Moebius magic?
A few weeks ago, I bought Meg a 47" circular needle so she could try out that funky Moebius Cast On by Cat Bordhi. Two weeks elapsed and the needle had yet to make its debut, so I decided to give it a shot myself.
Maybe I'm alone in my viewpoint here, but I would characterize Cat Bordhi as a bit overenthusiastic about the techniques she invents. Granted, I'm not inventing any new techniques, so kudos to her, but I distinctly get the feeling that she gets more joy out of some of these techniques solely because she invented them, not because the techniques themselves are inherently joyous. For instance, she describes her tubular bind-off in Socks Soar on 2 Circular Needles as "pure joy," but I've personally found that grafting 94 stitches together to produce a rather unattractive edge more annoying than joyous. It also put the last nail in the coffin for my toe-up sock adventures.
She refers to her moebius strip projects as "magical knits." Certainly it is interesting, but magical? Huh. Maybe I'm too much of a deconstructionist to get the point. The moebius cast on is actually nothing more than a provisional cast on done in a circle with a twist at the end. The first row is very futzy, and once it gets started, it's fairly uninteresting. Additionally, you have to alternate knit and purled sections, otherwise you'll get the top half completely in stockinette and the bottom half in reverse stockinette, which I think looks a bit dumb. Also, I found that doing an I-cord bind off on 100 stitches was complete misery. Admittedly, I'm not a long, drawn-out bind-off kind of guy, but this was only the sample; most of her projects would require 200+ stitches to bind off in this manner! Absolute yuck.
Regardless, I was pleased with my new weird knitted thing.
Meg found a use for it almost right away.
The cat was less than thrilled. So was I, as I had to crawl under the bed to get my moebius strip back.
Maybe I'm alone in my viewpoint here, but I would characterize Cat Bordhi as a bit overenthusiastic about the techniques she invents. Granted, I'm not inventing any new techniques, so kudos to her, but I distinctly get the feeling that she gets more joy out of some of these techniques solely because she invented them, not because the techniques themselves are inherently joyous. For instance, she describes her tubular bind-off in Socks Soar on 2 Circular Needles as "pure joy," but I've personally found that grafting 94 stitches together to produce a rather unattractive edge more annoying than joyous. It also put the last nail in the coffin for my toe-up sock adventures.
She refers to her moebius strip projects as "magical knits." Certainly it is interesting, but magical? Huh. Maybe I'm too much of a deconstructionist to get the point. The moebius cast on is actually nothing more than a provisional cast on done in a circle with a twist at the end. The first row is very futzy, and once it gets started, it's fairly uninteresting. Additionally, you have to alternate knit and purled sections, otherwise you'll get the top half completely in stockinette and the bottom half in reverse stockinette, which I think looks a bit dumb. Also, I found that doing an I-cord bind off on 100 stitches was complete misery. Admittedly, I'm not a long, drawn-out bind-off kind of guy, but this was only the sample; most of her projects would require 200+ stitches to bind off in this manner! Absolute yuck.
Regardless, I was pleased with my new weird knitted thing.
Meg found a use for it almost right away.
The cat was less than thrilled. So was I, as I had to crawl under the bed to get my moebius strip back.
Comments
Dorothy
http://missouristar.typepad.com
dswaite@mac.com
But I'd like to come to the defense of toe up socks. If you have big feet, like myself and my husband, then starting at the toe means never running out of yarn. I particularily like to use the technique with yarns like Lorna's laces.
LaurieM
laurie_corriveauAThotmail
I have fairly large feet, so I do understand where you are coming from with the not worrying about running out of yarn. If I feel like I might run out, I usually knit to the toe of one sock, knit up to the toe of the second, then close them together on 2 circs. That way I will run out of yarn at the same spot. I don't particularly care for short socks, so a different-colored toe bothers me less.
I really like doing toe-up socks. I had to try this new invisible caston method, and some increases, and suddenly I had TWO socks on the circ. So I couldn't really stop now, could I? And they became socks. I did the after-thought heel, which is a lot easier to do than with the toe-up gussets. I still like the heel flap and gussets (now THAT is fascinating to do!!) but need to measure my yarn very carefully so I don't run out. I often do contrast toe and heel. And definitely prefer to do both socks at the same time!
Thanks
And yes, I love toe-up socks from the before mentioned book, two circs, two socks at a time, and with the methods you can do a lovely toe-up heel flap sock with no heel flap, short-row heels or aterthought heels. I like knowing that I will have enough yarn in the end, and the double crochet cast off there is very stretchy and gives a lovely top finish. There are formula's using rows-per-inch and stitches-per-inch so socks are a perfect fit. No guesswork as to when to start the gussets or lengths. Oh, and for the top-downers" you can do them also, that is what makes us all different and the same. We all just love to knit and we end up with the same thing no matter which way we go. I guess we Easterners do things backwards... I also make my sweaters and other garments top-down. No seams to sew and always a perfect fit, and correct sleeve length.
Addicted to socks! You bet 'ya, and proud to be so.
I just loved reading your blog.
Never made a moebius, never will!