So, when I originally found all about Doctor Who years ago, I inevitably ended up searching over the internet for fan websites, forums, repositories of information and media about it.
During my travels I found:
www.doctorwhoscarf.com - Really nice website, with all the detailed information you could ever want about all of Tom's scarves.
From that website, I found out about this one:
http://www.timelord-knitwear.piczo.com/?cr=5&rfm=y - Julie Hart's website. She's been making all the different versions of the scarves and selling them for years now.
Of course, being the rabid who fan I am, I had to have one. But being as I'm a broke student as well, I couldn't afford the price tag. So I sadly tucked away the link for some point when I had the funds.
A long while later, a idea struck me!
Her website sucked. Yes, it sucks. 1995 called, it wants it's website back. Even she rants about how bad it is.
I've built many websites in my days and tend to do decent work that is at least up to modern coding standards. So there formed my idea. I'll design her a full fledged website from the ground up, everything custom.. in trade for a scarf!
I spent two weeks building it, making custom graphics, layouts, etc. After the final draft was nearly done, I sent a proposal e-mail to her with a demo of the website she could view and told her about my offer. (Being much, much nicer about the state of her website, but she more than agreed it was horribly out of date, laughing about it.)
She was estactic, apparently she had many quotes done to build her a website and they were always too expensive.. then my offer comes out of the blue, she instantly agreed! Promising me any version of the scarf once it was all finished up.
Elated, I finished the website in two days! ..then as I was going to send her the final compliation, I got another e-mail from her, telling me (albit nicely) that all her friends and family advised her I was most likely a scammer out to steal her money/paypal account/credit card/etc.. and she'd have to decline my offer.
...
You have no idea how much it sucked to read that.
I of course tried to reason with her, offering my resume' with all the contacts she could speak with to confirm my ID, mentioned I would NEVER need ANY personal information from her.. I tried it all, but she didn't even respond.
After two well thought out e-mails, I stopped, not wanting to seem too pushy. But it really sucked, after all that work and her reacting so happily and agreeing to it.
Thankfully and rather unexpectedly, one of my friends from another forum took it upon himself to contact her, vouching for me. He gave her his password and login for the forum we were both on and told her to go read my posts, check my history, stuff like that.
I had an ongoing thread about my efforts to do her website and the scarf of course.
And that apparently got to her somehow, after looking at the forum she then sent me an e-mail apologizing, saying she still couldn't use the website due to security reasons and it being her main source of income.. but that she would send me a scarf anyway, for free, due to all the work I put into it.
Almost two months later, I finally got the package. I'm now the proud owner of a season 12, 15 foot long, fourth doctor scarf! The thing is a monster, looks like the real deal and is just downright awesome in my eyes.
Hope I didn't bore you all with the story, but I really am excited after all the work I put into this and thought it's a good story to share.
Now, to try and figure out the best way to wear it..