Downton downtown

I had a little retail therapy the other weekend.

There was quite a lot of fabric bought. This was the haul!

The rippled one really did remind me of the Old Shale stitch pattern (what most people erroneously call Feather and Fan). Though Mr says it makes his eyes funny, so it won't be used for cushion as I'd intended.

These two were from Andover Fabrics' Downton Abbey range.

And the charm pack is one I've been on the look out for - Road 15 by Moda.

My patchwork cushions in the lounge have been very well loved and could do with replacing so hopefully these fabrics will step up and take their place.

I learnt a new crochet stitch that same weekend. Its modern name seems to be Diagonal Box Stitch - a rather uninspiring name. It was fun to do. Michele from Yarn Aloud taught us how to do it. There were a few examples about and I liked the look of it in a finer yarn. 

So after some stash rummaging later, I came up with a ball of zauberball and whizzed through to make a scarf. I used a 4.00mm hook, so it had plenty of drape when worn.  I worked it on the bias to make a rectangle shape instead of a square. I used the entire ball but it wasn't long enough to make a decent sized scarf; so I put a row of buttons on one end, so it could be worn as a cowl.

The spaces between the trebles make good buttonholes, so it can be buttoned up in any way you like.

The pattern has brought out the stripes in the yarn; or is it vice versa, the stripes have brought out the pattern well? Either way I think it's fab.

Möbius Methods

After having made quite a few möbius cowls recently (see this post). I've been doing a bit of research into the background of möbius strips and the different ways of making a möbius shape in knitting.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines a "Möbius strip";

"/'mə:bɪəs/ ► noun a surface with one continuous side formed by joining the ends of a rectangle after twisting one end through 180° ORIGIN early 20th cent.: named after August F. Möbius (1790-1868), German Mathematician

Though it was independently discovered by Johann Benedict Listing at the same time.

One of the main practical uses for a möbius strip is for drive belts; but I think that the best use is in knitting (though perhaps I'm a bit biased).

There seems to be two main categories for making a möbius; flat and circular.

Flat

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The first option is for the cast on edge to be the long horizontal, the piece is worked flat and then twisted and sewn along the vertical edge. This would create an obvious seam in the work.

The second option is when the cast on edge is the shorter vertical edge, again worked flat, then twisted and then the cast on / bind off edge is sewn together. This is very similar to the first option and again this would create a seam.

The third option is to provisionally cast on along the short vertical edge and then it is grafted together at the end.

Circular

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All the following require circular needles.

This option is to cast on with circular needles and then make one twist in before joining in the round. So the bottom edge will be the cast on and the top will be the bind off.

The next three options all involve what I consider a little bit of magic. They are started at the middle of the strip and then the piece is worked on circular needles around the entire edge of the work. Therefore, all the outside edges will be the bind off edge.

The first one involves a regular cast on, such as a knitted or long tail cast on. Using the same circular needles that the stitches were cast on, the same number of stitches are picked up from the cast on edge.

The second and third options are relatively similar. They both require a provisional cast on. Cat Bordhi's Moebius Cast On is made using the needle tip and the cable of the same needle and the other is the Alternating Cast-On for Moebius from June Hemmons Hiatt’s “The Principles of Knitting”, which uses two circular needles of the same size.

I'll leave you with a joke from "The Big Bang Theory". Why did the chicken cross the möbius strip? To get to the same side.

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References

The New Oxford English Dictionary (1999) Oxford University Press p.1187

Flynn, Mike, Infinity In Your Pocket (2005) Elwin Street Ltd p.25

Hemmons Hiatt, June, The Principles of Knitting (2012) Touchstone pp. 368-370

Patmore, Frederica & Haffenden Vikki, The Knitting Book (2011) Dorling Kindersley Ltd p.197

Wikipedia, Möbius strip, Retrieved 05.12.12. from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%B6bius_strip

Bordhi, C - Intro to Moebius Knitting, Retrieved 05.12.12 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVnTda7F2V4

FO: Möbius Cowls

I feel like I've been on a production line of knitting recently! I've produced 4 möbius moss stitch cowls for Christmas presents. 

All are cast on with 124 sts using a möbius cast on. I used the opportunity to try out a few different types of möbius cast on.

The silver and purple ones are cast on using Cat Bordhi’s moebius cast on. I liked the relatively simple way of casting on but the first row was very tight and difficult to do. This seemed to cause the stitches to stretch very slightly but enough for me to notice it!

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The silver/white and the silver/pink are cast on using a different möbius cast on, which is Alternating Cast-On for Moebius from June Hemmons Hiatt’s “The Principles of Knitting”. The provisional cast on used for the centre is very similar to Judy's Magic Cast On.

• The upside of this one was I found it really easy to do and the first row was worked easily without stretching anything.
• There were no loose stitches, however, I tried to make an alternating knit/purl start but couldn’t figure it quickly so just did the knit in the end. This meant that the middle row was knit on one side and purl on the other. This creates a visible line in the moss stitch but, to be honest, I think both methods do this to some degree.
• One downside was needing 2 circular needles of the same size; if you had interchangeables it would be possible to have one set and use stoppers until you can remove the 2nd circular. I much preferred to do the 2nd method.