I mentioned neckerchiefs in yesterday’s posts and I thought I’d expand on the subject a bit.
Neckerchiefs were a standard bit of uniform for a very long time. They were smart but they were also practical – you could whip it off and use it as a bandage or a sling, you could filter water through it, you could use it as signal flag or a blindfold or for a spontaneous game of Capture the Flag. Oh, there were plenty of uses for a largeish piece of cloth. I wore a neckerchief to every meeting as a Brownie, just a plain light-mid yellow one. When I went to Guides, we had a sort of saffron-orange one that went very nicely with the bright blue Jeff Banks-era uniform, although perhaps we didn’t wear them so regularly. The other unit in the district had pale blue ones, so I think we won on that count. And now, neckerchiefs are kind of an unofficial part of the uniform. Very few units wear them at regular meetings but perhaps they make an appearance for events.
By and large, girls don’t like wearing them and if you try to enforce them every week, you’ll find you get a lot of “I forgot”, “it’s in the wash” and “I don’t know where it is”. But they look good at public events – for example, my new Guide unit pulls them out for Remembrance Parade. It’s a kind of formal version of a uniform designed to be practical for having fun in.
I found them useful for large-scale events. Girlguiding does a big annual pop concert called the Big Gig. It’s a non-uniform event because it’s meant to be fun but imagine that many thousand children crammed into one room – pop your unit neckerchief on them to easily spot them! When I was last a Guide leader, ours were turquoise with pale pink and purple borders – I refused to let them have pink on the grounds that everyone wants pink and I wouldn’t be able to find my girls. The blue/pink/purple was very noticeable – one of our girls went off to the toilet and couldn’t figure out where we were when she came back but I spied that neckerchief wander past and was able to grab her.
Or maybe you go to one of the TICs, to Wellies & Wristbands or to an events day. Hundreds, or perhaps thousands, of girls in the same uniform. Pop the neckerchief on them, you know they’re yours. Other people can also match them up to you – “I found a lost and distressed Brownie, I presume she’s yours as you’re wearing the same neckerchiefs?”
Maybe you’ll have them for camp, so they still look Guide-like while wearing non-uniform shorts and t-shirts. Maybe patrol neckerchiefs, so you can see instantly who belongs in which tent. Non-uniform events so passers-by can guess that these are Guides, even if they’re in normal clothes. Lots of purposes for neckerchiefs!
There are no rules as to what they’re supposed to look like. You choose, or get the girls to choose – maybe guide their choice. Maybe you’ll go for one colour. Maybe a border. Maybe two borders. Maybe a split half-and-half. Maybe, if you want to be really inventive, a split half-and-half with split half-and-half double borders! I’ve seen cow-patterned neckerchiefs. I’ve seen hi-viz neckerchiefs. I’ve seen neckerchiefs with reflective borders.
I personally own four neckerchiefs. The local Guides decided to re-adopt them back in about 2014, just as a new Ranger came from a unit that wore them, so naturally my Rangers wanted them too. We opted for a dark blue with a light blue border which would look good with both the Senior Section uniform at the time and the adult uniform. My Guides had the aforementioned turquoise with pink and purple borders. I possess a Girlguiding international neckerchief from the times I’ve been to Switzerland – they’re red with navy and white borders and an international logo embroidered on the back. And I have a Rebel Badge Club neckerchief, which is like my old Guide one with the saturation turned up – a really bright blue with a bright pink and deep purple-maroon border. I’ve sewn a little Rebel logo on the back of that.
Oh yeah, you can sew things on the back. Maybe you’ll have them custom-made with custom embroidery. Maybe you have a unit badge. When I was a Brownie and Guide myself, we had our county silk on the back. Don’t go over the top, otherwise it doesn’t look smart for formal occasions but there’s nothing wrong with having a badge on the back.
Where do they come from?
Well, you can buy them from the official Girlguiding shop but most people don’t because it’s cheaper elsewhere. I bought my units’ from Warrens but you can google a supplier of your own choice. Or you can make your own – bulk buy some fabric and borrow someone with a sewing machine to hem you some big triangles.
And last, how to tie them.
Ok. You roll it up nicely. I do this by spreading it out on the table or floor and rolling it from the wide end towards the point. I’ve seen Rebels hold it at both long ends and just whip it, rolling it just by shaking it in circles violently. I can’t get that to work myself but I’ve seen it done beautifully.
And how to secure it?
The two most common options are a woggle or a friendship knot. With a woggle, you wear the neckerchief quite high, pulled together at the top with long loose ends. With a friendship knot, you tie it in the ends to make quite a big circle. A word of warning: if you catch it on anything, it won’t come undone. A woggle will just slide down and off so you can’t accidentally strangle yourself like you can with a knotted neckerchief. Thus if you’re popping neckerchiefs on smaller children, the woggle is probably the better option.
A woggle is an easy choice. I know non-Guide and Scout types giggle and say things like “Do you wear a woggle?” because they have no idea what it is and it sounds rude. If you don’t know, a woggle is a circular thing to secure a neckerchief. Scouts often wear a half-inch thick plastic ring in patrol colours, to my understanding. Guides have various types. When I was a kid, we wore a plaited leather woggle with a popper on the back so you didn’t have to slide it up, which sometimes pulls the twists out of the neckerchief. There were also plain leather bands or ones with owls on. You can make your own with paracord. If you’ve been to Our Chalet, you might have one that’s made out of a piece of wood, with your name engraved on it.
Or you could tie a knot. The best and prettiest knot is called a Friendship knot and it makes a kind of square when properly done. A friendship knot should really be tied by a friend and then left in – you take the neckerchief off over your head. I’m not great at friendship knots so I keep instructions saved on my phone and rather than try to explain, I’ll give you some links:
This is the image I have saved on my phone
The Internet's Brown Owl 
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