Christmas at Hogwarts

I have the best friend in the whole wide world. For my last birthday, she took me to the Warner Brothers Harry Potter Studios at Leavesden. I was ecstatic. I had been about two years earlier, but so mu had changed even in that short time period. Plus, as it was m birthday, I was allowed to open the doors!!!

The Hogwarts Model is the most perfect thing I've set eyes on. I could spend hours just staring at it. I want to shrink down and climb around it... But, as my birthday is around Christmas, this time I had the joy of seeing it decked out with snow! It was just beautiful. I too far too many photos, but these were the two I chose to focus on. I kept the colour scheme muted, reflecting the colours of the brick work.

Hogwarts

This is a 12x12 page that I made for my favourite picture of the Hogwarts model from my visit to the Harry Potter Studios. It was a gorgeous, magical moment that deserved its own big page, complete with glitter, gold and sparkles. It's still a little bit unfinished - I need some journaling and possibly a title, but the image really just speaks for itself.

Do you want to know a secret? The background paper is actually a paper bag that my local craft shop gave me when I bought some 12x12 paper. I thought that the pattern was too gorgeous to just throw away! So, I mounted it onto some white card for a bit of rigidity, et voila, a free piece of paper!



My Harry Potter

I got into Harry Potter quite late, relatively speaking.... I was eleven years old and there were already four films. I was bored one day and went downstairs to see what my parents were watching. They were watching Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - I came in just as the start of term feast finished. I was intrigued by the school and how real it seemed, so I sat down.

I watched it all and I loved it.

I went back and read all of the first three books, watching the films after completing each of them. I then read the fourth book, but panicked when the age certificate was a 12 ( I still being eleven). I watched it a week before my birthday, on my own, in a darkened room, and having started high school and encountered a large majority of the swear words anyway, I was fine.

I read the other books, hanging on tenterhooks for the sixth and seventh volumes, crying intensely. I went to the cinema for all of the remaining four films, and cried intensely.

I cried when it was over. It still makes me sad.

I want more - spin offs, prequels, the marauders, the founders, what they did as adults, what their children did, spellbooks written and published. There is so much to be explored,and I only hope that when the copyright expires, some bright spark will do it. Or perhaps even JK Rowling will do them herself.

So. Want some quick Trivia?

My Favourite Book: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I call it the tipping stone - it's getting darker, but not quite depressing, it relates to the teenage condition,and the imagery and magic is just getting complex enough.

My Favourite Film: In relation to the books, the two Deathly Hallows ones. They're perfect. AND they include Neville/Luna, which JK was stupid not to.

My Favourite Character: Hermione Granger. She's clever, and she's the kind of person I'd like to be ( but less bossy)

My Favourite House: Ravenclaw. Duh.

The Character I would Date: Fred Weasley. I formed an attachment to him somewhere in the first three books/films. I refuse to acknowledge that he died. Because he didn't. (Fred is the one on the right)

The one thing from the world I wish was real and could own: I'd like to say Hogwarts, but I can't really own it, so I'm going to break the mould and say a life long subscription to the Daily Prophet. If I can't live it,at least I could read about it.

7

Something Harry Potter

Thou eyes doth not deceive you: that is indeed a Knitted Snape Cushion.

Creepy, isn't it?! Ah well, 'twas knitted for my best friend's Birthday, so I hope she liked it. I finished it back in February and have been dying to share it ever since - I feel I do not do enough Potterness here any more, but oh well.

Pattern came from here, and was simplified down to only three colours by me. I don't think the work suffered much in doing so.

50 Things to make

Knitting in Potter: Goblet of Fire

Instalment Number 4! Created on a slightly more pressed-for-times basis than the previous ones....

 

Knitting in this film was a bit sparse. Now, if sewing was my aim,I would be able to give you a plethora of examples - the Yule Ball! I mean, The Yule Ball!!! It was gorgeous...

However, I have managed to find a few...

 

Hermione has a very pretty pink fair isle... shame that it's a  turtle neck really...

Ron likes stripes.

Neville and a Cardigan! The foundations have been laid!

The uniforms,are pretty much the same as in the third film.

 

Ginny Weasley... and a very colourful hat (she must take after her mother)

These here have a combination of two elements: the Quidditch world cup supporters scarves,and the Weasley Twins geometric cardigans...

 

The hats! Look at the Hats! (they have returned....)



 

My favourite, this time, is a quote. By one of the Weasley Twins. Again. Sorry. Is my obsession showing? It is Knitting related! 0:23

 



Knitting in Potter: The Prisoner of Azkaban

There was a Distinct style change to this film. By this, I am implying the wider use of knitwear - it's Everywhere!

 

There's a myriad from Hermione and Ron throughout (somehow Harry avoids it...)

I love this part of the film....

Same as in The Leaky Cauldron

 

Mr Weasley's Red scarf, and Mrs Weasley's Cardigans... again....

 

And we have a new school Uniform! I like it a lot... the thinner stripes actually make it look more school-ish - The Quidditch Jumpers, however, are still the same.

A change from the grey to black, and only with thin stripes at the cuffs and the hem.

 

Lupin's Cardigans...

 

Ron's patch knitted blanket.
 

