I’ve been writing about knitting long enough that I remember (and wrote about) when knitter David Babcock broke the world record for the longest scarf knit while running a marathon. I don’t know why this is a thing people would want to do or why there is an official record for it, but here we are.
He broke the record at the Kansas City marathon in 2014 with a scarf that was 12 feet, 1.75 inches long (that’s about 3.7 meters) and a run time of five hours, 48 minutes and 27 seconds.
Over the weekend British knitter Simon Fannon shattered the record at the London Marathon, producing a scarf of 18 feet, three inches, or 5.59 meters in five hours, 48 minutes and 8 seconds.
The Guinness world record website has already been updated to mark his record.
Fannon is known online at veteranknitter, and was a Royal Marine and was a contestant on the first series of Game of Wool. He used his run to raise money for the Huntington’s Disease Association and Reorg, a group that works with veterans, members of the military and emergency services workers who face physical and mental health issues as part of their jobs.
Simon said he cast on as soon as he started running and tried to knit constantly until the last mile or so of the race. Because he was looking down at his knitting so much, he says he missed a lot of the landmarks you run past on the route. He said he aimed to change colors on his bulky garter stitch scarf every meter or so, and he used five colors in the project.
He kept his yarn in a pocket at his waist and knit with straight needles in continental style.
Congratulations to Simon! Makes me feel like my marathon knitting sessions on the couch (LOL) aren’t nearly as impressive as I thought.
[Photo via BBC]
