My Molly Weasley Scarf

It rocked. There's nothing better than going to a midnight Harry Potter movie with good friends, knitting the night away. What? There were two women "of that age" snorting inappropriately in laughter while waiting for the movie to start? What? FORGETICUS! BIG TIME FORGETICUS! Michief Managed. --I do know the actual spell is Obliviate, no worries!--

I do love Molly Weasley. Dearly Dearly love her. You know, redheads named Molly rock! I'm priviledged to resemble either Molly Ringwald or Molly Weasley, and actually have more in common with the mother of the clan of redheads where small explosions and off-kilter inventions are a daily way of life.



My most favorite yarn deserves to be knit into my most favorite pattern. "I love this cotton!" given to me by my youngest Weasley boy for mother's day. I thought this yarn that was picked out, purchased and hand wrapped by my son deserved to be knit into something to be worn and loved. I was making the mistake of having it sit by my bedside table, being admired. Looked at. Then, on our Weasley Weekend (my two redheaded kiddo's and I watched Harry Potter movies #3-5 all day long on Sunday) I pulled out that yarn and a size 10.5 circular needle and cast on. Joey was so proud of his yarn being knit. I now realize I have the perfect pattern for this perfect yarn!

The way these crazy colors are working into this fluttery lacy scarf, it looks like something that would be right at home around Molly Weasley's neck for sure. It suits her style, and apparently that of my own as well as I am absolutely loving it. I'm using the same stitch count and pattern as I used to make all FIVE of my sockyarn feather & fan scarves (I knit two of the red ones shown below), but with a larger needle. Want to make one with me?


Pick up a skein of sockyarn and size 8 needles or a couple skeins of worsted weight yarn (I'm guessing about 300 yards) and a size 10.5 needles.

Cast on 36 stitches LOOSLEY (use a larger needle if necessary)

Knit 6 rows or 3 ridges in garter stitch (knit every row for 6 rows)

Row 1: K2tog 3 times, [YO, K1] 6 times, K2tog 6 times, [YO, K1] 6 times, K2 tog 3 times.
Row2-4: Knit across

Repeat rows 1-4 until you're close to the end of your yarn. End with 6 rows of knitting (3 garter stitch ridges) after the last Row 1 of the pattern.

Bind off LOOSELY.
Block lightly and WEAR in a true Molly Weasley style, with many colors mixing together, and ends fluttering about. Hug your children and their friends, cook a lot of food, whoop up on death eaters that threaten your family.



The original pattern I used to make my first feather & fan scarf is the Old Shale Scarf from Tiennie, who I just adore. She said a while back to go ahead and print my version of the pattern. I just changed stitch count and not much else, but I've had lots of requests for the numbers I use, so knock yourself out. I'm just trying to make it through the day without falling asleep and then plan to finish my Molly Weasley Scarf over the weekend!

Molly Ringwald

I'm casting on for a new sweater. I'm going to knit this.
Molly Ringwald

Then I will dance about like this.

And then I'm sure my teenaged dream will come true. Hollywood will realize that they really and truly DO need a double for Molly and they'll call me. Because I rock like that and because I still occasionally dance like that too. The fact that it mortifies my children is just a bonus.

I'm pretty clumsy, so a stunt double is out of the question, but if they need a Molly Look-a-Like that KNITS because you KNOW that the next big uber movie for the brat pack will feature a perky, quirky slightly pouty redhead with fabulous taste in hand knitted accessories. Hollywood NEEDS me. They just haven't figured that part out yet, but I'm patient. I'm a knitter. I have things to do while I wait.

I may have enough of this handspun silk to make the sweater, otherwise I'll have to go shopping!





See? We were freaking TWINS. No, we didn't just have red hair, freckles and big toothy grins, we were TWINS.

***GASP*** I just lost the uber cool link for the dance medly on youtube and now have to find it again and it doesn't show up in my history. *sigh* There will be a uber cool link soon.

The link is fixed. Click HERE and dance about like you're an 80's girl again. You know you wanna.

Third Verse...same as the First!

I had no idea when I was a Violent Femmes fan in the 1980's that they were such a wise band. Now, looking back, I realize that not only were they wise before their time, but they also MUST have been singing about KNITTING!

You know those times when you're sitting amdist a CRAP TON of yarn and have no idea of what you could possibly knit? You feel pure angst and the need to knit but just have no knitting mojo what-so-ever? How could one person have SO much yarn and not want to knit ANY of it? This happened a few days back and I swear when the song "Prove My Love" came on my ipod, it all just clicked.

Just last night
I was reminded of
just how bad
it had gotten and
just how sick
I had become.

