Doctor Who
Scarf
Remember Tom Baker’s
iconic Dr Who Scarf? Well I made it!
While trolling the internet for free knitting patterns, I managed to stumble across this gem from www.drwhoscarf.com (who clearly state that the Dr Who Scarf patterns are the property of the BBC Worldwide Ltd and no infringement is intended or implied). What a wonderful website!
Apparently there were a
few different scarves, I only remember the ‘classic’ style that I’ve ended up
making, otherwise known on the site as the Original or S12 pattern.
I started knitting in October and now finished
knitting at the end of January. Though there were some days where I didn’t get
a chance to do any knitting due to the usual stuff like work, friends and family.
I know, I know I said I’d have those placemats and table runner finished and posted as my next blog, but you guessed it, I’ve been distracted once again.
In all fairness this is a
nice portable project which meant that I got to work on it a lot more over the
Christmas and New Year’s break while I was off out and about. Also I’ve decided
to give this scarf to my little brother for his birthday which is the end of
January, so I had to hurry up and finish it!
My brother and I used to
watch Dr Who after school on the ABC’s The
Afternoon Show, so he was pretty impressed when I told him I was making him
the scarf.
As per the instructions from the site, I cast on 66 stitches and have knitted the scarf in garter stitch. All up I believe that the wool cost me just under $40 and I still have more than enough to make another scarf if I so desired…
To get the colours as close as possible to the original scarf I’ve had to resort to using some wool and others as acrylics. Unfortunately, as neither had the right colours for me to not have to mix and match. So it will be interesting how the scarf weathers in time, as I’m sure that sections of it will stretch differently.
To knit the scarf, I’ve
used my favourite green size 4 knitting needles, a pen, a notepad, a crochet
hook (for tassel making) and various colours of wool.
To ensure that I was up to the right colour at the right time I’ve kept a tally in a small notepad. The number in brackets behind the colour is what is required, and I’ve just tallied it off as I’ve gone. It saved me from having to continually load the pattern page on my smart phone.
It’s taken a few solid hours just to neaten up the thread ends and stitch them back into the scarf. Hmmm, note to self, next time be kinder to myself and leave longer thread ends to work with (no matter how irritating they can be whilst actually still knitting) as it will make sewing the ends in so much easier! The instructions for how to make invisible joins were on the site, in the tips section.
To make the tassels I’ve had to consult with YouTube yet again, as I’d never made them before. The original scarf pattern calls for 12 tassels each end. I discovered I’m not a fan of making tassels, so I decided to make just enough that it would suit the scarf. So I ended up with 7 tassels each end, at approx. 2 inches apart.
The scarf is 12 inches or
31cm wide, 50 inches or 127.5cm long. Once the tassels were added it became 57
inches or 145cm long. Not metres and metres long, but it will stretch in time.
