Babbage is a heavy unisex scarf made with bulky yarns and wool cogs and gears, finally using the crocheted cogs I designed way too many years ago.

The scarf is named for Charles Babbage, the English mathematician credited with inventing the first mechanical computer, the analytical engine, beginning in the 1830s.

This scarf doesn’t do anything mathematically wondrous but it does keep your neck warm on cold nights when the civilized world has descended into chaos and dystopia.
It’s an easy knit, using only garter and rib stitches, with some odd shaping to make holes to chunk your cogs into. A self-striping yarn in coppery browns and grays will give your cogs a battered and worn look.

MATERIALS
MC: 4 skeins Prairie Silks Shilling Silver. 1.75 oz., 88 yards (50 gr, 80 m). I used every scrap of 3 skeins so I listed an extra to be safe.
CC: 1 ball Mary Maxim Step It Up #311 Spice. 3.5 oz, 430 yds (100 gr, 400 m). You’ll need less than a quarter of the ball.
Size 8 (5.0mm) and size 6 (4.0mm) knitting needles.
Size 1 (2mm) crochet hook.
2 brass buttons 3⁄4” or larger.