Paper Tiger

On October 31, I defended my PhD thesis, finally bringing a transformative 5-year journey to an end. Of course, I had to knit something to wear for it.

Given that a viva is a big once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing, I gave a lot of thought to the clothes I would wear. In Norway the defense means a trial lecture and a presentation of your thesis in addition to the discussion with your opponents, all in front of a public audience. There was thus a performative element to the day, and whatever I chose to wear would be like donning a costume of a sort. At least, as someone who grew up performing, I chose to approach it that way.

I knew I wanted something with an academic air, as well as a nod to the formality of the tradition. But at the same time, I wanted my clothes to reflect a degree of playful irreverence. I think the starting point was a tartan suit I purchased earlier this year for a wedding (though in the end I didn’t wear the suit jacket on the day of my defense – it was swapped out for a rain jacket due to the weather). But I paired the trousers with a white collared shirt and a fair isle-style vest. I donned a tie, but rolled up my sleeves, and instead of dress shoes I wore brown leather work boots. I felt good in the ensemble, and that was one of the most important things for me, heading into a day that would be full of nerves.

While I had previously tried on all the elements together, on the morning of the defense when I got dressed and saw the whole outfit with my hair and makeup done, I suddenly realized the whole thing was giving the Doctor from Doctor Who. But given the date (Halloween, a day for costumes), the fact that I would end the day with the title of doctor, and my love for the series, it actually felt entirely appropriate. So I was tickled that it felt like I accidentally casually cosplayed the Doctor. I don’t have many photos of just me that show the whole look from head to toe, but you get a sense of it here:

I recently watched this interview with David Tennant, and the way he described the Doctor’s costumes from his time on the show really struck a chord with me, and helps explain why my defense outfit suddenly gave me Doctor vibes: “The Doctor is obviously like this anarchic character. He’s an authority figure and yet he comes from a sort of very carefree place. He’s sort of anti-authority at the same time as being, you know, the person who shows up to sort things out. A suit seemed to work as long as the suit wasn’t too smart, too well-fitting, too high status.”

But I digress! Let’s come back to the vest. The pattern is The Academic by Skeindeer Knits. I used six colors: three greys, two blues, and a green. The black watch tartan of the trousers guided my color choices, and I was knitting from stash which provided an additional constraint (although unsurprisingly, I happen to have an abundance of blue, green, and grey yarns in my stash). The two blues are indigo dyed Norwegian wool from Lofoten Wool, while the remaining colors were Rauma Finull. I modified parts of the chart to shift the background color more frequently, although given the palette I think this is only really noticeable close up.

The name of the pattern is obviously extremely on the nose for a PhD defense, but I did joke with people beforehand about how I was dressing up as a professor for Halloween. But as Eli is a fellow PhD and originally from Trondheim, where I live, I liked the way choosing this pattern made it feel like everything’s connected. And I clearly like the pattern itself!

The armholes and neck openings are worked with steeks, and I worked them as written: with 5 stitches, where the first and last stitch are purled. I hadn’t worked them with purl columns like this before, and I don’t think I would again, but I figured I wouldn’t know if I liked it until I tried it. I chose not to reinforce the steeks before cutting them open, and it worked out okay, but in the future I’ll stick with a 7-stitch steek if I plan to cut these yarns at this gauge without reinforcement (and I’ll skip the purl columns, as I think those worked against me). The edges definitely frayed more than I would’ve liked. My main reason for not reinforcing was that I didn’t want to add any additional bulk.

But overall, I’m really happy with the final garment. The fit is great and it was exactly what I had in mind for the day. The Doctor Who vibes were a bonus. And it was a really, really wonderful day.