Moebius Strip

Today my youngest child is twenty seven years old

Happy Birthday Steph!

Steph requested a warm grey scarf for her birthday – and then I came across this amazing clip by the knitter Cat Bordhi

this is mindblowing!

A Moebius strip, as you probably know, is a loop which has one twist in it [cut a strip of paper, and before you stick the ends together to make a ring, twist them once]

It is named after the German mathematician August Moebius, who discovered its properties back in 1858. It has one edge and one face.

If you have never made one and tried this out, have a go, it is great fun.[instructions here]

So combining my love of knitting, maths, and especially of my daughter, I’ve knitted her a warm, grey, Moebius scarf for her birthday. It has many advantages

for me – having cast on, I just knitted until I was happy with the width – on a circular needle, and no need to count rows or think about what I was doing [brilliant if sitting chatting with friends at a Conference, or watching TV]

for her no ends to get caught on things, and the opportunity to loop it 2 or 3 times round the neck, as she likes

Here it is, being modelled by the cardboard hanger from my ‘Buff’ [biker scarf] Unfortunately her head is much smaller than life size, but you get the idea. And the colours of the photo do not to justice to the yarn, which is grey, but with pastel pink and blue strands in it.

It looks much better being worn by a normal sized human

It has only one edge – so the place where you cast on is in the middle – and the rows above come out in stocking stitch, the rows below in reverse stocking stitch.

The final row, you knit into front and back of each stitch, before the cast off row, which gives an interesting edge [and being Moebius there is only one edge!]

some useful hints 

• watch the video three or four times before you start
• have a large bottle of Paracetamol on hand
• be prepared to explain over and over to friends what it is, and what a Moebius strip is
• if your circular needle is hideously kinky from being coiled in the packet in the bottom of your knitting bag, drop it in a bowl of boiling water for a minute or two, then straighten it out and peg it to the edge of a shelf or something overnight. Next day it will much more usable!

Happy Birthday Steph!