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Doctor Who Scarf Bracelets

It's Baaaccckkk - Doctor Who - 23rd August. I'm just a teeny bit excited!

I may have mentioned once or twice that I am huge Doctor Who fan. (My level of fan-ness is huge, not me, I'm regular sized!)

Being a child of the 70's and growing up actually hiding behind the settee (yes, we really did that) 

Tom Baker as the 4th Doctor was My Doctor. I love the other Doctors too and have high hopes for Mr Capaldi but the truth is the Doctor you grow up with will always be your Doctor, that's just how it is. Tom Baker had the awesome scarf and I've made a tie for our son, (pattern here) inspired by that scarf. For myself I thought I would make a bracelet.

I've been experimenting and made two versions.

On pinterest I found the original BBC scarf pattern here which said I needed these colours of DK wool : 

Purple, Camel, Bronze, Mustard, Rust, Grey and Greenish Brown.

After extensive research this is what I chose:

Version 1 - a wrap around bracelet:

This was my original idea, a long bracelet version of a long scarf. I think it's a bit bulky after all - see what you think.

Printable version here

Using 2.5mm needles, cast on 10 stitches in purple.

Using knit throughout work the stripes like this:

3 purple row

26 camel

8 bronze

6 mustard

10 rust

4 purple

10 green

4 mustard

8 camel

6 rust

4 bronze

6 purple

20 green

4 mustard

8 grey

4 rust

10 camel

6 purple

6 green

4 mustard

8 rust

4 purple

18 bronze

4 grey

16 rust

change to mustard and k1, cast off 2, k4, cast off 2 k1

k1, turn the knitting round, cast on 2, turn it back round, k4, turn it round again cast on 2, turn back and k the last stitch. (you've made 2 little button holes that will line up when you join the side seam. I don't know if this is a standard way to make button holes but it works for me. If you know a better way, use that!)

k4 more rows in mustard then cast off.

This is the right side,

and this is the wrong side, with all the colour changes.

Fold the knitting in half length ways, then using one of the ends for each colour (doesn't matter which one) over sew the side seam. It is a bit of a pain, having to keep rethreading your needle but it looks better when you use the same colour as each stripe and you don't have to worry so much if your stitches are not very neat.

The other "ends" I just trimmed a little bit shorter and then left, they will be hidden on the inside anyway.

Now you need to turn it right side out. This was a bit tricky, but just keep gently pulling it through - don't be rough with it or you'll pull it out of shape. 

This is how my button hole ended up:

Add a small button on the non-button hole end and you are done.

What do you think? I like it but I don't luurve it.

Version 2 - a cuff bracelet lined with felt:

Using 2mm needles and purple wool cast on 10 stitches and using knit through out work the pattern like this:

printable version here

1 purple row

12 camel

4 bronze

2 mustard

6 rust

2 purple

6 green

2 mustard

8 camel

4 rust

2 bronze

2 purple

10 green

2 mustard

4 grey

2 rust

12 camel

2 purple

2 green

2 mustard

6 rust

2 purple

8 bronze

k4, cast off 4, k2

k3, turn knitting round and cast on 4, turn back round and work the last 3 st on row. (this will make the button hole)

k another row with bronze

change to camel and work 1 row

cast off

See the button hole at the end.

All your colour changes should be on the same side. Now you just need to sew all those bloomin' ends in!

Once all the ends are sewn in it looks like this, a little bit bumpy along the edges and not very even.

Cut a piece of felt just a fraction smaller than the knitting and pinned it centrally onto the knitting. Then using regular sewing thread, over-sew it in place as neatly as you can. 

As you stitch the felt in place try to even out any slight unevenness of the knitting. Ease the narrower sections out a bit, the felt will hold them in place. 

Finish it off with a button and "Robert's your Father's Brother!" (Does that expression even work internationally?)

I love it! Hurray! 

I mostly used bits of wool from my stash, the grey was the only one I bought new and that was for the tie. The good thing about that is I hardly spent a thing, that bad news is the different makes of wool are all slightly different thicknesses. That's what made it all a bit uneven, but in the end that didn't seem to matter too much.

Now I'm off for a nice cup of super heated infusion of free radicals and tannin, and a Jammy Dodger.

Julie

I'll be linking up at these great link parties

See this gallery in the original post