Harry Potter Knitting

The whole world has been thrown into chaos since March 2020 with the COVID-19 virus. One of the few things that has helped me keep my sanity has been the Harry Potter series. For the last few months I have been re-reading the books and rewatching the movie series (a couple of times). While very nostalgic because I was the same age as Harry as the books were released, they have also offered me something that I can be sure of and anticipate what is going to happen.

In the spring I finished a Harry Potter cross-stitch for my classroom, thinking we would be returning in a few weeks. This did not happen. Pattern available from HardKnotLifeStudio on Etsy. Pattern: Muggle Teacher. I added the different house scarves around the outside because I felt there was too much blank space on my white aida cloth.

My most recent project has been to knit my house scarf. Several years ago I went on Pottermore (now the Wizarding World) and got sorted into Ravenclaw. Admittedly I should have known that it would be my house, given that the three adjectives that describe Ravenclaws are Wisdom, Wit and Creative. Sadly there are not many Ravenclaws represented in the books outside of Cho Chang, Luna Lovegood and Filius Flitwick. However I am proud to represent a house that isn't Gryffindor.

Frustratingly the colours of Ravenclaw in the book are blue and bronze, while in the movie adaptation they are blue and silver. So when I went about looking for yarn colours for my scarf, I opted for the movie colours as those were the ones that were visually seen by audiences and therefore the most recognizable.

There were many patterns for Ravenclaw house scarfs, but I opted for the ones seen in Prisoner of Azkaban, with the smaller alternating stripes (which seemingly are worn by upper year students) rather than the large block striped scarf seen in the Philosopher's Stone. This was the free pattern I ultimately settled on (but made my own adjustments as noted below): https://svyet.wordpress.com/2010/10/10/harry-potter-prisoner-of-azkaban-gryffindor-scarf/

Obviously I changed the yarn colours from those of Gryffindor to those of Ravenclaw. I opted for three skeins of Dark Country Blue and one skein of Grey Heather from the brand Caron: Simply Soft.

I particularly liked this pattern because it is done on circular needles, so you just knit all the way around, creating a wide tube of stockinette stitch. There is no counting individual stitches, no purling; you can just put your mind on auto-pilot and away you go. You do have to count the total rows as you knit to ensure your stripes are the same size, but it is a very easy project to do while watching Netflix.

I cast on 120 stitches. The circular needles I had were a bit too long for only the 100 sts called for in the original pattern, but I figured a little bit of a wider scarf wouldn't make much difference. I did like the measurements in the original pattern - 30 rows of the main colour, followed by 4 rows of the secondary colour, 4 rows of the main colour, and then 4 rows of the secondary colour again. It did create a really neat look, just like the movie scarves.

The original pattern featured a photo of a scarf with 14 secondary colour striped pairs of lines, but I stopped mine at 10. I stand about 5'5'' and even then the scarf was taller than me and therefore plenty long enough. Because I made my scarf a little wider, it is a pretty thick and hefty garment. Knitting in the round creates a tube of knitting, so to finish off the open ends, I added tassels. Because grey wasn't the main colour, I opted to alternate blue and grey for the fringe. This was pretty simple to do with the help of a crochet hook. I used four pieces of yarn for each piece of fringe.

In total this scarf took me over 70 hours to knit. While incredibly time consuming, I am thrilled with the final result :)

Julie and Julia

The film Julie and Julia which came out in 2009 starring the wonderful Meryl Streep and the delightful Amy Adams has encouraged me to venture into the world of French cuisine. I am very proud to be a francophile (that is to say a lover of all things french) - I even dressed up as a Parisian woman for Hallowe'en this year.

I majored and minored in French in university and it was there that I was exposed to this unfamiliar and fascinating world. I am a great admirer of French artists from Jacques-Louis David to Renoir to Délacroix, as well as the great french composers including Les Six. I believe the french language to be one of the most beautiful in the world and I am a proud speaker of it. I went to France just over 4 years ago with my high school as part of an EF tour. It was enjoyable but that being said, we spent alot of time doing things that I personally did not find terribly enjoyable ie: lots of shopping excursions. I would have preferred to see la stade Roland Garros (where my favourite tennis player Rafael Nadal has won the French Open more than 6 times in the last 10 years) but it was not to be the case - which has only heightened my desire to return to the city of lights (Paris). Watching the movie has rekindled my desire to learn something new (as I am taking the year off from university to work) so I would like to attempt to try some basic French recipes.

Growing up, my mom always made dinner. She was the traditional housewife and my dad the traditional breadwinner. She is a wonderful cook, and now at the age of 22 I wish I had helped out more in the kitchen. She never made anything my dad didn't like, which included anything spicy or anything terribly exotic; my dad is a meat and potatoes kind of guy. I love food and always have. That being said however, I can cook merely the basics - pasta, grilled cheese, anything from a can, eggs and toast, chili, beef stew, etc. The venture into french cooking I believe will be challenging but very rewarding and will only help my cooking exploits into the future. I enjoy eating and a enjoy food and wish that I had the time and money to take some cooking classes.

These last couple of months have been a relatively tumultuous time in my life, having moved to two different cities caused much unrest and turmoil, as well as splitting up with a longtime boyfriend. Now, relatively alone in a new city I have been working part time at a job which I love, but the lack of hours has left me with spare time to pick up some new hobbies which has prompted this adventure into the world of French cuisine. If I am to believe what the movie has told me, French cooking requires the use of a lot of butter, cream and eggs.

This is also my first attempt at blogging - which a website suggested was another inexpensive hobby that peaked my interest. I am an avid reader and have been since I was 5 years old, but unfortunately I don`t feel that I write enough. I did my university degree entirely in French so I haven`t written anything of any length in English since I was in high school. Due to the fact that I am someone who loves to be busy rather than bored, I have made it my mission this month to try new things, namely new hobbies. Currently I attend the gym at the local YMCA and play recreational badminton every Tuesday. I would like to pick up painting or another artistic venture such as photography - I'm not particularly good at art but I find it fun and very relaxing. I have also decided this month to try Nanowrimo, where one tries to write an entire novel in a month (about 50000 words). I don`t know how successful I will be, but if I can manage to keep up with my blog all month I think I will be able to walk away with a sense of accomplishment. I think trying new things and making myself busy will not only prevent me from sitting with my own thoughts, but will also help to make me a more rounded person.

I am someone who constantly has things on the go - in high school I participated in multiple extracurricular from tennis to Reach for the Top to the international club. Now that I`m done university, I have lost access to all the clubs and groups I was once a part of. I now have the added challenge of meeting new people and trying new things in a new city.

I know that I am an anomaly - I can`t imagine there are very many French speaking anglophones out there who have dedicated themselves this much to the French culture, so I really have no clue how many people would even follow this. If anything maybe they stumbled on it by pure chance and it will insprire them to try something new in their life.