Meeting Hightlights: Crocheting a Moebius

We started our meeting with a short business session to elect the first officers for our group.  Offices filled were President (Maxine), Vice-President (Peggy), Secretary (Carol) & Treasurer (Jodi).  This slate of officers will serve our group from March 2012 until February 2013.

Joy & the long, long strap

Our new space sure makes show-and-tell a lot more fun.  Sight lines are a lot better, facilitating a real dialog when people are seeking solutions to problems.  This month's projects are found in a separate post.

Carol taught us the fine points of creating a moebius by leading some exercises illustrating the special problems involved with moebius construction.  The biggest problem is determining the length.  While you can wrap a tape measure around your neck to get a measurement, tape measures don't drape and often won't hang straight.  You can make a long chain and keep trying it on in front of a mirror, but the chain is too light weight; a chain that looks the proper length might actually yield a garment that is longer than you wished.  A better option is a long strip of fabric; it is easier to see, and you can wrap it any way you want and it will likely stay in place.

To illustrate that this garment really is not one-size-fits-all, we put the same moebius on people of different heights and body types.  This gave everyone a better idea about how long the moebius needs to be in order to be worn in the method desired (around the neck as a scarf, doubled up, around your shoulders, or down on the arms).

Some other good tips:

• Start with a foundation chain, not a regular chain.  It is stretchier than a regular chain and makes it easier to get the 180 degree twist right.
• After making the foundation chain, crochet only one full row before trying on the moebius.  This will give you a good indication of final size and drape and you won't have far to frog if you don't like the length.
• While the demonstration project used a double crochet/chain one combination, you can use any stitch pattern, or stitches of any height.  Stitch patterns that have obvious right and wrong sides will produce a moebius that is half right and half wrong.
• Once you have decided on your stitch pattern, make a 6" square swatch of your design to keep handy when you start your project.

A copy of the moebius pattern and instructions for creating the foundation chain are available by sending an email request to ctclist@gmail.com.  Below is a photo of two moebius' that Carol has completed and brought to show us:

Our next meeting will be March 10th.  This meeting will be the first of a three-part series of meetings devoted to crocheted garment construction.  The first meeting will explore shaping garment pieces to fit your body type.  The garments that we will be exploring will be of the seamed variety.