I made this as a Yule gift for my very dear friend Mama Kelly (photos of her opening the gift HERE), and had the pleasure of getting to see her and her family this weekend so we could exchange gifts and have a nice visit too. Mama Kelly looks totally awesome in it and it so suits her personality - she definitely is a "magical" lady and from the same mold as Mrs. Weasley (with a big sprinkling of Hermione too).

The pattern I used is called "Coat of Many Colors", and the entire sweater is done in crochet - I purchased it from Crochet Cabin (cost $7). The sleeves are awesome and I prefer them to the pattern in the book Charmed Knits.

There is a pattern for a similar project in Charmed Knits: Projects for Fans of Harry Potter, the body of the sweater is knitted but the arms are crocheted (so for non-knitters you could just attach the sleeves to another crochet sweater pattern) - I wasn't fond on this pattern though for the sleeves. The book has tons of awesome patterns though, and even though I don't knit I hope to be able to convert some of the patterns to crocheting (a how to book: From Needles to Hook: Complete Guide to Converting Knit Patterns to Crochet)

Body of the sweater yarn used: Lion Brand Vanna's Choice Yarn-Dusty Rose. For the sleeves, I used 2 brands of soft yarns (Caron Simply Soft Yarns and Red Heart Soft Yarns)in order to get the variety of colors (13 colors in all for sleeves) that I wanted so they would be close to the original in the movie and the one's called for in the pattern. The body of the sweater I wanted to be sturdier so I chose Vanna's Choice yarn because I've become very fond of this brand of yarn - it holds it's shape but is still comfortable and soft to wear. The sleeves I wanted to be very, very soft and not itchy at all, so that it could be worn without having to have long sleeves worn under.

Mama Kelly wearing the Mrs. Weasley Sweater of Many Colors:


The whole sleeve:


Top of the sleeve and shoulder:


The buttons (total of three used on the sweater):


The buttons I chose came from ebay, they are beautiful, handpainted glass. They catch the light and are a rainbow of color that sparkle and change depending on how the light hits them. The "ruffled" pattern on the buttons, I felt, was a wonderful reflection on the many rows of color in the billowing sleeves.

Close up of just button:


I have visions in my head of other items I'd like to make with a similar magical flare, but I'm not ready to tackle anything this big yet for awhile. Some day I wouldn't mind having a Mrs. Weasley sweater of my own - though I would probably change the color of the yarn used for the body of the sweater (probably a shade of purple since that is my favorite color). Perhaps by the time the next Harry Potter movie is released I will get one done for myself, and then Mama Kelly and I can wear our Mrs. Weasley sweaters when we go see the movie together.

Lady Rose, (founder of the Diet Pulpit the blog with fattitude! and coauthor of 2 Witches Blog)