I’m a sci-fi geek. At lunch I spent some time working on my husband’s Dr. Who Scarf. I just found out today that Lalla Ward who played Romana, a companion to the Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) actually has a line of knitting books out there. Here’s an example: Beastly Knits by Lalla Ward.
Lalla Ward as Romana
I’m a history buff, so it was also neat to know that she’s a descendant of the Plantagenet family known for their part in the War of the Roses.
If you’re interested in viewing the first series of episodes Lalla Ward appeared in “Destiny of the Daleks.” Here you go:
Speaking of Daleks I did an image search and found a number of neat links.
Beautiful Dalek Cakes:
Image found here. This person actually has quite a nice website dedicated to Fiber Arts.
Building a Dalek:
http://www.thinkythings.org/dalek/
How to Make Your Own Knitted Dalek:
http://www.entropyhouse.com/penwiper/who/extermaknit.html
And finally…
The Top 10 Geekiest Yarn Creations on the Web:
My favorites are the Atari with TV Set and the Katamari Hat.
http://www.threadbanger.com/post/433/the-top-10-geekiest-yarn-creations-on-t
12 comments
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August 3, 2007 at 10:46 pm
knittingnoob
i love doctor who! I definitely have to make a knitted dalek. I love daleks! Thank you so much for the link!
Have you seen torchwood? What do you think of it as a spin-off?
August 4, 2007 at 2:10 am
nkilkenny
You’re quite welcome. I like Torchwood. I think they could have done more with the Captain Jack character’s mystery condition (immortality) by writing more background about it into the story line. Though after reading about the Dr. Who Season 3 season finale… I can understand why they didn’t touch on it much now. I think more focus still should have been on C.Jack… as he was one of the stronger characters. I did like the elf-fairy monsters in one of the episodes the best. Quite creepy.
August 4, 2007 at 7:45 am
Paul Ecchi
You say “Lalla Ward who played Romana, a companion to the Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker)…” Did you know that she also married Tom Baker later (although they are now divorced).
August 4, 2007 at 4:44 pm
nkilkenny
Yes… I guess she was married to him, but more importantly she was friends with Douglas Adams… Dr. Who writer and author of “Hitchhiker’s Guide…”
August 15, 2007 at 8:32 pm
knittingnoob
I really really wanted to like torchwood, but the acting wasn’t great. It was weird, Jack from doctor who was terrific but I felt Jack from torchwood wasn’t acted as well. Same with the actress who played Gwen. She was great on who, torchwood not so much.
I can’t wait for more doctor who! Ive watched 3 seasons, all the commentary, specials, etc… I may dig into some of the older doctors too.
August 15, 2007 at 8:46 pm
nkilkenny
I know what you’re saying about the acting. It was pretty blah. The whole series had a lot of potential and they didn’t do a great job following through on it. Also, I’m sad that they killed Indira Varma’s (from Season 1 of Rome) character off so early in Torchwood. Did you see all of Series 3 – Dr. Who? to the end? What did you think about that hint that Jack is actually the Face of Boe (spelling?). See, I think that the story really has some potential.
April 29, 2008 at 9:27 pm
barbe
thanks for mentioning me!!! I think most of my Dr Who yarns sold out, and I really need to get going with some new ones!
May 14, 2008 at 11:32 am
Lucy Mangan
Hello – please forgive me for butting in, but I am writing a piece about the Dr Who fan who has been forced to withdraw her Dalek etc knitting patterns from her website by the BBC (despite the fact she was distributing them for free), but I was just wondering what the attraction was of knitting Dr Who aliens and Tardises etc? There seem to be so many people out there doing it, but why is this particular theme so popular?
May 14, 2008 at 2:21 pm
nkilkenny
Hi, Lucy! I’d have to say perhaps a great deal of Dr. Who knitting is inspired by the Tom Baker scarves. I’ve knit two of these scarves myself. Some knitters are naturally creative people who like to make fan objects. You marry Dr. Who fans with knitters and you naturally get a plethora of creative toys or artifacts from the show. I think it’s a real shame that BBC has forced that knitter to take down her work. Those patterns and other things like this are fan tributes to the show and it’s characters. Plus, it means more to us because we made them, we didn’t buy them packaged in plastic and cardboard just to sit on a shelf mint in box.
Also, knitters do like to share patterns and other objects they make. There’s a pretty vocal set of knitters/Dr. Who fans in the Dr. Who forum on Ravelry (The knitting social network site).
May 30, 2008 at 10:10 pm
John H.
The link for the knitted Daleks is gone. Do you know where it went or do you have another link? I know of some ladies who knit (alas, I do not…) and would love to give them some business. My late aunt knitted the wonderful Tom Baker scarves for me (which I still have).
July 9, 2009 at 5:17 pm
Jim
I was wondering what kind of yarn would be best for a scarf and any other suggestions would be great as far as patterns and what not
July 9, 2009 at 5:24 pm
nkilkenny
Jim, I like elann.com’s Peruvian Highland Wool. I think the color pallette worked the best for the Dr. Who scarves I’ve made. I think it’s a good idea to make this scarf with a DK vs. a worsted because it is already so humongously bulky…Cascade 220 might be good too (though it’s worsted) but I’m not as familiar with their colorlines.