Moebius Knitting

I entered the strange world of Moebius knitting this past weekend. For those of you who don't know, Moebius knitting is often associated with knitting designer Cat Bordhi, who invented the Moebius cast-on (a cast-on that allows you to knit a seamless garment that is twisted but without grafting- the old way of making a moebius was to simply knit a simple straight garment and then to twist it and graft the edges at the end.)

Anyway don't ask me to explain the mathmatics behind the moebius- I (like many academics in the hard humanities) don't really understand- but the concept is cool- to knit something that is permanently twisted- and to knit it so that it grows sorta outward rather then longer is also kinda a neat trick.

Anyway I got the pattern from the April issue of Simply Knitting Magazine- its knit in Rowan Summer Tweed (I love summer tweed- its so crunchy and nubbly. The texture is great) and once I findangled the cast-on it only took me about two days to complete the knitting.

Behold! A Moebius scarf:

You can't see the lace pattern but it looks great with the garter stitch and the nubbliness of the yarn. This will be perfect to wear with my denim jacket in the fall (since it doesn't get cold enough for a real coat and scarf until December or so here) and it looks really nice on as a scarf/cowl thingy. I am thinking of making several for Christmas gifts this year- I am also thinking of getting Cat Bordhi's first book "A Treasury of Magical knitting" and going off on the Moebius path (I have the second book- but that's a lot of felted things- and while felting is cool, I  happen to think plain old Moebius scarves are cooler.)

I am still waiting on my two big yarn orders, so gnome production has halted for now. My dad has named the proto-gnome "Norm the Gnome" and he was super impressed (really he saw the pictures, called me up and gushed about how fun the gnome was. And my Dad rarely gushes.)

However, while I wait for all that yarn (for my summer sweaters, and my gnomes) I am gonna knit me another little stuffed being:

Any idea?  I'll give you a hint- if you go back a a few weeks, you sill see that I gushed over the cuteness on the blog.....

This pink and white yarn will be Chalk the mouse (I talked about the patterns a while back) while I am waiting for my yarn to get here. I will start tonight- Chalk looks noticably harder the Norm the Gnome, but he is also another Alan Dart pattern. I think I am in love with Alan Dart patterns- its too bad that they are so hard to get in America (he's a UK designer.)

So for the next few days I will embark on the knitting and construction of a mouse.

Gotta love it- a mouse- will it be useful? No but...... it will be cute.

Comments

[Lazuli]

You need a special cast-on for a moebius outfit? I'd always assumed you just intentionally twist your stitches on a circular cast-on (if you can get yourself to do intentionally what you ordinarly try so hard not to do). I'd love to see the cowl on!

[Adriana]

I have never heard of Moebius knitting. It sounds fascinating. I want to know more. A gorgeous scarf by the way... perfect for Autumn!

[Rebekah]

I do love how Moebius knitting looks. I have a couple of patterns, I just haven't gotten around to knitting them yet. why is there always so much to try?

[Mavis John]

I live in Perth Western Australia and would like to know where to obtain a book with mobius patterns in please

[supra shoes]

Nice, and thanks for sharing this info with us.Good Luck!