Then a glimpse of an old project formerly gone bad sparks a little glimmer of knitterly hope. For me, it was the Serenity Sweater. Does anyone remember the two sleeves I knit for it? I thought to myself, THIS time it could be different. I could knit this lovely sweater out of my true love mohair.

but it could change
with this relationship
de-de range
we've all been thru some shit
and if it were a thing
I think this thing's begun

Yup, I decided I WAS going to knit that sweater. I was going to do it and it WOULD work. But first, an appeal to the Knitting Gods that the shxt that made me crazy last time around on this project doesn't come back to bit me in the arse again.

Tell me now
what do I have to do
to prove my love to you

Seriously Knitting Gods, do I need to sacrifice something else? I've already knit an entirely extra sleeve for this thing. Because yes, I was an idiot and no, never thought to compare the thing to the original sleeve BEFORE I completed the entire thing. Yes, it's also knit out of mohair, lovely, floaty, hairy, almost impossible to frog mohair. Surely the gods would be happy with just one extra sleeve, right? That's a pretty damn big sacrifice I'd say.

I'd do anything
I'd do it all
I'd climb a mountain
I'd cross the ocean
I'd knit an entire extra sleeve just to satisfy your sick needs of sacrificial fiber... (wait, that's not in the original song, is it?)
I'd do it all
to prove my love for you

So I did it. I got out the mohair. I cast on with the SAME double pointed needles I'd used on the first non-freakishly large sleeve and knit. and knit. and knit. And THIS TIME I compared the sleeve to it's partner after about a 1/3 of the way.....

And my very favorite part of the song? When they say
Third verse, same as the first


See? Oh baby. I'm back to love love loving my knitting again! And I'm totally bouncing around in pure 80's style singing that song in my head. I did draw the line at going back to my blue eyeshadow days of yore, but just barely. Man, bright blue eyeshadow would totally rock that purple mohair sweater look, wouldn't it?

Creative Hand sale in KC!

Friday, Nov 19th from 4-9 and Sat, Nov 20th 10-5
Click either the photo or the map to get to the Creative Hand website.

OH this is a fabulous sale! There are some seriously talented artists out in the KC area! Come for the fasion show Friday night at 7pm! Shawls, hats, mittens, dish towels, capes, felted soaps, note cards, patterns, HANDSPUN YARN!, fiber, HAND DYED YARN!, more patterns, toys, stockings, holiday gifts, silk hand dyed scarves, you name it, it's THERE! I'll have some patterns, handspun yarn, art yarn, hats and cowls for sale amidst the rest of the glorious stuff. I was blown away last year at the sale and instantly signed up for the fiber guild.

Cool article in a local paper about the upcoming sale! Creative Hand Sale article with neat descriptions

What the hell is a Hackle? And WHY don't I have one yet???

As I was reading the Yarn Harlot's latest blog post, I saw she took a cool class on combining fiber using combs and hackles. I have been busting my arse trying to combine fiber with some lovely borrowed hand carders, which is a HELL of a workout, let me tell you. AND it makes these itty bitty rolags (cigar shaped tubes of fiber) which are cute, but I think a royal pain in the butt to spin. Ok, the spinning isn't hard, it's the creating ENOUGH of the little buggars to have anything worth while spinning. If I were a laceweight spinner, that'd probably not be an issue, but I like dk weight, sport weight, worsted, chunky and UBER chunky weight yarn.

I remember distintcly learning to blend fiber with combs at yarn school. I also remember almost impaling myself and how no one would get too close when I was working the fiber through these Freddy Kruger implements of destruction. Though I loved the results, I knew that I'd kill myself of someone near me (or both) and I'm quite fond of having all four children, my husband and myself with all our fingers and various body parts intact. I must have forced myself to totally forget about the existence of these things, which are basically small pieces of wood with very long, very sharp metal implements sticking out of them that blend fiber for spinning.

After googling, I realized that a hackle is basically a giant long comb, but you attach it to a table or counter and blend enough fiber that you can then pull through a diz (thing with a hole in the middle like a button) and create actual spinnable fiber!! Click the photo below to go to a gorgeous etsy shop full of hand crafted fiber tools that I would LOVE to own....


Now, after coming to the realization that yes, I have a crap ton of fiber that's just begging me to blend it into new creations and spin into amazing artyarn but we all know that at some point I'd be impaled upon these tools I almost gave up.

God Bless YOUTUBE! After watching tons of very creative and not-at-all-clumsy people create amazing spinning fiber with these sharp metal and wood creations I hit upon the ultimate Hackle for me!
Yarn Zombie's DIY Hackle V 3.0 using plastic picks. Here's the videos that have inspired me. I know what I want the husband to make me for my birthday!!!!





More DIY Hackle Tutorials:
DIY Hackle from All things Shea

Aran Brew's homemade Hackle