Thrilling Obsession

I said last week in my newsletter that several of us at Knit Knite were obsessed with discovering a new møbius cast-on. We all know about Cat Borhi's but find that one a bit hard to do.  We tried quite a few ideas we had to no avail.  They all turned into 2 sided tubes.  sigh.

However as a result of announcing our craziness to the world, one courageous woman wrote to say that Rita Buchanan wrote an article for Spin Off in 2000 with her very own Møbius Cast-on.  Of course, I cleaned out all my old Spin-Offs last year. Why is it that when one finally gets rid of something that hadn't been used in umpteen years, it then becomes needed?
I googled Rita Buchanan Møbius and got this page.  While informative it leaves out a few basic instructions.  I tried it on 16" needles as I didn't want to be casting on a zillion stitches only to rip them out a few rows later.  Alas my attempt did not work and I frogged 70 stitches.

Then Lynne S. graciously scanned her copy of the article and sent it to me.  Of course I wanted to try it out immediately but that would mean 2 new UFO's and I'm trying to get samples ready for FF of New England.  So I compromised by spinning the yarn needed for this cowl.  I took breaks from dyeing and knitting to spin.  Seemed very balanced to me too.

4 ounces of Cattleya Orchid Falkland worked up into 300 yards of 2 ply plus silver thread making it technically a 3 ply yarn.  I thought it was sportweight but once washed and dried the whole thing blossomed into closer to DK.  Had US 6 needles ready but upped them to US7's.  Did a swatch and came out with 4.5 st/in on US7.  Close to worsted I guess but whatever.  It's soft and springy.

On Wednesday I couldn't stand it any longer and cast on the needed 200 stitches.  With a backwards loop it didn't take very long and this time the cable wrapped itself around just as in the instructions.
Deirdre kept saying I was obsessed but really I was so delighted to actually have this working and being so easy to do. Got so excited I drove 15 miles to Joanne's with a 20% off coupon and chose some 2/0 beads.  I thought I was adding them to the edge but now realize they are probably in the middle so will add more later when it's almost done.  A Mobius is such a magical creation and knitting one is doubly so.

Only 6- 7 more inches to go, then I'll use EZ' stretchy bind off. 

Wonder how one blocks a møbius cowl?  Have only done Cat Bordhi's møbius baskets which are felted.  Hmmmnnnn

I can see myself playing with making different stitch patterns that go with this.  Maybe a spiral. Or how about a knitted Klein Bottle? Or maybe a simpler item - Sea Change slip stitch mobius cowl.