Project materials – who knew Vanna had her own yarn line?

Our local library is a favorite weekly stomping ground of my family. My kids love to go to the children’s area to play with puzzles and games, and to pick out some books and movies. Meanwhile, Mom and Dad flip a coin over who is first to actually supervise this fiasco versus who gets first dibs to browse the rest of the library. My favorite area lately is new arrivals, because it’s a mishmash of all sorts of new books.  This week I came across the book “Knits for Nerds,” by Toni Carr. It features 30 sci-fi, comic book, and fantasy projects. Even though I don’t knit, I thought it’d just be fun to flip through it at home, so I tossed it in our tote bag.

That night I paged through the book and enjoyed looking at all of the pictures of the various sci-fi, comic, and fantasy knitting projects. Then I came across the iconic Doctor Who scarf, and I thought, gee, that can’t be too hard to make, can it? Maybe I should just figure out this knitting thing and this can be my very first project. Then I can always level up to making all sorts of cool stuff for the kids! AND I’m in the midst of getting caught up with the new Doctor Who series (only half way there), so it surely must be fate telling me to get my knit on. Maybe I can unite the two hobbies and do my knitting while actually watching the Doctor Who series at the same time, only that would  probably require some level of actual skill.

Now, I’ve sewed some buttons and patches here and there, but knitting!? I’ve never given it a moment’s thought. Until now. I called my only knitting resource I could think of, my mother-in-law, and picked her brain the best I could while simultaneously watching two screaming kids. According to her, scarves are considered “kids’ stuff” in the world of knitting projects (I don’t think she realizes the length of this particular scarf!), and it uses the garter stitch, which is also said to be easy for beginners. So now my mother-in-law is giddy as a school girl to teach me how to knit, and we are scheduling our knitting time during our time together at Thanksgiving, when conveniently, the whole family will also be around to promptly ridicule me. I can see it now…. “how ’bout an afghan to keep your legs warm,”  and “can I get you some Werther’s Original Hard Candy?”  between choruses of Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer. Yeah, wish me luck.