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How did this project ever get started?
In 1994, a good friend of mine, Jeanne Beechwood, and her husband, Dan Hall, were in New York. They were in line to see the David Letterman show. A lady in front of them got talking and presented them with a card -- she had just been accepted by the Guinness Book of World Records for having crocheted the world's largest American flag. Jeanne brought the card back to me and challenged me to out-do this lady's record.
Well, I'm not the type of person to knock someone else out of a record --- besides, that project had already been done. I wanted to do something new and unique. Jeanne owned the Martin City Melodrama & Vaudeville Company, and I had worked there for several years. As a costume piece (and then it also became a comic prop) for myself, I had knit a 20-foot gray scarf. I thought, well, maybe I could make that scarf a lot longer and there I would have my record!
I began knitting this scarf in 1995. From the very beginning, I determined that it would be very obvious that it was a continuous scarf in one color -- Royal Blue. I thought this color was basic enough that I could continue to buy the yarn with no problem in matching the color, and that I wouldn't be completely sick of that color after a long time. I made it 7 inches wide (a normal scarf width) -- 20 stitches on #10 knitting needles -- and started working in garter stitch (which is knit every row). As I reached the end of a skein of yarn, I would tie on the next skein. I left the ends of the knot visible, and also tied on a piece of maroon yarn at the side of the scarf to indicate where the knot was. I did this to help in estimating the length of the scarf and to ensure that anyone (from Guinness especially) could find the knots to ensure that it was a continuous thread.
My original plan was to make it 1 mile long, but then I figured I would have to knit 1 full yard every day for over 4 years. I set a more modest goal of 1000 feet.
While visiting my cousins in St. Louis the next year, Erika and Kristen looked up scarfs in the Guinness Book of World Records and discovered that there was an entry! But, the scarf had been done by a village in England. Obviously, it had been made by many people, in pieces, and sewn together. My efforts to verify that mine was done by one person in a continuous thread were paying off.
The project just sort of settled into my life. I worked on it in varying degrees of effort. Sometimes, while watching TV I would work diligently for several hours each day. Other times I would not pick it up for a couple of days. It became this monster running through my living room, down the basement steps, and into the boxes where I was layering it for storage.
Finally, in the fall of 2000, I guessed that the scarf had reached about 1500 feet, and thought I would begin the process of submission. (See page 3 for more information about the actual measurement of the scarf) It took until Spring of 2001 to actually obtain a measurement, and WOW! The scarf came in at 3,523-feet-long! Nearly 3/4ths of a mile! Much longer than I had thought. And the scarf was not exactly straight or stretch out, so it probably is much longer.
So here it is --- 3,523 feet of Royal Blue scarf, 5 years of effort, and I achieved a goal challenged by a friend and accepted by me --- an acceptance by the Guinness Book of World Records .
Anyone need a scarf long enough to go the length of 12 football fields?