(Photo: Jim Barcus/Kansas City Star)

How long a scarf could you knit while running a full marathon? For David Babcock, it's 12 feet, 1 and 3/4 inches long. He set this record in October in Kansas City, breaking the previous record of 6 feet, 9 inches set by Susie Hewer in London last April. The task took Mr. Babcock 5 hours, 48 minutes and 27 seconds.

Mr. Babcock, who is a graphic design professor at the University of Central Missouri, used to knit and run as separate activities. But in order to avoid monotony, he combined them. Here's how he does it:

It took experimentation. The yarn, which he keeps in a pack on his waist, had to be acrylic; natural fibers pick up sweat. Babcock devised a technique for tying the lengthening scarves around his waist and cinching them to a carabiner. Except for one fall early in his knitting-while-running career, when he didn’t notice a pothole, Babcock hasn’t had any mishaps running with needles. “I have a very smooth gait,” he said.

-via Play with Your Yarn