Why design one massive double-knitted scarf based on a beloved, best-selling, magical universe, when you can design two?!

Before my needles were cold from “Always…” (actually when I was still on the first chart of my HP scarf) I started thinking about “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”. I had just gone to see JK Rowling’s newest magical venture on opening weekend in 1920’s inspired attire (of course). I found it  fun and sweet and the change of scenery, from modern day Britain to 1920’s New York, unique and interesting.

When I heard that Eddie Redmayne had been cast as Newt Scamander I was completely sold. Who else could perfectly depict a shy but passionate zookeeper/ conservationist?! And he did not disappoint!

I started to think about designing a sister scarf of Fantastic Beasts and my mind first went to the “Always…” concept of many small designs for different elements of the story- but since there’s only been one movie and we don’t know the overarching plot yet there didn’t seem to be enough to work with. So I decided to focus on the beasts themselves, enlarging their designs to span the width of the scarf, and having them all emerging from Newt’s case, just like in the movie.

I listed all of the major players from the film and got to work- Pickett the Bowtruckle, Frank the Thunderbird, Dougal the demiguise, the occamy, and a billywig, flying along the length of the scarf. The Niffler was, of course, front and foremost in my planning and is my absolute favorite- and let’s just say if it wasn’t for Ministry Ordination 297b, prohibiting the illegal trafficking of magical creatures, I’d have one.  I added the MACUSA symbol and Newt’s monogram to the list and the muggle worthy lock and erumpent were added late in the game.

I tweaked this pattern much more than I did my HP scarf and made major changes even after I started knitting.

I originally had this scarf at 650 rows (100 shorter than the HP scarf because I intended to add fringe which would make up the length), but I measured my progress when I was 25% done and felt like it was going to come up a little short. I prefer long scarves, so I said, “Screw it! 750 rows it is!” I added in the Erumpent (which I’d been feeling the absence of) as well as the muggle worthy lock which filled out my scarf. This is where Excel is a life saver. I just inserted more rows where I wanted them to be, and copy/ pasted the designs I had created on another spreadsheet right into the pattern. I squiggled them around until they fit right and then corrected the flight path of the billywig so that it was continuous from one end of the scarf to the other. Presto! Well sort of….

I had to give some thought to the orientation of the niffler and the occamy designs since they are horizontal along the scarf edge, unlike most of the beasts. I actually ended up drawing small outlines of the different beasts on a small strip of paper that I could then fold and wrap like a scarf to see how the designs would hang and what direction they would sit -going old school ;-). The occamy was close enough to the end that it would look alright facing either direction and the niffler was decently well position to end up around the back of the wearer’s neck and be upright and visible to others.

Logistical Interlude: Excel was  a life saver here because I like to flip the direction of the images, top to bottom, half way through the scarf so that when it hangs down from your neck, the images on both ends are upright (just like “There and Back Again”) . You can design the picture you want and then use the sort and filter feature of Excel to flip it upside down for you! (An Excel tutorial will be forthcoming- I know, exciting right?! )

My biggest snag was that I realized about 25% of the way in that I wished I’d reversed my color choices. I’d started with the gold as the background/ dominant color and the grey as the contrast but it became clear that the grey was a little too light to stand out clearly against the bright gold. About a third of the way through I decided to flip it and make the grey my main color…  [audience gasps]

I used the great and almighty “Sort & Filter” feature in Excel and flipped the entire pattern right to left so it was now the mirror image and would be correct in the final pattern PDF. The only change for me was that as I continued knitting I was now going left to right across the chart on odd numbered rows and right to left on even rows. There were, however, a few designs, as yet un-knitted, that had lettering that couldn’t be flipped (I.e. the monogram and the muggle worthy lock). For those designs, I just cut out and removed the “wrong-way-around”, flipped designs and pasted the original “right-way-around” designs from the original pattern back in so that they were readable.

 Logistical Note: Multiple sheets in your Excel file make things a lot easier. You can copy from one to the other and jump back and forth with everything in one spreadsheet.

The Magizoologist’s Menagerie took me about 5 months to knit and I finished it on my family vacation at the beach. And it can rightly be said that I was pleased 🙂

When I got back to Arkansas I had to give some thought to photos…..

I mean who doesn’t want to do a Harry Potter themed photo shoot? Crazy people that’s who! though, granted, outside in July in Arkansas in 90’s heat index is perhaps not the ideal time to be modeling a long scarf but hey you’ve got to suffer for the magical world… am I right?!

I donned my 1920’s themed outfit from the movie premiere, grabbed one of my many vintage suitcases and wand and dragged my husband outside to play photographer. To his credit he said that this time it was actually pretty fun and he braved the heat better than I, though I feel it must be said HE was not in a coat and scarf 🙂

There were several unique, vintage-looking buildings and locations in downtown that I’d see on my drive home so we did a bit of a photo sesh and I played photo editor later that night at home while we rewatched Rogue One (5 geek points to Hufflepuff!).

I fiddled with filters and lighting to give it a vintage feel and used the lens flare effect on Fotor.com’s online editing program to give my wand some pizazz!

And the feline model was once again enlisted to lend her cuteness to the fray….