Project du jour

Today I put the finishing touches on this lil number. I actually started it day before yesterday but got so caught up in blog frenzy that this stayed unfinished til just now. It is a large unisex beanie in black Velvet Chenille (microfiber) & acrylic Gold, knitted flat & then hand-seamed. It measures approximately 8" from crown to edge with band rolled down. Show off your NOLA pride today!!

https://www.etsy.com/listing/122260330/black-gold-nola-slightly-slouchy-beanie

The Saga of the Doctor Who Scarf

As a lifelong fan of Doctor Who, (*if you don't know what this is, Google it. I'll wait.)  that iconic scarf worn by Tom Baker in the 70s is at the heart of why I wanted to learn to knit. It wasn't OK for little boys to knit or do any sort of girly handicrafts in rural South Lousiana (I won't even get into what happened when I got into my sisters' cross-stitch), so I guess I just filed the idea away along with winning on a game show or going to Europe as Lovely Things That Will Never Happen to Me.

Well, life is funny sometimes. Life is so funny that in my time, I've done all those things and then some. In fact, this is the 4th time I've made a 4th Doctor scarf...and the 1st time I've gotten paid to do it (!!) The 1st one I gave as a gift to a fellow Whovian colleague of mine when I was a grad student. The second one I wore to Gallifrey One (Yes, the Dr Who Convention) in 2010, which I gifted to my amazing roommate, Josh, at the end of the event. The third one I wore to Gally last year. For the most part, the other fans reacted favorably to it (I even got a shout out from Eric Roberts about it) but some were a bit put off & one or two were a bit scathing, over the fact that I did not  replicate the original, but instead used multiple combinations of yarns of varying size, color, and texture, as you can see here:

My whole take on this is that I'm not interested in exactly duplicating the amazing work of Begonia (or was it Magnolia?) Pope down to the least detail. You can easily buy an exact duplicate of that scarf from any number of websites. I did follow the exact proportions of the color blocks (as I found them here: http://wittylittleknitter.com/chapter-12/) but I decided to vary the yarn choices as I had literally hundreds of leftover balls of yarn from my compulsive crafting.

For the latest regeneration of the iconic accessory, my Gally pal, Jason, comissioned me to make the scarf, following the same pattern, but using black, hot pink, purple & TARDIS blue in Velvet Chenille (microfiber) yarn as the palette. Unfortunately we were not able to locate any TARDIS blue, but we substituted a sumptuous Amethyst Chenille and on January 9th, 2013, I started to tackle this pile of yarn that had arrived courtesy of http://www.yarn-paradise.com/ 

What follows is madness a pictorial timeline of this odyssey of creation.

Day 1: I started by casting on 40 stitches (the original calls for 65, but that is worsted weight yarn), and after a few rows, saw that it would be entirely too wide to be functional, so I pulled it back and cast on 30 instead. I used size 13 (US) needles (also a variation on the pattern, so I used half as many rows) and worked on it from 4:00pm til 7 & then had some other stuff to do & I came back to it around 8pm & then got involved in my DVR & next thing you know it was midnight & the scarf was about 31" long by about 12" wide. 

I am already a bit worried about the difference in the blocks Chenille Amethyst & the other 3 Velvet Chenille yarns. Later on I fix this by using double strands of the Chenille Amethyst.

Day 2 January 10. Got on the 10am bus & started working. Had to go to my job at the Med Skool, so I didn't get back to the scarf until 8pm & I stitched til about 1am, catching up with old episodes of Caso Cerrado on Telemundo. My finger joints were aching, but the scarf was about 51" long by now:

Day 3. January 11. On & off from noon til midnight, with big breaks for meals & laundry & facebook games. Approx. 69" 

Can you see how the Amethyst Chenille color blocks look different in the earlier part? My nerves were in a fray.

Day 4.January 12. Resume work around 3pm, continue til 1:00AM with a dinner break someplace in there. Too long to measure without folding in half. Approx 90"

Day 5. January 13. I realize I am getting dangerously obsessed with this Columbian telenovela called Pablo Escobar, El Patron del Mal when one of the scenes upsets me so much I tear this yarn:

 However, I am the Witty Knitter, so I cheerfully fix the flaw & work intermittently from 1:30pm til about 2am, & end up around 110"

Day 6 January 14th. One month til Gallifrey! I work from about 1pm til 11 (intermittently at best) & end up about 130" 

Day 7. January 24. After all those busy nights at the Frenchmen Art Market, I returned to the Scarf with renewed determination. From 8:30pm til about 3am, ending up about 142"

Day 8. January 25. Beginning to feel fatigued. Big Laundry Day. Knit intermitttently from 4:30pm til 2am, pausing at 152"

Day 9 January 27th. Today is the day I will complete working on the length of this scarf. I work from 1:30 til 2:30pm & then break until about 5pm & just Can. Not. Stop. until 3:00am when I bind off the end & measure it to see that it is now 186"  (or 15ft, 6 inches) long (!!!)

  

Day 10 January 28 weave in all the loose ends of yarn, & oh lawd run a lint roller over everything. This Velvet Chenille is messy!! I seriously had to use at least 5 strips of lint roller to clean up my immediate area (and the scarf itself). I haven't dared to fool with this carpet yet.

But as you can clearly see, the effort was more than worth it:

My client has given me lots of positive feedback from what he's seen online! I can't wait to give it to him at Gallifrey!

If you're interested in one for yourself, or a loved one, feel free to get in touch!

xoxo

The Witty Knitter