Well, it only took me six months to do it this time – I finished my second Doctor Who scarf!
The scarf turned out pretty well, although there were a couple of hiccups along the way while making it, including…
- It turns out I used the wrong size needles. for some reason I figured that I’d be using the same size needles as I used for Bryan’s scarf, but nope. I was wrong. I needed a size 9 needle – and used a size 6, and didn’t realized I was using the wrong needles until I was about five rows away from done. Not even kidding. Being a bit of a perfectionist, I may try to make a new one in the correct size… is that crazy?
- Crocheting the edge was a bit tough, especially on the side that had all the color changes. The pattern didn’t exactly explain how to do it (“slip stitch crochet on right side only” is not quite enough detail – where the heck am I supposed to put that slip stitch?). I ended up just single-crocheting around the edge on the right side – it made the edge a little more obvious, which I was fine with, but I don’t know as it’s entirely show-accurate… The worst part was trying to wedge my crochet hook through the color changes – that side’s a bit messy because of that. It’s not horrible, but when it comes to my craft projects, I’m a bit of a perfectionist.
- I am really sick of doctorwhoscarf.com changing their patterns every year! This happened when I was working on Bryan’s scarf, and it happened this time too – I inevitably lose the pattern somewhere, and then go to look it up online, and it’s completely different. While the change wasn’t so drastic with Bry’s scarf (it went from just a list of colors and rows to a graphical pattern), the change on my scarf was much harder to deal with – the maintainer of the patterns switched from counting each rib as a row, and listing the amount of ribs on each color span, to counting each individual row and therefore doubling the amount of “rows” in each span of color. It really threw me off, especially when I did my counting. Next time I do a scarf, I’m going to get in the habit of printing out a couple of copies and sticking the extras to my bulletin board, so I don’t have to switch to reading a pattern in a different format.
Aside from these issues, making the scarf was fun, and it kept me occupied during many long chilly nights of TV watching and gave me something to do while sitting through family gatherings and classes. I’m kind of sad that I’m done with it… and I’m considering taking on the task of making scarves for friends, should they want one. I’m starting to question my sanity, with that last bit, haha, but there’s nothing so soothing as knitting a nice, long, Doctor Who scarf!