Historically, my background is in acting, writing of fantasy novels and costuming. All parts to make up a rather complicated and some would say eccentric lady. The imaginative girl within me loves to create and explore new challenges, which is why I gave myself the task of creating a Season 12 Doctor Who scarf in 2010.
After watching a multitude of Doctor Who DVDs in the quiet of my country home, my husband exclaimed how wonderful it would be to actually own a replica of Tom Baker’s scarf. My mind reeled with this thought I have to say, as before then I had no idea how to knit. My skills only lay within the boundaries of hand stitching historic garments for Robin of Sherwood, Viking or Saxon shows. However, the look on my husband’s face was such a picture, so I decided to at least give the project a try.
That week saw a spurt of outings to ‘Hobby Craft’ and other craft minded shopping outlets. Armed with various pictures from the DVDs and from the Internet as colour guides, I set to on the great wool adventure.
Once the multitude of wools and needles had been procured, with the helpful advice from the shop assistants, I rushed back home to then find my next teacher – the Internet. As a complete beginner, I had no idea how to even cast on, so I took time to look on YouTube and found helpful websites which gave simple instructions on how to cast on and to knit my first rows.
I suppose that you could say the greenery that surrounds my home turned a little blue with the first week of mistakes and more holes in the scarf that you could shake a Sonic Screwdriver at. Soon the words turned to that of hope when little by little my scarf grew to become a notable length of wondrous colour and distinction.
The main problem I had found was that of RSI in my thumbs. The reason behind this stemmed from the fact that I had been holding the needles far too tightly. Biting my lip through the pain, I refused to let the needles make me stop and take a break, which was silly I know, but my stubbornness pushed me on.
Four months later, and harbouring very painful digits, my scarf at last was complete. Once more I looked on the Internet for help on how to cast off and then how to add the final touches to the tassels either end of the fourteen foot scarf.
Now, a year later, the scarf has been worn many a time by my very happy husband. It is the main part of his Tom Baker costume which he likes to parade around in when we are fortunate enough to go up to London to the Doctor Who Experience, or other Who related gatherings. The length has been stretched out now, but it looks wonderful.
The colours that I had used were as close a match as I could find locally at the time. These were all doubleknit (DK) wools, but for future scarves I am spending more time sourcing accurate colour matched yarn worldwide.
Picture of the completed scarf, next to the Season 16 Power of Kroll frock coat. After completion of the Season 18 scarf I shall be starting a Season 16 one to go with the coat. I shall be striving to get the colours as accurate as possible and will be blogging the process from the start.
So this is just the start to a long adventure in costume making for Doctor Who. I am currently undertaking another scarf project, this being the Season 18 scarf.
I hope that you will follow me in this journey as one by one, my projects will be unfurled.
