Happy Birthday Tom Baker

Today in honor of the 4th Doctor’s birthday I am finishing the fourth Doctor Who scarf in the past two months.  I love the Doctor and have had a blast knitting the 12 foot scarves, they are just knit back and forth with a gazillion color changes.  Though I really do not like sewing in all the ends.   I am planning on taking a break from them for a week or two although now that I’ve said that there will be more orders.

I love sharing what I am passionate about with all that I can, I will continue to make the insanely large scarves forever I think.  As I knit along I frequently think of the lady who knit the first one and whether or not she knew what she was getting herself into.

Here’s the story from the wonderful site doctorwhoscarf.com.

“When Tom Baker was cast as the Doctor, costume designer James Acheson picked up a load of wool and asked a knitter Begonia Pope to knit a scarf for Tom. Perhaps legendarily, she inadvertently used all the wool Acheson had given her resulting in a scarf that was some twenty feet long. This unusual scarf was well received by the cast and crew, and after being shortened slightly, it was worn by Baker in “Robot.” The scarf in its original form was only seen in “Robot” and “The Sontaran Experiment,” which was recorded right after “Robot.” This particular scarf continued to both stretch and lose stripes due to wear and stunts. A stunt duplicate was also created that was shorter and had subtle color and pattern differences.”

I was talking to my mom the other day and keeping her updated on my projects and she informed me that the Tom Baker doctor was my first one.  I use to watch it as a kid with my dad on PBS, who knew! I had no memory of it but was happy to know that I have been a life long fan.  So today Happy Birthday to the Doctor and thanks to all the actors that have mad him so wonderful.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/gallery/fourthdoctor/12.shtml