Crochet inspiration and a heroine for the modern woman

There has been a lot of chat recently about positive role models for girls in books and films. Pathetic princesses that hang about at the tops of towers waiting to be rescued are definitely out, and Hermione Granger and Pippi Longstocking are in. 

Well, I have been thinking about who are the heroines of the modern woman. Women like me who realise that the family unit cannot have it all. Someone has to cook, clean and be at the school gate at 3pm, and you either have to earn enough to pay someone else to do some or all of it, do it yourself, or your chap has to do it, and really any of those is a fine choice. In my world, I do it. I make the home, make the meals, remake the curtains, make presents for people. I don't make any money, but I save quite a bit (and spend quite a bit more as wisely as I can). 

So who is out there to stand for girls like me? Grown up girls who don't lack brains or ambition, but choose, at least for a while, to stay at home and be Mum. Molly Weasley, that's who. Seven Smalls, modest income, making the house, making Weasley jumpers for the people she loves, cooking and cleaning for the order of the phoenix, but totally up to the challenge when she is required to fight for what she believes in. 

So it is from Molly Weasley's unique and wonderful style that I have taken my inspiration for a little project I have been working on...

This is my coat. It was originally purchased from M&S, but I purchased it about three years ago from British Heart Foundation. I had finally shed my baby weight and was in need of a coat that was less like a tent. I was also just beginning to realise that I was allowed to wear colour rather than sludge, and that wearing colour might just make me happy.

(Speaking of colour, look I have new boots!)

I love my coat, it is warm, comfortable, fits really well, except... I have really long arms and coats are always too short in the arm. Cold wrists lead to cold hands which suck.

Also, I have been going off the buttons. Not because they are not to my taste, but because they seem to wear the thread inordinately quickly and I am forever having to sew them back on.

So the project: I made Molly Weasley inspired cuffs for my coat. They add even more colour, keep my wrists warm and make me very very happy.

I also changed the buttons. Bright green for the back,

and multi-coloured for the front.

I have had these buttons since I was eight when a sweet neighbour looked after me while my parents were packing up to move house. She amused me buy showing me the contents of her sewing box and let me have these buttons to take with me.

I have no idea even what her name was, but I have kept these buttons for thirty years, waiting for the right project to use them.

Sooo... Ta Da! I love love love my new-old coat!

Now, the more observant among you will have noticed that there are a few differences between my cuffs and the originals. The reason for this is that there is only one person who can do justice to the full, shoulder to fingertip, crocheted loveliness of the true Molly Weasley sleeve, and that is Molly herself. Not that that hasn't stopped others trying. (Google Molly Weasley sleeve and I think you will agree.)

So I have gone for a cuff, not a sleeve, lost most of the fullness and changed the colour pallet slightly to suit my taste.

I did however spend quite a large amount of time with the film on freeze frame so that I could study the colours and shapes in detail. About 12 minutes into Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in case you are interested.

xx