Doctor Who Scarf: Update Two

The scarf has been coming along quite well.

About a foot into it I began to worry about the length in earnest though. Luckily for me I belong to a Doctor Who scarf knitting community on Ravelry someone suggested using one of the patterns for the scarf written to be knit in a bulky or aran weight and knit it in a light worsted instead as a method of shortening. I started to knit it that way instead and have been very pleased with the way it's coming along thus far. I think when it's done it will be about 8 feet long.

It's been bitter cold for the last few days here so I've kind of wished I started in the fall so I would have it done by now. The scarf is long but not hard to knit and I've been pacing myself by doing roughly a stripe a day and I'm more than half way done now.  I don't forsee this taking me as long as I had expected. I would definitely recommend this as a good project for any Doctor Who fan who wants an easy project.

The scarf is long enough at this point that it doesn't fit nicely in the picture any more.

I keep it rolled up like a jelly roll for easy storage and also so it doesn't take up too much room when I'm knitting it.

Doctor Who Scarf: First Update

So I hope everyone had a wonderful and blessed Christmas.

My family gathered together at my parents' house as always, although I was sick in bed on Christmas even and didn't go to church with the rest of my family. We were joined for the first time by my nephew who is seven months and adorable.

My mother (bless her) got me the yarn for my Doctor Who scarf. The yarn is real wool and incredibly good color matches, except for the yellow. Turns out the yellow which is the closest match to the original scarf is back ordered until 1/31/13, and so she got my another close match, which is a little bright but pretty good. I am definitely not complaining.

 I started the scarf on Christmas Day and kept my Nana company on the couch as she crocheted.

My sibling and I gathered together in the evening on Christmas day and watched The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle from the Sherlock Holmes Granada TV series and then Robot which is the first Doctor Who episode to feature Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor. There was much commenting on and examining screen shots of the scarf as we watched.

The scarf is extremely wide which makes it feel even more of a big project. I'd read other knitters compare to knitting a blanket and it certainly is daunting like one. For the time being I've decided not to shorten it. Although I might need to start cutting out stripes or something like that once I get six feet in or so, we'll see how it's looking.

The actual knitting is a little repetative because it's simply garter stitch over and over again. I think I'm going to be really excited about it once it starts looking like the Doctor Who scarf though.  What I'm most pleased with right now is how retro 70s the colors are looking, which makes it feel wonderfully authentic.


My brother thinks I should get a battered felt hat and cosplay as the smallest Fourth Doctor ever. 

Knitting The Doctor Who Scarf: planning

I have to admit I am a Classic Who fan. I mean I like the new series but I love the classic stuff. My favorite of the Doctors is the Fourth. I adore Tom Baker's style as the Doctor, that slightly crazy, slightly vague all around weird vibe he gives off. Of the Fourth Doctor's run, which is the longest to date, I love the early episodes the best the ones with Sarah Jane, because she is my favorite companion. One of the most iconic features of the Fourth Doctor is his scarf.

I've always wanted a scarf like the Fourth Doctor's but I never really thought about it seriously. Buying replicas of the scarf is extremely expensive and most of the time I struggle to pay my rent. Although I've known how to knit since I was eleven the scarf is about 12 feet long and that just seemed like too daunting a project.

This semester has been really tough for me though. I've taken a bunch of classes from demanding professors who are not in my field and as was to be expected I've struggled. Halfway through writing my finals I desided the time had come to knit the Fourth Doctor's scarf.


Over the course of the Tom Baker's long run as the Doctor the scarf took a lot of wear and changed. At one point a totally new scarf had to be made. So the scarf actually differed from season to season. Since my favorite season of the Fourth Doctor's were the first couple, seasons 12 and 13 technically, I decided to knit the incarnation of the scarf from the first season.

Having decided on the season 12's scarf I did a little research which brought my to the Doctor Who Scarf site. The site provided me with a pattern for knitting an exact (or pretty close) replica of the season 12 Doctor Who scarf.

Originally I assumed I would knit the scarf out of acrylic yarn. The original scarf was knit out of wool but I, being the poor grad student that I am, thought I'd only be able to afford acrylic yarn. Since then my sister has decided enough yarn to make a Doctor Who scarf would be the perfect Holiday gift so I will be knitting it out of wool (and pretending that I'm surprised when I open my present.)

The problem I'm grappling with right now is how to shorten the scarf for me.

The original scarf was 12 feet long. Tom Baker is 6 foot 3 inches and the scarf could loop around him down to the ground twice.  I am 4 foot 11 inches tall and I'm pretty sure I can't physically wear a 12 foot scarf. So I've been trying to figure out how to shorten it without ruining the integrity of the original scarf. If I just stopped knitting two feet before the pattern then it would be a different scarf probably closest to season 14 not the season 12 scarf I want to knit. All of the stripes are different sizes so I'm having trouble trying to figure out how to lessen the strip width evenly through-out the entire scarf. If I was just knitting a scarf to have a scarf that would be one things but this is a replica so it needs to be more exact.

Any ideas about how I could do this?