The Official Way to Knit a Doctor Who Scarf

There’s a lot of Doctor Who-related knitting geekery out there, but of course the pinnacle is knitting the Tom Baker scarf.

There are lots of knitting patterns out there, and an entire website devoted to the different variations of the scarf used in the show. All the versions are super long (12 feet), super wide and use lots of different colors of yarn in Garter Stitch.

And though I’d swear I’ve seen this somewhere before, the official pattern from the BBC has been circulating online recently. Apparently at some point in the 1970s and ’80s, if you wrote them for the pattern this is what you would get. It’s from season 12, which ran in 1974 and 1975.

There have been times when the BBC was less friendly to knitters, such as in 2008 when they made a woman to remove patterns from her site inspired by Doctor Who characters. But I guess they don’t mind so much anymore, as they have a roundup of Doctor Who patterns on their blog now.

Have you ever made any Doctor Who knits or other crafts? I’d love to hear about it!

[Photo via user 93fangshadow at Deviant Art.]

Not too long ago I did a test knit for another designer that was for a cabled cardigan. It’s really cozy and nice but it just about broke me in a ton of different ways. I couldn’t get gauge, which I suppose is my own problem, but mainly I was somehow both bored and forced to pay attention at the same time.

Because it used the same cable all over, I always had to know what row I was on, but nine out of ten of those rows, nothing in particular was going on. So I couldn’t stop paying attention, but what I needed to attend to was boring.

It may have ruined me for knitting cabled sweaters, but maybe I just need something that’s more engaging. Like this Modern Aran Cardigan pattern from Lion Brand Yarn.

This is a reworking of an old pattern from their archives, and you can tell that form the classic look of the cables and the oversized feel (nothing cropped about this one!). It has allover cables, but like a classic Aran sweater it’s not the same cable, so you’ll have to pay attention to what row you’re on and what cable turns happen for which cables on that row.

Because of this, it’s considered an intermediate knitting pattern, but if you’re comfortable working from multiple charts at once it shouldn’t be a problem for you. There are three different charts and seven different cable moves.

Also because the pattern is so big and boxy there are only two sizes available, with a finished chest measurement of either 49 or 63 inches (that’s 124.5 or 160 cm). It’s up to you to decide how much ease you would like and whether that will work for your body.

The pattern uses worsted weight yarn (and calls for another classic, Lion Brand Fisherman’s Wool). It calls for six buttons and includes pockets to make it extra cozy.

This one looks like a great winter project to make and to wear if you’re up for a bit of a challenge. You can grab the free pattern or buy a kit with the yarn needed direct from Lion Brand Yarn.

[Photo: Lion Brand Yarn]

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