Actually, this weekend there are 2 finished objects, but I can’t show you one of them yet. It’s a gift for someone who reads the blog and generally stalks me online, so I will have to wait until after it’s given to show off.

This, however, has already been handed over, so I can show it off without fear of spoiling anything.

The pattern for That Weasley Girl is inspired by the cardigan that Ginny Weasley wears to the Quidditch world cup in one of the Harry potter films.

Image from "Vault 713 ~ a wizarding experience"

In finally taking the time to look up the cardi, I’m pleased to find I’ve gone for a colour scheme closer to the original than the pattern used, and that’s without actually knowing what the original cardigan was like.

So, having been dragged out of bed a bit early on Saturday (actually, that’s not fair – I was up before Joel since I was awake, which quite frankly threw us all) and so thought I would use the time to tackle this.

Yes kids, that’s a close-enough-blue zip and a blue cardigan, waiting to be united through the medium of pins and thread.

Pins. This brought out some OCD. See how the pins go in rainbow-ish sequence and match on each side. Even though they will be there for at most a day.

The sewing in went quite quickly. I followed a line of stitches both on the way up at the edge, and then on the way down near the teeth. So, when Lily came back from her exciting weekend away (with Brownies), we were able to take these happy-girl photos.

Initially when making this I complained (if not out loud, then inwardly) that the pattern was more of a recipe and left out some crucial details (such as when to divide for the arms), but overall I think it’s made me a better knitter. I understand more about pattern construction, and it has allowed me to customise the pattern so that it “fits” the way Lily appears to like it – i.e. without much ease around the chest) and also to accommodate her (apparently freakishly long) arms.

I did an i-chord instead of plaiting the hood tie, which made sewing it into the hood a bit dicey (because that made it fatter), but other than that I largely followed the (skeleton) instructions.

The yarn was a bargain (Sirdar Click Aran) I picked up at Aintree, and as it happens I have just under half of it left. The yarn is the right gauge for the Cayuga set which I may well make for myself (matching hat & gloves, mmmm) and is also the right gauge for a little something I just whipped up for a friend and quite fancy one myself, actually. Fingers crossed there’s enough to do both!

Oh, and I nearly forgot, there’s a matching hat for the cardigan.

Because sometimes, a hood just isn’t enough.

And Joel made up for me getting up earlier than him on Saturday by this morning waking me up mid-dream and demanding that I get up because Daddy had refused. I was Sleeping With The Rats because Joel had requested a night in our bed so that he could cuddle a parent all night long. So, fair play, Daddy had probably been fully cuddled out by 07:30 when he came in to me.

Wednesday night knit & natter helped me to get this far on Joel’s web-spinner cardigan. Although, when I held it up to show progress, someone said it looked big enough for me. I can only say they probably weren’t looking properly. I’ve lost a bit of weight lately (pounds rather than stones) but not _that_ much.

Yes, it’s a bit in the large side, but it would be a shame to go to all this effort and have him grow out of it quickly. This way, it will last for years.

To be honest, given the way he screams like a girl and runs away very fast when he sees a spider of any size, I’m quite surprised he’s asked for something with a spider on it. Ours is not to reason why, ours is just to make the damn jumper.

Quickly, please.

I found some bargain yarn at the Aintree stitching show in a lovely mid blue. Instead of doing the sensible thing, which is make the not-spiderman-but-is-really (ravelry link) (for copyright reasons) sweater Joel wants, for which it’s the exact right shade and weight, I am making a not-Harry-Potter sweater (ravelry link) for Lily.

That Weasley Girl is a pattern based on the cardigan Ginny wore to the quidditch world cup, apparently. I don’t remember the original, but this looks lovely so I’m going for it.

Another previously unseen advantage is that the pattern is essentially a DIY recipe where you take measurements then work out how wide & long you need to make it (having determined your gauge, which it turns out was spot on. Again. The repeated success here doesn’t incentivise me to keep checking. And then the one time I don’t check, I’ll be waaaaay off). So, it’s taught me something about sweater construction (in an articulating-what’s-common-sense kind of way) and I’ve been able to tailor the cardi to Lily’s slim long body & (apparently, freakishly) long arms.

So, I read through the pattern, did some measurements, and worked out the things I needed to work out. Or so I thought. More, in the style of the pattern, on that later.

I cast on at the start of a should-be-3-hours journey to Abersoch. Although I’d read it in the pattern, I hadn’t registered that the top part, which forms the yoke, was in seed (or moss) stitch. This is k1-p1 rib, without the benefit of matching stitches row to row. In other words it’s slightly fiddly *and* annoying. Plus, this had raglan increases thrown in for good measure. As I embarked on the task and we embarked on the journey I sighed, possibly more than once.

Although the journey ended up taking something like 4 or 5 hours, the knitting wasn’t as much hard work as I had anticipated. Indeed it kinda flew by. To the point where I suddenly realised that the pattern lacked an important detail: at what point does one stop doing raglan increases, put the sleeves on waste yarn or stitch holders and start working straight down the body. In the excitement of detailing how to work out shaping for the adult sizes, the pattern author had forgotten this fairly crucial detail.

So, having got to roughly where I thought I was in danger of running over, I set aside the cardi and finished off the BSJ I had brought as secondary knitting for the trip. This had the added advantage of freeing up some “waste” yarn for putting the sleeves on, which I’d forgotten to pack.

So, once at the luxury caravan that was our destination, I got out my pencil & calculator and worked out that to have the right number of stitches round the body (a 28″ body, based on 4.5st/” ) I needed to increase until there were (((28*4.5)/4)-4)/2 stitches on each front. Which, as I’d thought, wasn’t far off.

The body then was a breeze of (reverse) stocking stitch which I ploughed through.

By the time I got to the sleeves, I had come home again without Steve & the kids, and unfortunately discovered a measurement I needed which I hadn’t acquired: cuff circumference. You need to know this in order to work out how many & often to decrease the stitches on the sleeve.

So instead I embarked on the hood. This was all going fine until I got to the bit which said “knit this until it fits over the head, then bind off”. I didn’t have the relevant head.

Fortunately, the relevant head & shoulders arrived back in the nick of time, so we were able to have another measuring session at which point I worked out how big to make the hood, and promptly over-knitted by an inch. So it’s a generous hood.

I’ve measured for cuffs, and have now done one sleeve. The second sleeve is in progress amid its looking good so far. Plus, given that the bulk of the cardi is in reverse stocking stitch, I like to think I’m being quite clever in knitting them inside out, so that I only have to knit and not purl until I get to the seed stitch at the cuff…

Ta-daa. And on with the show.