Yes, yes … I know.It’s Spring already, and we’re just updating a list of projects for 2024 and beyond.
We are now doing “slow fashion.” What does that mean to you? It means vintage knitting and crocheting, with possibly some hand-sewing thrown in for good measure, too.
We have been enamored by antique and vintage knitting and crochet projects for years and returned to making them in late 2023. Thus, we will be making what we’re calling “Through the Decades” fashion collections. For example, this means that not only will you have the opportunity to purchase a 1940s sweater or sweater set, but you will also be able to purchase a coordinating skirt or slacks to go with them. Assorted projects are planned for the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s and 1970s.
And while on the subject of knitting, my fellow Whovians, we currently have two different versions of the infamous fourth Doctor’s scarf — one season 12 “hero” scarf and one ridiculously long season 18 scarf — on needles. Both scarves are as close to canon as one can possibly get without needing an actual TARDIS to color-match the yarns. Serious inquiries may reach out to us for further details.
Onto the hand-sewing department: we are still sorting this out, but we’re considering making such lovelies items as 18th-century goodies such as fichus, caps, petticoats, pockets, and a complete “set of muslins.”
Being the proud and fur-covered mother of her four rescued felines, it is my privilege to help where and how I can.
So with that now being said, I asked myself … what does a Whovian period costumer do to incorporate her three of her four passions of Sci-fi, costuming and supporting animal rescue charities on a shoestring? She hand-knits the Fourth Doctor’s iconic Scarf and donates it as a prize for Boris Kitty’s 5th Annual Sci-Fi Pawty. The SCIFpawty is a virtual Science Fiction Convention on Twitter. The hashtag #SCFIpawty The proceeds will once again benefit One By One Cat Rescue in Kutztown, PA a no-kill, non-profit organization.
So what does a person or more specifically a Whovian need to know about the scarf featured below?
The scarf is knit in 100% acrylic yarn, specifically: Lion Brand Yarn’s “Vanna’s Choice.” I love this yarn. It is soft, has a good hand, has a wide color palette and best of all, is machine wash and dry.
The colors are cannon. I’ve used the color resources at Witty Little Knitter. If anyone has done their homework, Tara Carstensen certainly has. [Dudes, seriously. She took an OTT Light and a Pantone color book with her when she got the opportunity to have a hands on with the Shada scraf.] Here is her template and list of yarns.
Pictures [below] — we fussed over which phone took the best and most accurate representation of the colors. The husband’s iPhone won. We took pictures against both a black coat and a warm, dark brown coat to give you the best opportunities to see what it will look like before it arrives at your home.
Hand-knitting — I hope in stating that this scarf has been hand-knit by yours truly would imply that there might be an irregularity or two in the knitting process. There are three or four little “burps” in the stitches. Now when you consider everything that Four put his scarf through, these are nothing; however, I did feel compelled to mention them.
Cat Fur — the cats have made their own contribution to this project. Thus, there is small small quantity of car fur that has unavoidably knitted into the scarf.
The scarf has been washed in 7th Generation “Free & clear” it get out all of the awful sizing and the aforementioned cat fur as possible.
And as a sneak peak, here is our annual #scfipawty avatar: our 3 of 4, Obi-wan as his name sake.
It is finished, at least the knitting part. I still need to weave the ends in and add more tassels — the Whovian Times pattern that I used calls for seven tassels and I think that must have been wrong and every scene I’ve seen while streaming classic Doctor Who via Netflix has much more.
I know I either heard or read that somewhere, just can’t remember exactly where so I”ll give the Doctor himself the credit and move on from there.
Being a child of the sixties and seventies, my first Doctor was number 4, although retrospectively speaking it could have actually been 3 because it was my father who introduced me to Doctor Who [pun not intended, exactly], but it was Tm Baker that won my heart and like all fans I had to have the scarf. That was also 30 years ago.
2013 has sorta of become my bucket list year, not that I’m dying or anything like that, just finally getting around to doing things that have been sitting around too long — the first being the (almost fully finished) Eleanora of Toledo Gown; the second being my beloved fourth Doctor’s scarf.
I started the scarf on May 18th as sort of an early birthday present and I’ve being tweeting my progress on the scarf via one of my twitter alter egos, which I’ve recapped below and have gotten a couple of replies. One was a woo-who, very excited and the other was “I’ll never do that again.” Surprisingly, when I did a search on the #DoctorWhoScarf hash tag on Twitter, that was the majority opinion: never again.
Perhaps I’m in the minority, the extreme minority, but I’ll only been at this 6 weeks and I’m over half way there as testified to my my scraf-o-matic ticker below. [Come on people, it’s only a simple garter stitch! You can do it! she says in a bad impression of Matt Smith as 11.]
My Doctor Who Scarf status ticker – 6-29-2013
I am delighted that I’m finally knitting this and that is going so very quickly and yes, I am available for hire to knit one of your very own, I’m just trying to figure what it’s going to cost. (Reply to this post if you’re seriously interested and I will get back to you.)
For those who’ve just gotta know, I’m using the “Official BBC Enterprises Knitting pattern for the ‘Doctor Who’ Scarf,” which can be found here: http://www.androgums.org/scarf.html. I am using a combination of acrylic yarns that best matched the colors with a slight deviation from the original — I’m using an oatmeal color instead to the camel to go better with my skin tones …after all, it is my scarf.
I’ve used the color resources at Doctor Who Scarf .com to help pick my color palette. I opted for the more natural colors. http://www.doctorwhoscarf.com/s12.html
Twitter feed recap:
5/29/13 — #DoctorWho scarf status report week 1.5 I’ve gotten about 27 inches done.
5/30/13 — This witty knitter is using a blend of acrylic yarn and cat fur so it won’t be too itchy #DoctorWho
