Tag: möbius

Möbius crochet tessellation

On By CarynIn Craft

In the pursuit of a möbius scarf that has a center line that stretches with the fabric, I have twisted my brain inside out, backwards, and forwards. I finally sat down and drew what I wanted.

Tessellated parallelograms

I used different colored lines to trace how the crochet stitches should go.

Breaking up the tessellation into crochet-able lines

With a little experiment to verify my thought process, I then used crochet symbols over the sketch to solidify the plan.

Capturing the essence of the pattern with crochet symbols

The foundation chain is not strictly a chain, but a connected series of loops. Most crochet patterns start with “chain x number”, but not this one. I only illustrated a single repeat for the subsequent rows, as that is all you need. Each row is offset from the previous row. I’m not going to give a specific pattern for a specific size or number of rows, but I will attempt to put into words what my drawing shows, for those that may need it.

quadruple double crochet (qdc): yarn over 5 times, insert hook into work, (yarn over, pull through two loops) six times

Treble crochet (tr): yarn over 2 times, insert hook into work, (yarn over, pull through two loops) three times

Foundation chain (row 1): chain 8, *quadruple double crochet (qdc) into the fifth stitch from the hook, chain 11, repeat from * to desired length, qdc, chain 3, join with a slip stitch to beginning chain.

Row 2 (and all subsequent rows): chain 6, mark third chain, slip stich in 5 chain loop, * chain 3, tr into middle of six chain length, chain 5, tr into same stitch, ch 3, repeat from *. Chain 3, tr, chain 5, join with slip stitch at mark, 3 slip stitches to get to next starting point.

To make this Möbius, when you come round to the mark, give the foundation chain a slight twist and crochet on the opposite side. Each round will go on both sides of the work (the magic of Möbius).

Wrist-sized test piece
Wrist sized test piece showing the twist

Now to make an actual scarf!

Möbius scarf

On By CarynIn Craft

I’m looking for a light weight idea for a pattern for my spun alpaca yarn. I keep coming back to lace. Personally I do not consider myself a lace person; I don’t tend to buy clothes with lace trim, and I don’t care for frills. But Texas is hot most of the time, and thick warm clothing is only necessary for a short span. What am I going to do with all this yarn I’m spinning? Which is why I keep coming back to lace. It can be warm when made from insulating fibers, but not too warm.

Möbius scarf showing the twist

When looking for lace ideas, I came across the idea of a möbius scarf. This is not a new idea, I have just apparently been hiding under a rock (not entirely metaphorical there). The idea is that the garment is created from the center out, and each row adds to the top and bottom since the edge of a möbius strip is continuous. Really, really cool concept. And it can be done in crochet, knitting, or nälbinding. Sweet. I did have some trouble wrapping my brain around it, so rather than diving in with my good yarn, I tried a pattern with some wool sock yarn from my stash.

Möbius scarf shown on a mannequin

I really enjoy the long edge and chance to get each row firmly under my muscle memory. I don’t care for this particular pattern because the center line is not as stretchy as the rest. So now I’m on the hunt for a pattern that stretches uniformly across the fabric (for comfort’s sake). I’ll keep you posted.