. At first glance head on, it looks like an ordinary striped blanket but then as you continue passing by, it catches the corner of your eye and an amazing photo realistic image appears as if by magic. The technique is surprisingly simple. Strategically placed purls on plain stockinette striped fabric create this effect. He has five Harry Potter designs among others, you just have to check them out. Prices for his patterns vary but his website has free tutorials for designing your own which is very cool

Although I haven't seen any images or looked deeply into it, it appears Terry Bradford has tried converting a couple of Steve's Harry Potter patterns into crochet. It might be worth looking into if you strongly prefer crochet.




Best of Crochet

Todd Paschall founded a technique called crochet by numbers. These pieces are gorgeous and photo realistic at any angle. I has done portraits in crochet of several famous people and since added several stunning nature scenes. There is a great article in Crochet Today about him and how it began. What does this have to do with Harry Potter? One of his fans, Lee Mac (totallee) who is also a fan of Harry Potter figured out her own method for generating these amazing patterns (unfortunately both have kept details of their designing methods a secret). All of her patterns are free and she does offer her own technique tips in addition to the tutorials on Todd's site along with many stunning gallery images. She also has a Ravelry group dedicated to this method.

Megan McDuffee has her own method and wrote how to crochet your very own photo realistic Harry Potter blanket (or whoever else you wish to snuggle up in). Details can be found in her pattern page for her. Harry Potter Blanket. 



A Few Smaller Projects with Great Appeal
Here are a few smaller projects I found on Ravelry that I absolutely love (*Free PDF or Website):

• Gryffindor Cami*
• Harry Potter Uniform Sweater*
• House Pride Knee High Socks: Hufflepuff | Ravenclaw | Gryffindor | Slytherin
• Hermione's Scarf* 
• Sorting Hat*
• Wizard Robe
• Mandrake Root
• Dobby
• Harry Hopper
• HP Fair Isle Pouch*
• Gryffindor iPhone Cozy*

If you're looking to make something but are willing to 

Celebrating WWKIP Day in Kelowna, BC

I had a blast yesterday celebrating World Wide Knit in Public Day with a couple local groups. I met new people, worked on a toy net I'm improvising for my son (I'm taking notes and will be posting the pattern in a week or so), and even tried hand spinning. It was cool seeing so many knitters/crocheters in spot and seeing what they're working on.

There was one woman who had a piece of ribbon with the exact measurements marked (kind of like a personal ruler) of the various parts of a sock to get the perfect fit. That's a very cool idea that I'll have to try as I work on the "Girls Best Friend" and "Movie Socks" this month.

There was another who was knitting a bag out of plastic bags; I especially loved the purple she found from a local chocolate shop.

There were people working on sweaters, socks, scarves, and outfits for a baby. People from different generations and different locations with other artistic talents. More and more people trickled in early afternoon. For once the weather man was right; there was a nice breeze and the sun was hot high in the sky. My hubby affectionately refers to me as lobster cakes... a play on my nickname combined with the color my arms turned. I was glad I had picked something that doesn't require much thought because socializing in a knit together would have been hard if I had chosen something more complex.


WWKIP Day is celebrated globally from June 12th through the 20th. Find a local celebration in your country at: http://www.wwkipday.com

On Needles and Hooks: Active Works in Progress

My family and I recently brought all of our things out of storage and among the boxes I found my stash and the supplies I couldn't take with me. This past year has been all about crochet until I knitted a pair of yoga socks for my mother. Right now I have a few things on the go (all links below go to a Ravelry page):

"A Girl's Best Friend" by Star Athena
While visiting my parents in the US, I picked up "The Joy of Sox" and instantly fell in love with this pattern. It wasn't until I got home that I purchased the necessary quantity of yarn to finish this project. I also had never had experience with short rows but a couple youtube videos later and it's coming along. I'm still on my first sock, working my way up the ankle but loving how handmade socks fit so perfectly! I have large feet so finding one in a store that looks good, fits just right and goes up so high is hard for me.

"Blissful" by Keridiane Chez
Among the boxes I found one of my favorite books, The Happy Hooker by Debbie Stoller. I had bought some yarn in a beautiful Forrest green for a different project but when I started working on it, it felt wrong for the pattern. Then I found this one:) 

I'm currently 6 months pregnant with my second child and it's summer... if you have ever been pregnant in the summer... you know how your body temperature goes through the roof! The the lace in the skirt of the shirt would allow me to keep cool at home and would allow my baby bump to grow. Then when the baby is out, I can lace up the back like MariaTheresa's Blissful.

I also found another edit that I like in LittleO's Purple Bliss. She used the Queen of Hearts bikini top pattern from one of Debbie's other books, Stitch N' Bitch for the bodice. It looks so much more elegant than the standard hdc rows the original pattern calls for.


Knit a Square
Around the time that I found out about Ravelry, I found this charity group. Knit 8x8" squares to send to South Africa to be sewn into blankets to keep the 1.5 million plus orphaned children warm. They do accept other things but recently there has been a call for more squares because people have been sending in too many hats and sweaters that are size specific which greatly slows down the distribution process. Summer is also their cold season so the need is even greater.

Since I'm on the bus lots or in waiting rooms or places with time on my hands, this is my mobile project. Squares can be knit, crochet or felted from old sweaters. I've also used this to try new techniques. You can sew 4x4" swatches together or add borders to make it 8x8" if you like as well.


I also found in my projects on Ravelry that I have a lot of FOs without pictures so I'll need to update those in the next little while. I made a blanket for my friend's son months ago that has his name on it. I intended to design the letters for the rest of the alphabet and post them on here so that's another project I'll be working on this month. Anyway, I better get back to my needles, hooks and boxes. Still plenty of stitches to stitch and plenty of boxes to unpack.