Every now and then I realize my obsession with knitting borders on insanity. I write this after divulging my obsession by purchasing way too many knitting magazines, most of which only have a few items I actually want to knit within their covers. I have an extensive collection of knitting magazines that will hopefully give me enough inspiration to start creating my own patterns someday.

I tend to focus on knitwear wherever I am. I especially like to see knitwear in movies: sweaters, hats, scarves, etc…I think to myself, that is a neat item. I could make that if I wanted to. But alas, there comes the idea of creating a pattern for it, and it’s quite hard to make a pattern for something you’ve only seen for a few moments in a movie.

I just watched “The Holiday” last night and am dying to make the knitted clothing in that movie. The film was very good, by the way, but I was entranced by the sweater that Cameron Diaz wore for the first part of the film, when she was adjusting to life in England on her vacation. It is a white sweater with an intricate celtic cable pattern. I know that I could make it, as I have made a similar sweater with the same type of cables. But to recreate this sweater exactly, I’ll have to track down just who made this sweater.

Also, Kate Winslet wore a few hats and scarves that I like. There was this one little skinny scarf she wore that seemed to have a lace pattern. This one will be a bit harder to recreate, as I didn’t get a good look at the scarf during the movie.

Some may find me crazy for wanting to make clothing from a movie, instead of locating the actual items and buying them. I guess it comes from my desire to prove to myself that yes, I can make anything I set my sights on with a ball of yarn. A few months ago I spotted a nice ear-flap hat with scarves for the ear flaps in an Anthropologie catalog. It looked so interesting. The price was over $100 (possibly $200) so I knew I would never actually buy it. But I knew that I could knit it myself. And I did. I still have to refine the pattern a bit, as I think I need to decrease the number of stitches used in the hat portion, but it turned out rather well. And I saved a ton of money knitting it myself as opposed to buying it.

And I can tell people that I made it. That’s the best part of it all.

So if anyone has any tips about the clothing in the movie “The Holiday,” please let me know. I found some names of the designers that were used in the film, but I have a feeling I’ll be undergoing a lot of research to find the sweater.