And look! It’s not a sock! Yea!

I started this moebius pencil holder on Sunday after I returned home from the Magical Moebius Festival. I’d been looking for something a little more knitterly to keep my pens and pencils in at work, and a felted bowl seemed like just the thing. And since I’d just learned to knit moebii, a much, much, much smaller little one seemed like just the thing

I worked on it a bit on Sunday and Monday, and then finished up the knitting on Tuesday night. Then into the washer it went. Two extra-hot cycles in my front loader were enough to reach the result I desired. It’s felted hard enough to hold its shape, but there is still a tiny bit of stitch definition. While it was still wet, I molded and squooshed it a bit so that the bottom would be flat and the sides would have the shape I wanted. Then I stuffed it with rolled up washcloths and let it sit until dry.

While knitting it, I allowed the handle to curl a little rather than forcing it to be flat because I liked the way that looked. I was aiming for something vaguely organic looking, as though it might have sort of grown on top of my desk. I think I mostly succeeded.

My pens and pencils used to reside a small flowerpot. The flowerpot is now inside the moebius bowl. The flower pot adds strength and a little more rigidity. If I only had a few pens and pencils, probably I would have been OK to leave the flower pot out, but with that many something more than felt is needed. Fortunately the flower pot just fit in perfectly.

The particulars:

• Yarn: Plymouth Tweed (100% virgin lambswool/ 109yds/50g per skein) held doubled — one ball of color 5314 (green) and one of color 5313 (rust)
• Needles: Knitpicks circulars, US#9 (5.5mm)
• Pattern: from Cat Bordhi’s A Treasury of Magical Knitting, with a few minor modifications.
• Techniques used:
  • Moebius cast on.
  • Bowl was knit using magic loop. I still don’t like magic loop, but I only have one US#9 needle apparently, so I was stuck.
  • Applied I-cord edging.

I have also frogged out the moebius from hell that was too long, and have started re-knitting it. I think it will be much shorter this time. I’m about half finished with the re-knitting. The original had 3 rounds of seed stitch and a k2tog bind-off. I think I will keep the seed stitch. I’m debating whether to do the k2tog bind off again, or do an applied I-cord. Your thoughts, gentle reader?

As I said in the previous post, I learned to knit moebii from Cat Bordhi last weekend. Cat tells animal stories as she teaches the moebius cast on, and that makes it so much fun and easy to learn. And the cast on is just cool and easy. Cat even demonstrates casting on behind her back.

After knitting a test moebius on some yarn I had brought with me, I decided I needed some of the good stuff in the form of Fleece Artist Kid Silk (now being discontinued so I had to get it while I could).

I glanced in one of Cat’s Magical Knitting books, where there is a chart useful for estimating how many stitches need to be cast on for a moebius of a given size, provided that one knows the gauge. Note that I could have also asked Cat.

I didn’t know what gauge I’d get with the Kid Silk on US#10 needles. Not a clue.

Did I let that stop me? Heck no. I’m all experienced knitter and whatnot.

I looked at the chart. hmmmm… the smaller the gauge, the more stitches need to be cast on to get the same size of moebius. I know that. I’m experienced. Sometimes I’m even advanced. Good grief. How hard can this be?

I cast on 100 stitches because I overheard Cat tell someone else that was a goodly number. Once again, I could have asked Cat myself, but deep in my heart I knew the first thing she’d ask about was gauge, and then I’d have to swatch. And I wanted to go directly to knitting because it’s just so cool the way that the moebii knit up all weirdly with your knit stitches magically turning into purls and all and swatching would slow that down a whole 15 minutes, probably. Instant gratification is such a seductive thing, isn’t it?

100 stitches just didn’t look like enough. Not nearly enough. So I cast on another 100. Then, because I wanted a little extra length, I cast on another 40 or so for good measure.

I can hear you laughing out there, gentle reader.

After casting on, I knit obsessively on my moebius. I didn’t even want to stop to knit socks. Although I did, because the socks were way cool, too. But I knit the socks quickly so I could go back to the moebius. I knit on it most of Friday, and all Friday evening, and Friday late into the night, and most of Saturday, and Saturday night I finally started to bind off.

I kept thinking that there’s really a deceptively lot of knitting in those moebii. Lots. And the binding off takes probably forever, even though I chose to do a knit-2-together bind off instead of the applied i-cord that is recommended. I was so happy to have it finally bound off.

Then I tried it on.

yeah

In the picture, Cat is modeling my results. Just a little bit long, dontcha think? Even wrapped three times around my neck it’s a little long, and then it’s a little on the bulky side as well and starts to cover up my face as well as losing its moebius-ness. When I told Cat I’d cast on 240 stitches, she giggled like crazy (in the nicest possible way, of course), and then suggested gently that less than half of that would have been probably closer to the right amount.

So I decided it would be fun to see how many people could wear it at once. If you click on the picture, it will bring up a little slide show — or at least that’s the theory. Just click on the right side of the picture for the next in the series, or the left side for the previous one. Each picture shows another person being added to the pool of moebius wearers. In the last picture, a couple of people can be seen only as hair. But 11 fellow knitters managed to fit in there. 11. Eleven.

Of course, since a moebius has only one surface and one edge and therefore no proper inside or outside — or rather they are the same thing, more or less — everyone in the world was inside my little moebius. But stuff like that makes my brain hurt, so I prefer to think of those that had it around their neck as being inside and the rest of us outside.

