Mastering the Moebius

It got ‘slightly’ easier to move stitches around the needle to more I knit but it was still difficult because you are using only one needle and I had two cable connectors in there which have a “grabby” tendency. I am glad I that I did attempt and succeed at using this method, but I want to make rapid progress on this project so I need to modify my methodology.

I am now using three cable needles, two holding the moebius ring (half a ring each) and the third to knit with. It’s working very well and I’m now making rapid progress. The three 4.5 mm circular needles are: one regular circular 32” in length, one Denise circular which still has a connector joining a 16” and a 9” cable, another Denise circular which still has a connector joining a 12” and 14” cable. The Denise kit on comes with two needle tips of each size, but that’s really all I need. Only one tip, the one you are actively knitting with, determines the gauge so that end is 4.5 mm and the other end I’ve made 4 mm so it’s easier to slide the stitches off the needle (that was a Cat Bordhi tip).

At this rate, I’m hoping to have the scarf finished by next week-end.

Dragon Scarf Complete!

A long week-end in February! Family Day is Monday, February 18 – rejoice! We really needed this after last week-end. We were too busy with my son’s birthday party going on for knitting (or much of anything else) to have any presence.

I pleased to announce that I have finally completed my son’s Dragon Scarf! I’m very happy with the results. You will notice the lovely blue tuft of hair which my son wanted his dragon scarf to have. It’s Bernat’s Disco.
You will also notice two slits above the hair. I was trying to come up with something that would make it easy for a child to fasten and unfasten a scarf. Buttons can be tricky as well as long ties. With two slits there, he can slide the tail of the dragon through. It didn’t work as well as I had planned though. Apparently, it comes undone a little too easily for him now. I told him to just pull it through a little further so the scales could lock it in place. We’ll see how it goes.
I thought it would be nice if the dragon had glowing eyes that stood out. I used some yellow yarn in a satin stitch and red beads for the pupils. The puffs of smoke are just four strands of white yarn I fringed through two holes I made for nostrils.
On to a Moebius Scarf for my mother-in-law and hopefully some more knitting time.

Conquering Moebius

I’m proud to say that I have succeeded in doing the Moebius cast on from Cat Bordhi’s book, A Treasury of Magical Knitting. Not only that, I have knit one complete row. It was hard as all hell but it has been quite a learning experience. Cat's instructions were spot on; the trouble was me.
I received my pink Denise Interchangeable needle set on January 22 and my fingers had been itching since then to try something, but what to try? Contemplating it while knitting my son’s dragon scarf, dreaming about it at night, can you tell I’m a little knitting obsessed? Okay, finally settled on a golden colour Décor with 4.5 mm needles. If I had been smart and thought about it, I would have put a smaller needle on the left hand side as the book and website suggested to make sliding stitches off the needle easier but in my haste, I of course wasn’t thinking logically. Another thing I did which made this more difficult was that I made my needle length 58” instead of 47” (the book suggests 47-60). The finished garment I’m attempting will be ~48” in circumference; some might now see my problem. I am now reminded of one of the reasons I never liked using a circular; my garment circumference is smaller than my needle circumference and I had extra cable to push and shove my knitting over to get to knit it. Once again, in my haste, I was not reasoning too well. Given that this was my first attempt too, if I had cast on and knit a bit more loosely, that might also have helped. I’m hoping that as I keep knitting (your work actually expands in between the cable ring; you are essentially knitting from the spine of the moebius outward), the extra material in between will allow me to shift my stitches on the needle more easily.

Oh well, live and learn. For now, back to finishing my son’s dragon scarf.