Cinema Knits

The Weasley family can always be depended upon on for quality knitwear. The second Harry Potter film, HP and the Chamber of Secrets, once again brings the Weasley family to King’s Cross Station, all sporting fabulous knitwear, just as they did in the first film (see Meet the Weasleys: The Sweaters of Platform 9 and 3/4).

Each member of the Weasley family is wearing at least one knitted item. Only poor Harry is left out of the the knitwear club, although he did wear a nice knit turtleneck on his recent shopping expedition to Diagon Alley.

Let’s take a closer look at each of the Weasley knits…

Arthur:

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Arthur is wearing a tartan sweater or vest under a windbreaker and over a red polo. I think this is his muggle disguise. He looks ready for a round of golf. I believe he is actually even wearing golf gloves here! How wonderful. I’m delighted.

The various tartan patterns originally appeared in Scotland on the famous plaids of the different clans. These plaids were woven, not knit. Most tartan knitwear I see is machine made, as the process of knitting a pattern that runs both horizontally and vertically is a bit more challenging to hand knit than to weave. Yet, that hasn’t stopped clever designers and knitters from creating tartan knitwear. I find these designs interesting, as they have creatively converted a traditionally woven design into a knit one.

Below are some plaid knitting patterns you might like to try out:

1. Ashie by Lisa Richardson. I adore this pattern. I first saw this sweater on the Fruity Knitting Podcast, in which Andrea shares the grey Ashie she knit for her husband, Andrew.

For women’s tartan sweaters, you might try one of these:

1. Plaid Jumper by Sian Brown Knitwear Design / 2. 24 Plaid Pullover by Norah Gaughan / 3.Plaid Jacket by Susan Crawford

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For the wee bairn in your life, you could knit Linda Medina’s Plaid Jacket from her book 60 More Quick Baby Knits:

If you would prefer to try your hand at a plaid accessory rather than a sweater, all of these look like fun knits:

1. Plaid Accessories by Plymouth Yarn Design Studio/ 2. Plaid Prep Scarf by Emily Ringelman/ 3.Grand MacAlpine Stole by Selena Miskin/ 4. Ceilidh by Jean Moss

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Molly

I adore the outfit Molly wears for the family excursion to King’s Cross. The tam! The cape! The fair isle purse! This is such a perfect Molly Weasley look and there are so many possible knits this look might inspire you to make. Let’s start at Molly’s head and work our way down.

Tam:

Molly is wearing a grayish tam/beret. It might be a greyish tan or greyish green, the lighting in this scene is fairly dark, and it’s hard to tell the exact color. I have written about Molly’s tams before on the blog. I’ll share a couple of the patterns I selected then for Molly’s hat here again.

1. Stellata by D Shrewbridge / 2. Sweet Honey Beret by Faina Goberstein /3.  1252beret Bruno Beret by Pierrot

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Cape/Poncho

I’m not quite sure whether to call Molly’s top a cape or a poncho. It has the neck fastening I associate with a cape, but the V-hem and free flowing shape suggest a poncho. Ponchape? Capecho? Whatever you call it, it is such a quintessential Molly Weasley garment. Molly’s poncho-cape is woven, but you can certainly make a knit one.

Here are a few options:

1. Ladies’ Aran Poncho by Pierrot (Gosyo Co., Ltd) / 2. Cabled Fall Celebration Cape by Willa Schrlau / 3. Not-A-Poncho City Cape by Wendy Bernard / 4. Potawatomi by Carol Sunday / 5. High Plains by Melissa Schaschwary / 6. Minjia Poncho by Martina Sommer

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If you want to combine Arthur’s tartan sweater with Molly’s cape-poncho, you could knit the super cute Tulloch Tartan by Julie Turjoman:

I just added it to my knitting queue.

Bag

In this scene Molly carries a beautiful fair isle knitted bag. Most knitted bags are felted after they are knit to make them stronger and more structured. Here are few ideas to get you started if you’d like your own fair isle bag:

1. The Fleur Tote by Ann Kingstone / 2. Easy Fair-Isle Felted Bag by Liat Gat / 3. Molly’s Carpetbag by Cricket Toomey (aptly named!) / 4. Märta Embroidered Bag by Lucinda Guy

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Ginny

Ginny is wearing a cute argyle sweater here. I wrote a lot about argyle in a previous post: Dudley’s Argyle Birthday Sweater, so I won’t go too much into argyle’s history here, but if you are an argyle lover, be sure to check out that post.

Here are a few argyle sweater knitting patterns:

1. Cyd by Martin Storey / 2. Spencer by Kim Hargreaves / 3. #03 Argyle Turtleneck by Sandi Prosser

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Fred and George

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Fred and George are wearing matching fair isle sweaters or vests while catching the train to Hogwarts. We don’t get a very good view of these sweaters, but you could get a similar look with one of these patterns:

1. April in Wisconsin by Meg Swansen / 2. Machrihanish by Kate Davies Designs / 3. Lhasa Pullover by Ron Schweitzer

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Percy

Percy’s sweater is the hardest to make out in the scene. We only see it for moment, but zooming in on a film still allows us get a better look.

Percy’s sweater has a zip neck and a check pattern. This one definitely looks more like a machine knit than a hand knit, but that doesn’t mean you can’t knit something similar. Here are a few ideas

1. Basket Weave Pullover by Melissa Leapman / 2. Colton by Kyle Kunnecke / 3. Checks and Balances by Boadicea Binnerts

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Ron

Ron, or ‘Won-Won’, as he is usually referred to at my house, looks very nicely dressed in this scene, in a tweedy v-neck sweater with a ribbed texture.

I think Hank’s Pullover by Jessie McKitrick knit in a tweedy worsted would be a nice match.

Now, unfortunately, not everyone gets to actually ride the train in their fantastic knitwear. Ron and Harry can’t make it through the barrier to Platform 9 3/4, and they are forced to find another way to get to school…

What was is your favorite knit from this scene? What featured pattern calls out ‘Knit Me!’ to you?