I had such fun making Cat
Bordhi's Möbius Cowl, and I read some stuff others had written
about her and this project that I thought I'd share a few things here.
Roll your mouse over the image if you have a video-enabled browser.
Firstly, someone had written that her method was overly complex and she was more interested in the techiques she describes in her books than in the result. I believed this until I tried it and found her method works really well, and I think those writers are being a bit unfair. It creates an absolutely perfect meeting-in-the-middle of the double edged knitting and I am not sure that other methods described actually do that. I admit that since the cowl is folded maybe you don't care but....
What I do think, is that trying to follow written instructions for this is hard, so I am adding some pictures. I am assuming that I am not overstepping copyright here - Cat's instructions are freely available from Knitty Gritty at DIYnetwork - but a picture paints a thousand words. If you use Internet Explorer you can run the video at the top of the page as instructed. Other browsers may not play ball, but you can see the instructions illustrated below.
Place a slipknot on the middle of the 47" needle's cable, with the needle ends hanging down like an upside-down U.
With your right hand, take the left needle and circle it counterclockwise, placing it in front of and against the slipknot (which is in the middle of the cable). The right side of the upside-down U remains hanging down and is ignored during the Möbius Cast-On (MCO) process.
Your right hand holds the needle (which is pointing to the left) and the slipknot against the cable, so the slipknot cannot slip around. Tension the yarn and cable in your left hand by using your index finger to hold the yarn up high and your remaining three fingers and thumb to firmly grasp the cable and yarn. You should see a triangle: its base is the cable, the yarn forms the right side and your left hand is the left side.
Step 1: Continuing to hold the slipknot firmly against the cable with your right hand, which is also holding the needle, point the needle at yourself, then dive under the cable and up inside the triangle.
Lean on the yarn and swing right back the way you came, bringing the scoop of yarn with you.
In other words, retrace your path, ending in the position you began (starting position).
Step 2: Continuing to hold the slipknot firmly against the cable with your right hand, which is also holding the needle, point the needle up and over the yarn, then down behind it to bring a scoop of yarn back to starting position. This is essentially a yarn-over.
Have a look: there are two stitches on the needle and two on the cable below. The first one on the cable is the slipknot. To count MCO stitches, count only the stitches on the needle. Never count the stitches on the cable below, although they will be knitted. Since the slipknot is on the cable, it is not counted. Repeat steps 1 and 2 over and over until the required number of stitches is cast on.
A couple more tips:
When you place your stitch marker and come to knit the first round - the stitches are awfully tight and hard to join up in a circle. That's all I can say really; persevere and the following rows are normal.
I used an 80cm needle (which is about 31 inches) not a 47 inch one - this may have hindered my efforts but I managed as that was all I had.
Best news of all - this is a one-skein, one-evening project.
This was so much fun I am planning to knit the Möbius bag too, as soon as I can dig out some wool from the attic... I did have a few wild moments trying to see how something with only one side could make a bag, whose inherent functional properties seem to require a definitive inside and outside. I have enough trouble as it is with stuff I put inside my bag suddenly finding itself on the outside.... However on careful reading, the Möbius strip seems to form the handle.
Happy knitting.