Would you like to contribute a section to our extra-long Doctor Who inspired scarf? Here’s how you can get involved.
To link in with our new Doctor Who exhibition ‘ADVENTURES IN TIME AND SPACE – 60 YEARS OF DOCTOR WHO ART’ (to find out more about that just head here), we’re asking our community to join us in with some Doctor Who inspired knitting (to find out more about that just head here). From now until the end of the exhibition, we’re going to be knitting a stripy scarf in sections made by lots of different people. These sections will all be added together in early 2024 to make one extra-long scarf. Once we’ve had some fun wrapping stuff in our long scarf to celebrate, we will then divide it up again and the resulting normal length scarves will be donated to a homeless charity.
If you’d like to knit a section then it would be great if you could knit a scarf that is a normal length (or twice that if you fancy). We reckon that a normal length scarf is around the 6 feet mark or about 2 metres, but there’s no exact length. As sustainability is very important to us, we want this random stripy scarf to be a good opportunity for using up odds and ends of wool, so we aren’t going for an exact colour pattern, just keep it random and colourful.
We’re also not being exact about the wool used or needle size, so that people can use what they have available. Among the museum team, we’re generally going for a fairly standard weight (the sort that you would get in most high street shops in wool or acrylic yarn, or anything fairly similar). The original Doctor Who scarf has random widths of stripes in a plain garter stitch (see the image above), so it would be great to stick to that; if you want to deviate a little that’s ok, but we’re not going for anything too fancy or too different in terms of stitch style.
In terms of width, we’ve been knitting at 40 stitches wide on our medium weight yarn with a fairly standard needle size of 7/4.5mm. This has been producing a scarf width of about 20cm, so if you use that as a general guide then you can adjust the number of stitches according to what needle sizes or yarn weight you have available – if the needle size is bigger then use less stitches etc.
The project runs up until the end of the exhibition in April, so please aim to get your section in to us at the museum before the end of March, so that we have time to stitch them all together.
If you’re new to knitting then you can get involved with the other element of our project and learn to knit! Grab one of our knitting starter packs from the museum shop (throughout the exhibition dates) and get going with your own scarf. You can even join us on a special knitting starter day in the October Half Term or one in January, where there will be a team of knitting helpers ready to get you started and show you a basic stitch. There’s no charge to join this event and no need to book, you just need to purchase one of the starter packs and find an available helper in our Learning Space. Knitting is a great hobby for almost any age and you don’t need to know loads of complicated stitches; just one will enable you to make something to be proud of.
We’re also in need to donations of wool and knitting needles, so if you have any that you want to give us then please bring them in to the museum marked FAO Katherine Bell. If you have any further questions, just email Katherine.bell@wsm-tc.gov.uk.