Eddie Izzard doll

Here is knitted Eddie Izzard! He was a special one-off custom order and he left for his new home in the USA this morning.

Knitted Eddie's outfit was based on this real-life Eddie ensemble of high-heeled boots, black sparkly skirt, basque and pink jacket.

There was a horrible mid-knitting moment when I was reminded of Dolores Umbridge's pink tweedy outfit in Harry Potter, but once the black accents were embroidered on, normality resumed. No-one wants to think of  Dolores Umbridge in a basque.

If you'd like a custom doll made, then you know where my Etsy shop is. Just take the second left then follow the internet until you can hear the sound of knitting needles. It's not far.

Jane Austen costume drama dolls

One for the Sense and Sensibility fans - here's my Colonel Brandon doll, accompanied by Marianne Dashwood. Both are for sale in my Etsy shop - you can see more photos of them there, too. I'm thinking of working on more Jane Austen and costume drama characters in the future. The costumes are just so much fun to knit up.

If you're an Alan Rickman fan, you may also like my Severus Snape doll, who you can visit over at the Slytherin House Knitting Club, along with my Lucius and Draco Malfoy, Voldemort, and Harry dolls. You can buy patterns for all of the Harry Potter dolls from ye olde Etsy shoppe.

Slytherin House Knitting Club

You've probably noticed that nestled among all the vintage knitting larks that I post on my blog, there's been a fair amount of Harry Potter-related knitting nonsense. Well, I've decided to move all of the Harry Potter postings to a magical blog of their own, the Slytherin House Knitting Club. This is where you can keep up with all of my Harry Potter hand-knitted dolls and maybe pick up a few knitting lessons from Severus Snape if he's in the mood.

Just finished this Lucius Malfoy doll, hope you like him, and hope you bookmark both Knit For Victory and the Slytherin House Knitting Club!

Duffle coat button jewellery

Three reasons why you may have too many duffle coat buttons and be looking for something to do with them:

1 - That failed alchemical experiment in which you discovered the way to transmute base metal into duffle coat buttons

2 - Have been left large amount of duffle coat buttons in a will

3 - You own a duffle coat button factory

Whatever the reason, here's a way to make some duffle coat button jewellery from a 1950s Girl Annual. I think Luna Lovegood would like these a lot.

To make a choker you will need 8 or 9 wooden duffle coat buttons, twice as many 3/8 inch brass screw eyes and a No 001 bead clasp. Rub the buttons down with fine sandpaper. Pierce the end of the button and screw in two eyes. Colour with a coat of poster paint, and then varnish or enamel. Tie the screw eyes together neatly but firmly with matching thread and fasten on clasp.

Variations: 1 - Have all beads identical in colouring. 2 - Shade from light to dark and back again in one colour. 3 - Keep to two alternating colours. 4 - Paint each one a different colour. 5 - Stipple with gold or silver paint afterwards.

For ear-rings, cut one button in two and tie the screw eyes with cotton on to the tiny rings of screw-on ear-rings.

Severus Snape knitted doll

***UPDATE October 2010: Professor Severus Snape has proven so popular that if you would like a Snape doll of your own, check out my Etsy shop. Otherwise contact me for Snape doll commissions. The world needs more knitted Snapes.***


I have finally finished knitting the Severus Snape doll. Here he his, playing the piano with his feet - a sight you'd normally only ever see at the Slytherin house Christmas party.


Snape is about 40cm high and knitted from acrylic DK yarn. I'm normally a make-do-and-mend craft recycler, using things from charity shops and Freecycle, but this time I splashed out and bought some tiny, tiny doll's buttons to sew on his jacket as a finishing touch. This was the first time I'd knitted a doll without using a pattern, so I'm pretty pleased with the final result.

My daughter's verdict? "He's very cute." (He got a big hug, too).

Luna Lovegood's radish earrings

I was watching the Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince dvd extras over the weekend, and got rather excited about the jewellery that Evanna Lynch had hand-made for her character Luna Lovegood: a beautiful bracelet and a pair of beaded radish earrings.

Luna wears the bracelet to Slughorn's party in the Half-blood Prince - it's a large metal spiral bracelet with a pretty beaded hare patronus bounding along inside the spiral. One of those blink-and-you'll-miss it details - it's only briefly shown on the dvd extras as well.

The radish earrings are from the Order of the Phoenix; apparently the costume designer had made a pair, but Evanna's were even better, so they ended up using those instead. I found a pattern for very similar earrings at www.the-leaky-cauldron.org if you fancy making a pair. You'll need seed beads, wire, and the bravery to wear them in public.

Knit a Gryffindor scarf for a cat

If your cat is a Harry Potter fan, what better gift to give than a cat scarf knitted in Hogwarts house colours. Here is Slinky wearing his Gryffindor scarf with pride. Could also be good for football-loving cats, maybe knitted up in West Ham or Arsenal colours.

You'll need 2 x 4 or 5 mm knitting needles and scraps of double knitting wool in dark red and gold. Cast on 6 stitches (or 8 if you want a wider scarf). Starting with red, work 6 rows in stocking stitch (one row knit, one row purl). Change to yellow and work 6 more rows of stocking stich, carrying the red yarn up by twisting it once with the yellow yarn - this will save you having to sew in all the loose ends for each stripe.

Once the scarf is the right length for your cat, cast off and add a couple of inches of fringe.

Health and Safety Officer note: make sure your cat only wears his scarf while you are supervising him so he doesn't get it tangled in anything. Do not let him wear it outside - other cats may not understand and laugh and point.

Severus Snape finger puppet

"Mummy, can you knit me Professor Snape for Christmas?"

Having ascertained that the request was for a doll-sized Severus Snape, not a life-sized one (a spectacular talking-point though that would be), I cautiously replied in the affirmative. I didn't have a pattern for a pocket-sized potion master, but I did have a pattern for a creepy-looking Lady Diana doll that might be adaptable.

Now, I've never knitted a doll before, let alone morphed The People's Princess into the head of Slytherin house, but I suspected that this might be the route to a nervous breakdown just before Christmas. I decided to knit a Snape finger puppet as a back-up plan, so at least there would be something Snape-shaped in the Christmas stocking in case the bigger doll isn't finished in time (or ends up looking like Princess Diana with Michael Jackson's hair).

I'm pleased with the way this finger puppet has turned out, although his cape keeps curling at the edges. The whole puppet is made out of scraps of double knitting wool, apart from the hair, which is half double knitting, and half fine black crochet cotton. Completely DK hair was too full and bushy, so I ended up unpicking it and adding crochet cotton for a nice lanky effect (sorry, Severus...).

Ten points to Slytherin!

Any requests for famous-people finger puppets?