 

Proudly, Neville's first fairisle...
 

A sign of many great things to come....

 

But my Favourite (quite possibly as I'm biased) are The Weasley Twin's hats. Or it may just be that I love the Weasley Twins. Either way, they're nice hats.

Knitting in Potter : The Chamber of Secrets

Part 2. If you missed Part 1, see here.

 

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is a very school related film. It focuses mainly on their exploits during term time,and very little out of hours is seen. The Hogwarts uniform is prominent,as is the Quidditch kit - seen a record 3times in this film!- There are However,a few pieces before term starts.

 

The cable Jumpers return, Ron's in the car,and Harry's red one makes a second appearance. Hermione has a sky blue jumper, with a fair isle neckline - hints of things to come - and of course Mrs Weasley. Her Cardigan definitely looks like a stash buster....
 

You know the scene I mean...with the Diary? Talking to Riddle? Ah, never mind...

In Diagon Alley at the beginning? No, no... just me....

 

But my best reference to knitting in this film, has to be Mrs Weasley's enchanted knitting needles. Aren't they cool! And the knitting on them is quite pretty as well!

Knitting in Potter: The Philosopher's Stone

To kick off this series, let's start at the beginning. The first film.

 

Now, the knitwear here seems a tad bit boring/basic - cable jumpers are key, as is the uniform, includng scarves, jumpers, socks and quidditch gear. Then there is Hermione's.... interesting choice of cardigan for descending through the trap door (it was probably one she didn't mind being eaten by Fluffy).

Oliver Wood and his cable Jumper...

First Film Uniform, with thick stripe scarves.

Jumpers...

 

Quidditch Jumpers...

 

Hermione's... interesting cardigan. And Harry's red cable jumper.
Ron just looks weird.

 

But, obviously, the best piece of knitting goes to the Weasley Jumpers.... Is there any such icon of Harry Potter, and a Hogwarts Christmas, as this?
 

 

Fred and George! Or.. Gred an Forge, depending on how you look at it....

 

I think not.

I Finished It!

I've been working on it since last September, it is fitting that I should finish it now, just as that month restarts. It is fitting, also, as it feels like an epic battle, just like a Harry Potter book, all that occurs from one September to the next.... Slow in the beginning with minor struggles. A bombardment in the middle, tailing off again... finishing with frantic knitting,with over a hundred rows being knitted in the last week alone.

This scarf has been with me for so many different steps in the past year, helped me to survive and carry on. Now,as I open a new Chapter, I hope it will follow me as well (unless I'm not placed in the blue house at my new school...)

In celebration of my finishing of this scarf, I will bring to you a new feature every Monday for the next 2months: Knitting in Potter, looking at the various references and gorgeous knitwear pieces that the films have bought to us, finishing with the culmination-I will be visiting The Making of Harry Potter Leavesden Studio Tour at the end of October!

Where, of course, this little(very long) scarf, will take an outing.

In case you haven't latched on yet, this is my Ravenclaw Scarf. Not finished entirely, admittedly - I would like to add tassel's at some point. But, it works well enough without them.

Pattern came from the Book 'Charmed Knits' by Alison Hansel, and is usually available on Amazon. I used the pattern for years 3-4, purely because I like it better. There are a plethora of different pattern is in a range of different abilities, and I thoroughly recommend it for anyone knitting for a Potter fan.

This has been my faithful WIP for the last Year, I really need another one... small projects cannily sustain so much....Back to the drawing board, I guess...



Craft Review: Weeks 12 and 13: Sunday 11th March- Saturday 24th March

I had visitors last week, hence the lack of posts. We are also nearing exam time, particularly in art, so I'm beginning to panic (4 weeks until art, 7 until everything else).
But, I did keep my resolution, I keep trying to do some sort of craft every day, which is often my relief from all of my revision. thank god for craft. so this is what I've been up to:

Another Buckbeak Scarf

Pretty swirls

I started knitting another Buckbeak Scarf. I had another ball of wool, a hard day at school, and I decided to start another simple knitting project.

I decided I wanted to try and stitch a swirl into a canvas. This was just an impulse, I am now unsure of what I want to do with it or the rest of the canvas.

• I have been doing lots of art. Mainly for my exam, which is looming ever closer, but I still have been annotating my coursework books occasionally.
• I did a few rows of my Ravenclaw scarf.
• I collected a few more squares patterns for my Harry Potter Blanket.



Ben Youngs' Try, Twickenham, 17/3/12

• I'm also beginning to get a drawing urge... I want to draw something rugby related (I love it so much (Ben Youngs' Try last weekend....absolutely brilliant)), but I also want to do something a bit more whimsical... what yet, I'm not sure

I have a French Speaking exam next week, joy of joys, so I'll be freaking out until Thursday about that one... Otherwise, I will continue crafting as much as I can, as frequently as I can, and just look forward to the Easter Holidays.

Harry Potter Graphic Posters - Etsy

I was just surfing Etsy, and I found some really gorgeous graphic posters. Click on the links below each photo for the shops.

EntropyTradingCo

ModernStylographer

PotterInspired

Hyssopdesign

What do you think? Pretty cool, aren't they? Which one's your favourite?
Makes me want to try to make one myself... watch this space....