In September 2001 I came across this excellent site by Bill "The Doctor" Rudloff which covers all aspects of the scarf as worn by Tom Bakers incarnation of Doctor Who.

For me Tom Baker is the definitive Doctor, I spent many a terrified evening hiding behind a cusion as he battled enemies across time and space on BBC 2. The image of Tom Baker dressed in brown, wearing the scarf is tatooed into my brain as a defining image of the seventies (along with the theme music for University Challenge and the smell of gravy).

Soon after finding this site I asked my mum to have a go at knitting one. I sent her a printout of the page and optimistically suggested it might make and excellent Christmas present. Christmas 2001 came and went with no sign of the scarf. Mum said she was working on it but that the wool was very dificult to find. I was a little puzzled by this, wool is wool isn't it? It seems not, apparently wool shops do not carry the entire visible spectrum of colours as I'd imagined. They only carry what happens to be fashionable that season and whatever stock they have left from previous seasons. Mum managed to track down suitable colours by several nefarious means including salvaging an old woolly jumper.

After much work and only a little over schedule the finished article was a present from Mum for Christmas 2002. It went down a storm, it really looks the part and Estelle overheard several people commenting on it in shops (in French). Mum got the colours and the knit just right, she took a little artistic license with the tassles on the ends but they look quite authentic. Unfortunately here in Belgium it seems only hard core sci-fi fans have heard off Dr Who so the initial effect is a little lost but I really like it. Thanks Mum!