Doctor Who Knitted Tie — Sum of their Stories Craft Blog

How to make a knitted tie inspired by the long scarf of the 4th Doctor Who.

I think this might actually be my most favourite thing I have ever made! It is ridiculous how excited I am to have finished this.

I am an unashamed Doctor Who fan.

Luckily the kids are big fans too so I have comrades in my love for all things Who.

I mentioned once before on my little Day of the Doctor post that maybe one day I will make the 4th Doctor's scarf. That day is not today, that is a whole heap of knitting. For now I've adapted it to make a couple of smaller, more manageable projects. This is the first, a knitted tie (how very retro!):

Our oldest son is in 6th form at school at the moment and has to wear a shirt & tie but not school uniform and on Fridays they have Funky Tie Friday. Perfect opportunity to wear a mini version of the Doctors scarf.

I had a few false starts with this project, it was too wide, then to floppity, I had to frog it and start again more than once. This version gives a good balance between what you need a tie to do (ie not to wide at the knot, good length, you can get in on and off again without having to tie it each time!) whilst still looking basically like the Doctor's scarf.

I know some people crochet Doctor Who scarves too, which is probably way quicker, but for me it has to be authentic garter stitch.

Basically you need 7 colours of DK wool: purple, camel, bronze, mustard, rust, grey and greenish brown. This is according to the original BBC pattern which I've pinned and you can find here.

This is what I chose, after studying old pictures.

Most I had already in my wool stash, so I can't tell you quantities for each. To be honest I followed the original pattern in terms of the stripe widths etc but if you ran out of something part way through and substituted I'm pretty sure you'd never be able to tell.

Here's the pattern:

Printable PDF Version here

Using 3mm needles, cast on 12 stitches in purple.

Using knit throughout work the stripes like this: (this shows the number of rows in each colour)

work 3 purple rows
26 camel
8 bronze
6 mustard
10 rust
4 purple
10 green
4 mustard
8 camel
6 rust
4 bronze
6 purple
20 green
4 mustard
8 grey
4 rust
26 camel
6 purple
6 green
4 mustard
8 rust
4 purple
18 bronze
6 camel
4 grey
20 rust
6 mustard
10 green
4 purple
20 camel
6 bronze
10 grey
4 rust
6 purple
2 camel
6 mustard
26 green
8 rust
6 grey
4 mustard
10 bronze
6 purple
6 camel
16 grey
6 rust
8 mustard
4 purple
26 camel
8 bronze
6 mustard
10 rust
4 purple
10 green
4 mustard
8 camel
6 rust
4 bronze
6 purple
20 green
4 mustard
8 grey
4 rust
26 camel
6 purple
6 green

cast off in green

Now you just have to sew in ALL those pesky ends, sigh, this is the downside to this project!

The finished tie measures 5cm x 150cm (2" x 59")

The sides wave in an out a little as not all DK wool is the same, I guess you could avoid that by buying all the same make of wool, but I don't care, I think it is the most awesome tie ever!

I’ve also made myself some knitted bracelets inspired by the 4th Doctor’s scarf - you can find details on how to make them here: