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The Think Outside the SOX Contest
The Moebius Gallery
New Moebius Arrivals
A Moebius SWEATER
The
THINK OUTSIDE THE SOX
CONTEST
Unlike Sock Wars 2008 (if you read
here about that), where speed, slowness, shipping and sheer luck leads to a
winner, this contest was about artistry within truly functional socks. The
contest rules were published on the Internet in March 2008, with entries due by
the end of that year. Judging took place at Stitches West in late
February, 2009. I entered two
pairs, and while neither pair won, in May 2009 I received a letter stating that
XRX, Inc., the contest sponsors, wrote to say they wanted to publish the pattern
of one of my pairs in its book with the winning socks! When the letter
arrived (yes, a real letter with a stamp), XRX hadn't mentioned which pair had
won. The next day, the "unwanted" pair arrived at my door, so
all was revealed. And the
soon-to-be-published pair (which is still at XRX for photos) looks like this: 
JAWS!
In early July 2009, I sent XRX 12 pages of instructions for these socks
for publishing. I guess I'll take my hat off to anyone who actually
attempts to knit them! (Probably the knitting editor at XRX!) Here
are a couple detailed photos. 
Detail of the toe--er,
tail
JAWS comes complete with teeth!
And as for the other pair of socks that will simply go on my feet? They
look like this:
Title:
Fibonacci Trees (The Fibonacci series: 1+1=2, then
take the last two numbers of the series and add them together, so...
1+2=3, 2+3=5, 3+5=8, 5+8=13, at which point I stopped the pattern. The
series then is 1-2-3-5-8-13.) I drafted this pattern in Adobe
Illustrator and then let the pattern speak to me as to what it became. I
saw trees on a lake. Others see a Buddhist temple (where the blue at the
toe becomes pink further up the foot). Just for fun, some close-ups: 
I
even set the trees up in Fibonacci relationships! Note the sunset at the
top. The yarn is
Cherry Tree Hill Supersock, and I used nine colorways and one solid color
(which means I have a LOT of leftover sock yarn for still more pairs). I
was really sad that these weren't to be the published pair, but you gotta admit:
JAWS is pretty unusual!
Want to leave a
comment about what you see? . The
Moebius Gallery 
In April 2008, I knitted my first Moebius scarf and was immediately
hooked. (Remember the Moebius band from math class? Put a half twist
in a long piece of paper, then join the ends with tape. You now have a
one-sided, one-edged object. Don't believe me? Follow your finger
all around the edge and see where it goes. Ah, now you get it.) This
is the most fun you can have knitting! I'm even teaching Moebius knitting,
so the number of twisted knitters is growing.
The Moebius scarf at right (the twist is at the fold at the bottom) is
sheep-to-scarf: I spun wool from a fantastic sheep named Big Mama, who was
grazing in Towanda PA at the time I received the fiber (she now lives an hour
from there with a new owner). All the colors in the yarn are from the
sheep; none of them come from dye. The scarf now belongs to Big Mama's
former owner and my fiber friend, Catherine Veleker.
This year, after finishing up some socks for a friend, I took a break to explore
Moebius knitting further. Cat Bordhi published two books on the subject,
and her felted trifold bowls beckoned exploration. So, I knitted the
Somersaulting Trifold bowl in
her book (well, more than one; not enough room to show all the photos); the rim has
three half twists,... 
...then a five-fold
bowl,... 
...then a seven-fold bowl,... 
...then
a nine-fold bowl (well, maybe a cat bed!),...  
All nine half twists knitted and ready for the bowl portion.
...and
now I am wondering
if I will someday make it up to 15 half twists! Anyway, these are a lot of fun to make, and because these are felted, you never really know what the end result
will look like until it comes out of the washer.
Want to leave a
comment about what you see? .
I've been exploring scarves. Here's what's up:
A Moebius collar (kinda like Shakespearean dress gone awry) having vertical ribs
(compare with the horizontal-rib scarf above): 
Then I thought I would try to knit a cabled scarf (at right, the detail: cables on both "sides"?): 
(Note:
This began as a cabled collar, but the beautiful yarn, an alpaca/merino blend,
turned out to be scratchy on the neck. Frog! Lesson learned: Always
brush the skein on your neck to see if collar yarn is soft enough. This
scarf version is nice and warm,
however. I actually got to wear it when a cold snap in the 40s hit Denver in July!)
All of the above led to a ribbed collar sporting diagonal ribs (this collar is
viewed from the top).
I folded it along one of the diagonal ribs,... 
...and when you flip it over, the diagonal ribs disappear! 
Yikes!
Is this a two-sided Moebius collar? It was knitted as a one-sided
object! Well, okay, how about a Moebius hat? 
Yup,
it's one-sided. Dizzying, isn't it?
Want to leave a
comment about what you see? . A
Moebius SWEATER
Oh my, a ONE-SIDED
sweater? Well, perhaps not quite, but it sure was fun to be able to do
this. 
The
red and navy diagonal stripes are a Moebius band. Note a smaller Moebius
band on one of the sleeves.
A little history: I began knitting
my very first sweater on Sunday October 4, 2009: no pattern, no sewing, just a gauge and a
chest measurement and then several percentages of the latter; it was a plain V
neck with long sleeves. #2, now with the help of Knitting in the Old
Way, by Priscilla Giibson-Roberts with Deborah Robson, was a sleeveless vest for my husband.
This sweater is #3, testing the percentages and the waters for knitting on the bias. What can I
say? The system works! I have two more Moebius sweater designs in
mind.
Want to leave a
comment about what you see? . | 