NaNoBlogMo 11 - My Ridiculous Scarf

I have one scarf that I wear the majority of the time during the winter months. When I want to be fancy I wear one of the nice pashmina scarves I got in China. When I want to be warm I wear my Homespun scarf (which I think is the first scarf I made for myself, out of leftover sweater yarn). The rest of the time? I wear my Ridiculous Scarf. My Ridiculous Scarf is ridiculous for two main reasons, it is ridiculously long and it also a ridiculous mix of different patterns. And I love it.

When I started my Ridiculous Scarf I wasn't sure what I was making. I had a bunch of bits and pieces of variegated sock yarns in different patterns and colors leftover from making cell phone covers and arm warmers. I tied them all together with no thought of matching, cast on and started knitting in the round. I remember thinking it could be arm warmers or maybe even an arm to a sweater, but I just kept chugging along knitting the tube. At some point it occurred to me that it could be a scarf and the thickness provided by the fact that it was a tube and not one flat piece would add warmth.

At some point I ran out of bits and pieces and I had to start massacring whole skeins of variegated yarn to continue the OMG WHAT IS HAPPENING pattern I had already started. The scarf started getting scarf-length. Then it surpassed scarf-length and started to getting long. Then it became ridiculously long and I knew I was done. I am 5'11" and if I drape the thing around my neck it nearly reaches the floor. I have to be careful not to close the car door on it (Seriously, I actually did close the car door on it yesterday when I got to work. Now I know how dogs feel when the reach the end of their leash.).
For the tassels I made sure that each tassel was different but that each was made out of only similar bits of yarn from the same skein, as an echo of the weird striped effect the scarf has.


This scarf goes with everything because it goes with nothing. I am pretty sure it has every single color on it somewhere. It is a little like Joseph's Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat except its Sproffee's Ridiculous Scarf.

Being made both of variegated yarn and of many different yarns tied together, I think that the inside of the scarf is as interesting as the outside (though less polished looking). And since I left the ends of the tube open, I actually can turn the entire scarf inside out if I so desire. Keeping the ends of the scarf open has had other benefits as well. If I forget my gloves and my hands get cold, I can just stick my hands through the ends of my scarf for a little warmth. Occasionally I will scrunch the entire scarf on one arm to make a ridiculous arm warmer. Honestly I think my ridiculous scarf is as much toy to me as it is functional piece of clothing.


My Ridiculous Scarf led to a kind of fantastic moment recently. On November 6th I went to an improv performance by the students that were taking a class taught by my Sea Tea Improv colleagues. I was zipped up in my improv sweatshirt and wearing my Ridiculous Scarf. As I found a seat in the theater a woman and her friends caught my attention and asked "Excuse me, but is that a Tom Baker scarf?" (Tom Baker, aka the Fourth Doctor on Doctor Who and the bearer of the fantastic scarf that was one of my options in my "What Geeky Scarf Should I Knit?" poll). I was sad to say no, but then remembered what t-shirt I was wearing and unzipped my sweatshirt to reveal my "The Angels Have the Phonebox" shirt, a reference to the amazing DW pisode "Blink". We all had a laugh at the chances of it all. I then went on to tell her about my recent poll and if it had won I would be knitting a Doctor Who scarf, but instead pulled out my in-progress Pippin scarf to show them. She asked for my contact information, saying she may commission me to make a Doctor Who scarf for someone on her Christmas list. That would be amazing, but even if it doesn't happen, its a funny story. I later found out they were there for Karyn, someone I made friends with at an improv mixer earlier this year.

That of course meant I could stalk them later on facebook and find the picture they took of me as proof for when they told the story. It shows me in my full dork pride, improv sweatshirt at my back, Ridiculous Scarf (sadly not Tom Baker scarf) across my knees, Doctor Who shirt and knitting a Pippin scarf.

Yep, that's me.