Knit – Page 69 – Fiber Musings

Spring T!

On 2 Apr, 2004

While waiting around hospitals during Mom’s various annual exams (I was the chauffeur of the day), I started a new spring T. I’m using Karen Alfke’s Unpatterned Top-Down Koigu T-Shirt pattern. Instead of using Koigu, I’m using yarn that I spun with Lorna’s Laces rovings last year. The colorway is Tahoe. Instead of 6.5 sts/in, I have 6. But what’s wonderful about Karen’s Unpatterns, is that it’s a recipe, with all the information you need to change the pattern to match your gauge and your body. Nifty. Yes, I know. Nothing earth shattering if you’ve read Barbara Walker’s Knitting from the Top, but I fell in love with this T, and Karen’s enthusiasm is contagious.

Sarah Hauschka showed me the basics of combined knitting last month. I’ve been reading about it in Knitting in the Old Way. I decided to try it on the sweater while I’m still working the neck area in the flat. It’ll take a little use to before I can knit without watching my hands again. I’m also noticing that my purl row tension is a wee tighter than my knit row now. I’ll get better, I’m sure.

I’ll get pictures once I get further along (and I have more time). Tomorrow is South Bay Opening Day, and I’m cooking breakfast. I have to be at the club at 6, or was that 5? (BTW, I finished those darn course flags, and they were installed yesterday.)

Have a great weekend!

Spring Basket!

By Ann

On 22 Mar, 2004

In FO, Knit

This was made it a scant ball of Kureyon that I found at the bottom of my scrap yarn basket. Yes, it’s another mobius basket. It’ going to be a pen/pencil holder for my desk. It’s the size of a soda can. How do I know this for a fact? That was my blocker.

Ta! Have a great week.

About Mobius Strips

By Ann

On 11 Mar, 2004

In Knit, Technique

Grace and I have been chatting over the past week on making mobius strips. Searching on the web on mobius strips, I found that there are quite a few directions for making mobius strips. Some are done by making a long strip, then grafting the start and end together after making a half twist. Some are done with that funky “knit into the bottom of the stitch” business that had always made my eyes crossed thinking about it. Then, there are the misnomers.

The last category is when you accidently put a twist in the cast on, when you are connecting it in a round. I’ve seen various places where people call it a mobius. It’s not. It’s just a full twist mistake.

First, let’s go back to the definition of a mobius. The mobius strip only has one edge and one surface.

Exercise #1:

take a long strip of paper
pull the ends together to form a loop (as you would when you make a paper chain)
turn one end one half turn
tape the ends together

What you have now has one edge and one surface. This is a mobius strip. The coolest and simplest 2 dimensional object in the world. Nay, universe. This is the first method for knitting a mobius scarf described in the first paragraph.

Exercise #2: Okay, let’s do another experiment.

take a long strip of paper
pull the ends together to form a loop
turn one end a full turn
tape the ends together.

Can you see the difference? The second loop has 2 edges and 2 surfaces. This is not a mobius strip. This is what happens when you accidently join your circular knitting with a single twist in the cast on.

Let’s take a look at this in terms of knitted fabric. Follow the link for the pictorial on knitting a mobius. I’ve moved it so that you don’t have to take a nap while waiting for this page to load unless you really, really want to see how I did it.

Random thoughts of a fiber enthusiast - mostly fiber related, sometimes coherent

Category: Knit Page 69 of 88

Spring T!

Spring Basket!

About Mobius Strips