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.]

Getting ready for back to school makes me think about pencil crafts, so let’s take a look at some pencil themed knitting patterns!

I recently made a pencil on a circular knitting machine, and it was a fun, quick, easy project that uses little bits of leftover yarn (and if you don’t have yellow you can make it a colored pencil using whatever color’s your favorite). And if you want to make a bigger version check out this pattern from Orange Olive Road on Etsy.

If you want to knit a pencil pillow by hand, check out Sketchy, available on Ravelry from Shana S. Cohen. This one uses worsted weight yarn and has two size options and the choice to make a pencil with an eraser or a colored pencil.

Pencil scarves seem to be the most popular kind of pencil knitting pattern, and there are lot of cute ones. This one from Cosy Craft UK mostly uses garter stitch, with some welts to add texture and what looks like an I-cord edging. It calls for DK weight yarn.

If you want to go all garter stitch try this version from Emsley Co Creations, which uses five colors of DK weight yarn and just a little shaping to make the point of the pencil.

There’s also this fun, mostly stockinette so it looks like it curls a bit, pencil pattern that looks like it’s worked in chunky yarn from Little Knits Studio. This one uses just a little garter stitch and easy shaping for the point.

If you don’t want a pencil scarf, how about some pencil socks? The No. 2 Pencil Socks from The Yarn Enabler are available from Ravelry and use five colors of sock yarn. They feature wide ribs to mimic the texture of a pencil and have options to be worked from the top down or the toe up.

Needs Sharpening by Alexander Walker is a free pattern on Ravelry that uses five colors of sock yarn to make a sort of shortie sock. The little bit of black at the tips of the toes inspired the name. These, too, can be worked in either direction and are available in three sizes.

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