The moebius-from-hell will be going to the frog pond. I really like the fabric. There’s just way, way, way too much of it. I’m going to (1) swatch, (2) look up the chart in Cat’s book, and (3) cast on a reasonable number of stitches and knit one that’s much shorter and a bit wider. I think that will be just the ticket.

Don’t ever let anyone tell you that gauge doesn’t matter. 🙄

How can I begin to describe the 3rd annual Magical Moebius Festival?

It was perfect. Cat Bordhi is a wonderful teacher, and the nicest person imaginable. Nancy and Bob of Colorsong Yarn did a marvelous job organizing the event. There was really cool learning experiences, followed by lots of time to knit and try stuff out. And yarn. Luscious, incredible yarns piled high and just waiting for knitters to take them home.

The picture shows Cat demonstrating — with Nancy playing the part of stitch — how to tell which direction a stitch is mounted on the needle, and how to knit it in either case.

Be sure to click on the pictures to biggy-size them.

Cat kept trying to knit Nancy all weekend. Fortunately Nancy seemed none the worse for wear.

I may as well flash a little yarn pr0n while I’m at it. See all of the yarn? This wasn’t even all of it. There was more. And every time I wandered out into this room, there was new yarn, and yarn I hadn’t seen before, and yarn I just had to have. Nancy and Bob brought many wonderful yarns. And Michele from Fiber Nooks & Crannys also brought wonderful and tempting things.

There were books, too! All of Cat’s books (although not the new one that isn’t published yet – go figure) and Ann & Kay’s book, and other cool books.

Nancy helpfully ran a tab for me. (yeah… big help… I started calling Nancy my pusher)

And there was also Addi Lace needles — Skacel gave everyone at the workshop one US#2 Addi Lace needle, and I won another US#2 as a door prize. And maybe I acquired a couple more in other sizes in a more mundane way through my pusher.

Also note the corner of the table in the lower left of the picture. See how it’s nicely set for some meal or another? It was always set for a meal, and it seemed like we were always eating. Three really good meals, plus two big snacks lest we become faint from hunger.

This was our classroom. It was right next to the yarn & food room. See the big windows? They looked right out over the ocean. The Shilo Inn is on a bluff over the beach, so the view was wonderful. One morning I saw a whale.

We had a lot of fun in this room, knitting and learning and knitting and learning and knitting some more. And maybe just a touch of wine drinking. But just a touch, because there was so much knitting going on. I knit the moebius-from-hell, which I will tell you about later.

We were not the only event at the Shilo last weekend. There was also a wedding reception. A very loud wedding reception, with many guests who looked to be having a great time. I could tell there were many muggles amongst them by the strange looks they gave us as they filed past the room where we ate dinner surrounded by yarn. But one of the wedding guests came in and asked what we were doing and said she’d rather be with us. She had taken a class from Cat some time ago, and wanted to knit. But her husband insisted she stick with the wedding reception. So some of the knitters visited her later. Knitters crashing a wedding reception. I think the muggles were not amused. 😆

We not only knit moebii, we also knit socks. Lots of little socks knit in many mysterious but very, very cool ways. This is the best picture I can show you of the socks because I am sworn to secrecy. But Cat has a strange and devious mind and many cool and wonderful things come pouring out of it. And I was totally blown away and would still be knitting socks had I not become enmeshed in the before-mentioned moebius-from-hell.

Cat’s new book: New Pathways For Sock Knitters will be out soon. You can preorder it now from Bob and Nancy at Knitters Bookshelf. Check out all of the other great books they have while you’re browsing!

I left my window open Saturday night. The sound of the surf drowned out the sound of the wedding reception, which went into the wee hours of the morning, I think. I’m getting too old to last that long.

It was really hard to tear myself away on Sunday.

I loved all of the knitters that were there, and Cat, and Nancy & Bob, and Michelle, and the staff of the Shilo who made sure that we had all we needed.

The weather on Sunday was just glorious, as it had been on Thursday. It made for a very pleasant drive home.

I stopped in Lincoln City and snapped this picture on Siletz Bay. I love how the rocks look like a dragon sleeping in the water. There were tons of people out on the beach because it was the last day of spring break for Oregon schools and the first weekend of spring break for Washington schools.

Strangely enough the traffic wasn’t all that bad, and I arrived home safe and sound after an uneventful journey. The fur kids were glad to have me home, and I was glad to be home.

Sleeping to surf is very nice, but there’s something about having a couple of purring cats curled up next to you that makes for some very fine sleeping.

Next: Why gauge is important, or how I learned to love swatching.

There was Cat Bordhi, and food, and knitting, and food, and Kay and Ann from Mason-Dixon Knitting, and socks, and other wonderful knitting bloggers, and the most awesome fun non-blogging knitters you could imagine, and sunsets, and food, and whales, and a wedding to be crashed, and food, and a sweater we all could wear, and yarn (lots of yarn), and I knit a moebius big enough for all of us, and Addi Lace needles, and some of the most gorgeous knitting in the world was there to be fondled and cooed over, and windows to open at night for sleeping to surf sounds, and did I mention there was food? Five times a day there was food. And just maybe there was a little wine involved, too.

The picture is the view out our classroom window on Saturday night. Yeah… it was that good, gentle reader.

I had the most marvelous time in the whole world.

The weather was wonderful for the drives both ways. It was a bit wet on Friday and Saturday, but nobody minded.

I have tons of pictures and lots to tell you and some things I can’t tell you, and I will take the amazing run-on sentence that comprises the first paragraph and parse it into something that makes sense just as soon as I have a chance to breath a little and get my pictures sorted out.

It was a wonderful trip and I was very glad to be home last night in my own bed.