Here we have a very happy Dora wearing her new moebius scarf. I’m very pleased with the results.
I now find myself at that awful point at the intersection of EUPHORIA at the successful completion of a project and ANGST wondering what to do next. Hmm, is it time to start that cross-stitch project? Finish that first quilt I started 7 years ago? (I finished my second quilt in about a year and started my third quilt about 2.5 years ago) It’s not that I don’t have enough UFOs (unfinished objects) or backlog of projects I want to start, but they’re all pretty big and/or intense. Small quick projects would definitely give me better weekly blog material. And then there’s the designs I’m working on which means I’m not knitting the backlogged projects if I’m designing. Lastly, there’s the day job which pays the bills. If only I didn’t need to sleep; then maybe I could get things done in a decent amount of time.
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.
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.
