The two best sites I've found for the 4th Doctor's scarf are http://www.doctorwhoscarf.com/index.php and http://wittylittleknitter.com/. Both have suggestions for yarn, though wittylittleknitter probably offers more variations. By the end you'll be an expert at the garter stitch.
When I started my first one, I was using Vanna's Choice (an acrylic yarn), but I abandoned it partway in. It may have been my uneven stitching or lack of forgiveness in the yarn, I'm not sure, so I switched to wool. The wool colors seemed to me to be a lot brighter and closer to the original colors than Vanna's Choice (especially the beige, which is more ivory colored when suggested swatches show it to be more of a tan). As mentioned above, though, the acrylic is machine washable, while the wool really isn't. It's also generally cheaper than natural fibers, and more readily available unless you're ordering online or have a dedicated local yarn store. (My favorite fiber so far is merino wool, which is softer than regular wool, but at $12/$13 a skein it's not a cheap scarf.)
Hi! I haven't been able to find the yarn actually :(, my local fabric store is really small... so I think I'll have to buy them online or something. :) Thank you for the advise!!
Hey there again--I looked about and found my favorite yarn store--it's called Angelika's and it's in Oregon, and they have the best stock around, or usually do. You very well might be able to find everything you want there.
Forget this link. The store has gone downhill big time. Sorry. However...
A while back I bought a lot of yarn, telling myself I was going to knit season 12 4 scarves for all my friends. HAHAHAHAHA. Well, I did for two. Three, if you count the rainbow version one. But what I'm getting at is I have MANY of all the Cascade 220 colors, and would be happy to let you have a set (enough for a scarf) for next to nothing. Actually, nothing. We could work out something on postage. Really, it's going to sit there for quite a while. And it's been in an x-large ziploc bag so no way have moths been at it. You use a size 6 US needle for this yarn, some people use a 7--I like the way it knits up on the 6--tight, but not stiff. Anyway, the offer stands. Message me if you are interested.
:) aww thank you for that!! Actually, I'm really happy right now because I've just convinced my mom to take me on an early xmas shopping trip to San Diego or LA, I might not go to LA (my mom doesn't like to go that far she says)... but I bet San Diego has bigger fabric stores than my little city in the middle of nowhere!! :D and because I'm going with my mom she might help me pay for it lol :D but thank you so much!! I'll keep that in mind and I'll let you know if I can't find them :)
I did my first scarf in Brown Sheep Nature Spun, though Cascade 220 seems to be the most popular. I've had pretty good luck ordering from Jimmy Bean's Wool myself, but it looks like it's available from several places listed on Ravelry's site (http://www.ravelry.com/yarns/library/cascade-yarns-220-wool) if it helps.
Wool is just so much more forgiving, don't you think? And if you have to tink (take out rows) it doesn't stick together like acrylic does, and if you're anything like me--at least when I did my first scarf--I tinked A LOT.
Definitely! I don't know how many times I tinked the first few tries. My first complete scarf didn't go through quite as much tinking, but it seemed to come out a lot more evenly with a lot less stress. I've found the merino my favorite to knit so far, but I don't know how well it wears.
I learned to knit only about a year and a half ago--and I wanted my first project to be the 4 scarf. I called a local store and they had a beginner's class starting 2 days later. So I took the class, then went home, ordered the yarn, tried to practice garter stitch. Then the yarn finally came, and I started up, made it about two rows.
Had to frog. Tried again, made it to the sand color, frogged again. If I didn't frog because I screwed something up, I frogged back to the beginning because I had dropped a stitch and I couldn't pick up the loops to save my life.
I went to a class called "Oops, I Dropped It Again" and learned how to pick up the damn dropped stitches. And then someone turned me on to using tiny needles--in the round--to pick up stitches after frogging. Then I thought, well duh, I could do this whole thing on circulers, dumped the straight needles, and started over. Got about 18 inches in when I found out I had dropped a stitch on row 15 or so, and the scarf was angling weird. I even tried to pick it up. Frogged again. (I forgot to say that my first tries kept gaining stitches due to me knitting the two "stitches" at the beginning of a row instead of pulling them back and knitting the real stitch--I made many wedges.) So on the 16th try, it finally went. I frogged, I picked up the stitches, I dropped stitches, I picked them up. I learned really quickly how to change colors and make it look good. By the time the thing took off, I could garter like a mofo and had great tension. And you know what? I was so determined to make the thing that I finished it in 16 days.
Whew. 16 days AFTER the final 16th try. There seemed to be a 16 sort of thing happening.
Anyway, that's my first DW scarf story and my first knitting story. I can't tell you how many times people asked me "Shouldn't you be making hot pads?" :P
When I started my first one, I was using Vanna's Choice (an acrylic yarn), but I abandoned it partway in. It may have been my uneven stitching or lack of forgiveness in the yarn, I'm not sure, so I switched to wool. The wool colors seemed to me to be a lot brighter and closer to the original colors than Vanna's Choice (especially the beige, which is more ivory colored when suggested swatches show it to be more of a tan). As mentioned above, though, the acrylic is machine washable, while the wool really isn't. It's also generally cheaper than natural fibers, and more readily available unless you're ordering online or have a dedicated local yarn store. (My favorite fiber so far is merino wool, which is softer than regular wool, but at $12/$13 a skein it's not a cheap scarf.)
I've also found it useful to weave ends in as I go as opposed to weaving them in with a yarn needle later, using this technique: http://sockpr0n.blogspot.com/2006/10/how-to-weave-in-ends-while-knitting.html Good luck!
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http://www.yarn-store.com/cascade-220-yarn.html
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A while back I bought a lot of yarn, telling myself I was going to knit season 12 4 scarves for all my friends. HAHAHAHAHA. Well, I did for two. Three, if you count the rainbow version one. But what I'm getting at is I have MANY of all the Cascade 220 colors, and would be happy to let you have a set (enough for a scarf) for next to nothing. Actually, nothing. We could work out something on postage. Really, it's going to sit there for quite a while. And it's been in an x-large ziploc bag so no way have moths been at it. You use a size 6 US needle for this yarn, some people use a 7--I like the way it knits up on the 6--tight, but not stiff. Anyway, the offer stands. Message me if you are interested.
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Had to frog. Tried again, made it to the sand color, frogged again. If I didn't frog because I screwed something up, I frogged back to the beginning because I had dropped a stitch and I couldn't pick up the loops to save my life.
I went to a class called "Oops, I Dropped It Again" and learned how to pick up the damn dropped stitches. And then someone turned me on to using tiny needles--in the round--to pick up stitches after frogging. Then I thought, well duh, I could do this whole thing on circulers, dumped the straight needles, and started over. Got about 18 inches in when I found out I had dropped a stitch on row 15 or so, and the scarf was angling weird. I even tried to pick it up. Frogged again. (I forgot to say that my first tries kept gaining stitches due to me knitting the two "stitches" at the beginning of a row instead of pulling them back and knitting the real stitch--I made many wedges.) So on the 16th try, it finally went. I frogged, I picked up the stitches, I dropped stitches, I picked them up. I learned really quickly how to change colors and make it look good. By the time the thing took off, I could garter like a mofo and had great tension. And you know what? I was so determined to make the thing that I finished it in 16 days.
Whew. 16 days AFTER the final 16th try. There seemed to be a 16 sort of thing happening.
Anyway, that's my first DW scarf story and my first knitting story. I can't tell you how many times people asked me "Shouldn't you be making hot pads?" :P
Peace.
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