November 22, 2012, 11:00 pm
Posted by: Kelly

The Length of Desert Bus 6 Scarf is the last announced live auction happening this Desert Bus and it is a truly special item.

Bidding will open in 30 minutes.

Why is it so special? Because the scarf is as long as Desert Bus 6 itself! By the time Desert Bus 6 starts, Ked will have been knitting it for about fifty days, but how long it goes depends entirely on how much money Desert Bus raises this year! What exactly does that mean? Well, when you knit a scarf you stitch back and forth across the short dimension of the scarf in well-defined rows. Ked is knitting two rows for each hour the Desert Bus crew spends driving the bus, PLUS one row for each thousand dollars raised. This formula was chosen to emphasize both the length of the event as well as the amount of money raised. Since the first hours of Desert Bus cost very little money, the first 100 hours of Desert Bus will mean just 212 rows of scarf. At 125 hours, the scarf will be 317 rows. At 144 hours, the approximate length of DB4, the scarf is 531 rows. At DB5 numbers, the scarf is 681 rows.

Just because Ken is not entirely crazy, he’s set a hard cap of 1337 rows. That corresponds with the first hour mark past $1,000,000 raised. Everyone’s donations count towards the length of this scarf, and the amount listed on the website at the end of the bus ride will be the final tally used to determine the scarf’s ultimate length.

The scarf itself is a long, long, looooong asphalt roadway with slightly rough shoulders and monotonously regular center stripes. Breaking up the boredom will be hashmarks and lettering denoting the length of previous Desert Buses. At the ends of the scarf are third-color headers showing which end it starts at and the final dollars raised by DB6.

Check out pictures and progress via @lengthofdbscarf on Twitter.

The Length of DB scarf is made from three colors of SMC Select brand “Silk Wool”, a slighly bulky worsted-weight braided yarn made from 67% “new” wool, 27% silk, and 9% polyamide. It definitely feels like wool, but has a softer, smoother hand than a plain wool yarn. The scarf is about 4.25″ wide. Only the future knows how long it is, though if you want to do some math five rows makes almost exactly one inch. It is double knit, making it relatively thick but not uncomfortably so.

Ked says he knits to relax, and finds it’s a great manual activity to engage in while watching football or cricket, or, in this case, Desert Bus. We’re not sure how relaxing this particular project will be for him, though… more…

Auction Starts: Nov 22nd, 2012 11:30pm PST

 

2 Comments on “Live Auction: Length of Desert Bus Scarf”

  1. Take note of when the donation comes in so Snowfire’s bid can be marked on the scarf!

    By Koolpin - November 23rd, 2012 12:30 am
  2. there’s a typo four lines into the first paragraph. you put Ked in stead of Ken.

    By Talos Paroxi - November 30th, 2012 10:09 am
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