I’ve just knitted a shawl that seems to delight every nerd I meet. It’s the Dr. Who-inspired Bigger on the Inside shawl, by Kate Atherley.
I began knitting this shawl a month ago in honor of my trip to GenCon. A wonderful project for a car ride and for winding down in the hotel room after long days at the convention.
The Roommates: My roommates showed interest in the project–more than they would normally show for one of my knitting projects, but then they are all avid Dr. Who fans. The BF seemed to enjoy watching the tiny Tardises take shape row by row, like the they were materializing very, very slowly.
Fellow GenCon Fiber Geeks: The ladies and gents in my craft classes showed much more enthusiasm. At the end of my drop spindle class, the group got to talking, and as fiber lovers are wont to do, we each reached into our purses and backpacks and pulled out our convention projects to share. I was not alone in having chosen a special project to knit while at the convention. But mine was by far and away the nerdiest. They all loved it and wanted to know where I had found the pattern.
Finding Dr. Who Fans in My Knitting Community Back Home: I didn’t quite mange to finish the shawl while at GenCon, so I continued work on it when I returned home. At my Wednesday night knitting group, I pulled it out and within the hour discovered that three other women at the table were also Dr. Who fans. They lovingly fingered the emerging row of Tardises and laughed over it. The next day, I noticed that one of them had added the shawl to her Ravelry queue.
Later that week I brought the shawl to Pints & Purls. One of the ladies had brought her teenage daughter who, while not a knitter, seems to have a keen appreciation for knit wear. She saw my nearly finished shawl and immediately asked her mother if she could make one for her.
I bound off the shawl while at Pints & Purls. Our group has a standing agreement with our regular server whereby he will model any project finished while at the bar. He gamely agreed to model mine.
The 6 Degrees of Dr. Who Fiber Geekdom: Or rather, in this case, only two degrees.
The next Monday, while talking to some friends via Skype, one of them asked how my shawl was getting on. She had told another of her knitter friends about it (one who has been known to knit those monstrously long, varicolored Dr. Who scarves). In her words, her friend “went ape-shit” and demanded to know where she could find the pattern. I gleefully passed on the information.
I really feel as though this shawl is introducing me to other Dr. Who fans, and not the other way around. I wonder who I’ll meet next.
Related articles
- Oh My Stars and Tardises – Dr. Who Knitting Project for GenCon (all-she-wants-to-do-is-knit.com)
All She Wants To Do Is Knit 
Question: did you take the nerd test? Love this shawl!! Dang! My Lust List is getting longer – you site is one of the main culprits!
I did take the nerd test but actually didn’t score very high. I was surprised.
And hey, I’m really glad to be able to inspire you, at least a little.
I have the specially dyed yarn for this shawl, but haven’t knit it yet. I had a serious geek attack when the pattern came out!
I thought about getting the specially dyed yarn, but then decided to knit it so suddenly that I had no time. So I just picked up a couple hanks of Cascade sock yarn. Color was close enough for me.
haha, love your model, the server’s fear look is so good!!! poor man all these armed knitters …
cute little shawl
He’s so wonderfully good natured about it all. We must be good customers.
So many types of geekiness all rolled in to one shawl! Love it.
I have yet to wear mine out, but a lot of people I’ve talked to about it have been really amused.
I just love that its nerdiness is kind of subtle. If you didn’t know those were Tardises, it might just strike you as an interesting design and nothing more,
I knit one of those extra long, colorful scarves once for a friend back in college. That project almost killed me, haha but it was worth it once it was done!
Which version did you knit? I hear there are multiple.
I kind of just made one up, picked suitable colors and made my own random method of striping. I know true Dr. fans would gasp at the horror!
I won’t tell. 🙂
I need to get started on my Bigger on the Inside! Love this post!
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I love it! I have this pattern saved in my pattern notebook, right at the top of my to-do list once Christmas knitting is finished.
I look forward to seeing it.
Amazing. LOL. Well done.
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