The Moebius Scarf

Last Thursday I attended a knitting group with my friend, Marsha. A lot of familiar faces were there too : Katie, Beth, and Bobbi! At this meeting, we were treated to a special instruction on how to make a Moebius Scarf. The scarf is based on the mathematical concept of the "Moebius Strip."

Ok so what is the Moebius Strip, you ask? This. And here is some more info about it.

Well, there are several ways to achieve this in knitting. One way is to knit a long rectangle, then give it a half twist and then seam together the opposite ends. This is called the Transverse Method. The problem with this is that you have a seam. This is kind-of like the "cheater's" way of knitting a Moebius! Well, Pat, our knitting fearless leader, taught us how to do it the REAL way!

I could try to explain here how to cast on and knit a Moebius ring, but it would take me forever to do it. So you might find the explanations at the websites listed below helpful for this:

http://www.girlfromauntie.com/tech/moebius/inside_out.php

http://www.diynetwork.com/diy/na_other/article/0,2025,DIY_14142_4894528,00.html

Just let me say that the casting on is very hard to understand in writing, yet so easy to grasp visually. You need to use a very long circular needle. I attached two 19-inch Denise cables together to size 8 needles, forming a 47" circular needle. I managed to cast on just fine. When I started to knit my first row, which is a BEAR, let me tell you, my connector piece in between the two cables came undone, and I lost a stitch or two. Ut oh. Well, by that point we were about 40 minutes from packing up and leaving, so I figured I'd try it again on my own.

The next day, I tried it using different yarn, different size needles and ONE 40" cable. What a difference! I don't know how I managed to retain all the information about the cast on, but I did! Let that stand as a testament to Pat's excellent teaching ability! Once you get beyond the first round of knitting, it's as easy as pie.

Here's a picture of it almost finished, still on the needles:















And this is a picture of the finished product. I used Knit Picks Suri Dream yarn --- only one ball! The scarf is about 8 inches wide and the ring is 36 inches around.















This was so fast to knit that I might make a few as gifts! They are SO unique and do have some other benefits besides just looking neat-o. If you make a really long one, you can double it up and make a double cowl with it! Also, because of the continuous line that the Moebius creates, this scarf folds against itself (as you can see from the picture) and lays nice and flat against your chest under a coat. And, the size that I made can also be brought down over the shoulders as a little capelet! How cool is that?

Oh and Christmas kids' scarves update: 2 complete, 3 to go. Official date of the party: December 17. I think I'm going to make it!