The Harry Potter books and movies poke a little fun at the funky sweaters that were knitted by Mrs. Weasley as Christmas gifts for her kids and Harry. I must admit though, that I kind of wanted one myself, ever since I first read the books. Quirky and funny, they fit right in with the growing popularity of ‘ugly sweaters’ around the holidays. There are a few places online that you can purchase such a sweater complete with whatever letter you choose. But, at a cost that always seemed excessive, especially considering the limited amount of wear I would really get out of it.
One day while browsing Pinterest I came across a few patterns on how to knit your very own sweater in the same style as Mrs. Weasly. I was certainly intrigued, but alas, I do not knit. Wielding one crochet hook is challenge enough for me. Truthfully, I find the thought of coordinating two pointy sticks to create things to be a bit overwhelming. As I fell further down the rabbit hole of Pinterest, I came across the suggestion that you can knit, crochet, or simply stitch a letter onto an existing sweater. Eureka! I can certainly muster up the creativity to tackle a project such as that. So in the back of my brain sat the idea. Periodically I would check stores and thrift shops to see if I could find a suitable sweater, but didn’t have much luck. Several years passed, with the notion of a Weasly sweater bumping around in the back of my brain.
For some reason this year I decided THIS IS THE YEAR! Not sure why, but sometimes I just get a sudden motivation to start a project or learn a new craft. This year, I was determined to have this sweater. I started my base sweater search in earnest. I checked the local thrift shop several times, and I scoped out multiple stores near home and work. But, I could not find the ‘chunky’ knit sweater that I was looking for to use as my base. What was so popular a few years back, was now replaced with sweaters that had a much finer weave to them, and wouldn’t be nearly as easy to work with for this project. Finally I resorted to Amazon. The place where you can find everything. After about an hour of shopping I found a sweater that was both ‘chunky’ enough, and cheap enough to meet my needs.
With luck, the base sweater arrived on the Thursday proceeding our “ugly sweater day” at work on Monday. I rifled through my big stash of yarn and found a suitable yellow to correspond nicely with the burgundy sweater, so that my letter would really stand out. Armed with my yellow yarn, the newly delivered sweater and a needle I set to work. Some bonding time with my sofa and two movies later the sweater is done! It’s not quite a Weasly style sweater, but for about $12, it’s good enough for me and I’m thrilled that it’s done in time to wear to work. With my red hair, people might just confuse me with an actual Weasley!