You're A Wizard Harry

Edited May 2021: At the time this post was published, the Facebook group and the link included were active and the patterns were available. I've received many enquiries about this blanket, but I can not help you with copies of the pattern or the top and bottom banner patterns.  I am also not aware of what happened to the group or what their new name is as I'm no longer a member! For all enquiries, please contact the designer directly :)

Do you remember I mentioned my love/hate relationship with a Christmas present I was working on for Maddi and her boyfriend Michael? Well today I'm going to share the finished blanket with you.

Ta-da! A Harry Potter C2C crocheted blanket :)

Maddi and Michael both grew up with Harry, Hermoine and Ron and have built a massive collection of everything related to the series.... everything except a crocheted blanket :)

When I saw this pattern on Pinterest I knew how to crochet C2C but I'd never attempted a pattern with graphs and colour changing. I watched a few YouTube videos, read some articles and joined a Facebook group that generously shared lots of invaluable tips and tricks.

I chose the Golden Snitch as my first square because it looked the easiest to crochet and thankfully it wasn't too difficult. I used plastic clothes pins as my bobbins and I found the yarns didn't tangle if I attached them to the bottom of the square while they were not in use.

With my first attempt a success, I was ready to make all the squares for this blanket but it didn't always go quite as smoothly.

The centre Crest was very time consuming and I had a lot of bobbins going at once. There are two versions of this square available and of course I wanted to do the more difficult one! It really challenged me and at times it sat idle in my basket waiting patiently to be worked on.

Crocheting with black yarn at night was difficult and I had to concentrate closely on the pattern because unraveling a mistake could become very time consuming. As the images unfolded and the Crest became visible, I found myself excited and thrilled with its progress :)

With new determination, I completed a lot of the smaller squares quite quickly. As each square came to life, I fell more and more in love with the blanket and I was constantly laying out the squares to see how the blanket was progressing. I did rework a couple of the squares because I found alternate patterns in the Facebook Group files that appealed to me more.

I used a range of 8ply yarn from Spotlight because it was easy for me to grab a ball or two as I needed, but the colour range was quite limited. To achieve the true Harry Potter colour scheme, I did have to blend in a few yarns from other ranges but they all worked well together.

It's hard to pick my favorite square but I do love Dobby. This is one of the alternate squares I found in the Group files and I think its a more accurate depiction of the character. 

This square presented me with a new challenge- there were no written instructions. To prevent mistakes I did count and write down each row before I started which worked quite well. The Hogwarts Castle Banner at the bottom of the blanket also had no written instructions, but I did the counting and Maddi helped by doing the writing so I didn't lose my place or direction in the graph.

The top and bottom banners are both optional extras that were drafted and shared in the files by members of the Facebook Group. They finish the blanket perfectly, but they take awhile to complete. I thought that with fewer colours they would crochet up quickly but the Harry one seemed to take me forever :)

Each square is finished with a simple black border and then sewn together. I added the same border to the outer edges to tie it all together.

If you have someone who would love their own Harry Potter blanket, then I suggest you start HERE with the original free pattern. On her right sidebar, you will also find the link to her Facebook Group (Yarn Geekery) and you need to join to have access to the alternate squares and bonus banners. It's a friendly and supportive group where lots of ideas, projects and encouragement is shared.

Maddi and Michael absolutely love their blanket so it makes all the up and downs of this project worthwhile. It will be used for years to come, most likely while they are snuggled up watching Harry Potter movies for the umpteenth time ;)

It may have been smarter for me to try a few easier C2C graphgans before attempting one as complex as this, but I did learn a lot along the way. Despite my love/hate relationship with it, I do love it and seeing the joy on Maddi and Michael's faces far outweighs any obstacles I encountered along the way. That's the whole reason we make the things we do, isn't it? :)

Happy Christmas gift making :)