Doctor Who Fans!

[AnaKhouri]

So, if anyone saw the picture of my kid on a horse that I posted, you might have noticed that he has insanely curly hair. This simple fact has convinced me and Husband that this year for Halloween he HAS to be the Fourth Doctor, and we have to be Who characters too. Khan's costume should be fairly simple; we need to find a little coat, hat and someone to knit us a baby-sized scarf. I plan to be Sarah Jane so I really just have to scour thrift stores for horrid 1970's clothes.

Husband kind of wants to be a Cyberman.

So here are my questions:

1. Anyone know of a child-sized Who scarf pattern? I am going to ask my mother-in-law to make it, but she is a VERY newbie knitter and I want it to be as specific as possible to make it easy for her, I don't know how easy it is to convert a regular pattern to a smaller size.

2. Anyone know of a simple/cheap way to make a Cyberman costume? All the ones I see online are kind of complex. Alternatively, can anyone think of another character Husband could be (6" tall, kind of skinny, mousy hair and glasses, though he could lose the glasses).

Thanks Whovians!

[csquared]

Here is a link that has the patterns for all the scarves. The original was about 12'+. When you look at the pictures, remember, Baker is 6'3"

http://www.doctorwhoscarf.com/instructions.php

Sorry, no tips on the Cyberman costume

Good luck.

[Magpie]

Ok, speaking as a knitter: it's really easy to make a Dr. Who scarf. Just about any insanely long striped scarf will do. But it has to be a repeating stripe pattern, not just one of the ones that use up scraps of yarn.

The general recommendation for the scarves seems to be to knit them in "worsted weight" yarn (it's a measure of how thick the yarn is). What I would say is you want to cast on 40 stitches on needles from 4.0 to 5.0 mm (pick whatever's comfortable) and work in garter stitch, i.e. knit every row (this is borne out by the website). Pick a stripe pattern that you like, because it's a pain to try to match exactly, and it varies. Knit until long enough.

The easiest (and fastest) way to knit a scarf for Khan would be to use this thickness of yarn and just use fewer stitches and rows. But this means it won't be to the proper scale - the stitches will be too big for how big the scarf is, and it will be a little thick. I personally say don't worry about that, since your mother-in-law is a newbie knitter. IF, however, she is anything like Jackdaw when I taught him to knit (he's 1.95m, his "learn to knit" scarf goes from knee to knee while wrapped around his neck) , she can knit you one to scale - all she needs to do is use a skinnier yarn.

PM me if you need more specific details on how to scale the pattern.

ETA: that website is suggesting 60 sts, but that's much tighter than I'd work it, it's using smaller needles.

[Seshat]

How about other Fourth Doctor companions for your husband?

The Brigadier, Harry Sullivan & Adric are male Fourth Doctor companions.

[AnaKhouri]

I think a Cyberman is a lot harder to make than he thinks it is. I will suggest the Brigadier because that would be really funny, but if it comes down to it we could buy a priest costume, cover the Roman collar and have him grow a goatee.