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An Inspirational Pattern

Blog about a pattern or project which you aspire to. Whether it happens to be because the skills needed are ones which you have not yet acquired, or just because it seems like a huge undertaking of time and dedication, most people feel they still have something to aspire to in their craft. If you don’t feel like you have any left of the mountain of learning yet to climb, say so!

Mine might be obvious to regular readers of my blog: My current project I’m aspiring to complete is my Doctor Who Scarf. First, a bit of background on the scarf’s origins…

Doctor Who is the longest-running sci-fi series ever. It airs on the BBC, and began in 1963, continuing to the present day (with a hiatus from 1987-2005, and a TV movie in 1996). The show follows The Doctor, who is the last of a humanoid alien race called the Timelords. He travels in his spaceship, the TARDIS, which has forever been stuck in a cloak of a Police Public Call Box from the 1950s.

The TARDIS, the Doctor's ship.

The Doctor, like all Timelords, has the ability to regenerate himself into a new form when he dies, a total of thirteen times. This allowed the BBC to keep the show running for as long as it has; when an actor needs to resign, another can take his place through “regeneration”. The doctor has regenerated ten times to this date; the series is currently on the eleventh.

A chronological line-up of all eleven Doctors.

This entry pertains to the fourth Doctor, played by Tom Baker. His Doctor reigned from 1974 to 1981 and had the longest career of any doctor in the series. He is also generally the favorite Doctor amongst the majority of Doctor Who diehards. This snippet from doctorwhoscarf.com explains how the scarf came to be:

When Tom Baker was cast as the Doctor, costume designer James Acheson picked up a load of wool and asked a knitter called Begonia Pope to knit a scarf for Tom. She inadvertently used all the wool Acheson had given her, resulting in a scarf that was some twenty feet long. This unusual scarf was well received by the cast and crew and after being shortened slightly, it was worn by Baker beginning on “Robot.”

A great picture of the scarf, and the Doctor himself. Oh, and Daleks. (click to enlarge)

Chris Brimelow, the creator of doctorwhoscarf.com and the designer of the various scarf patterns, has placed them all on his site in great detail. I chose to make the duplicate scarf featured in Season 15 onwards, as it’s thicker than the original. It needs to be 16-17 feet long… I am currently 2.5 feet in. It is knit entirely in garter stitch, and the mind tend to fry after awhile. I combat this by multitasking, watching television or reading e-books while I knitknitknit away at the long, odd-width stripes.

The scarf so far... (click to enlarge)

We're at about 2.5 feet unstretched. (click to enlarge)

This scarf is the biggest undertaking I’ve handled since my first foray into knitting. To complete one is a goal I’ve had since I started knitting, and is one of the reasons I began to knit in the first place. To complete it is to remove an item from my Bucket List, and to complete something great in my knitting career. When it is completed, I hope to dress up as Tom Baker’s Doctor for Halloween. :D

There are other patterns I certainly want to tackle one day that I don’t yet feel comfortable tackling… (these all link to Ravelry, so you need to have an account to view!)

A Bohus sweater, a beautiful lace shawl of some sort (examples: Laminaria, Ishbel), things involving heavy colourwork or involved cabling… Lots of daunting projects ahead, and I will get there!

See what others are writing about for day 2!