We interrupt this regularly scheduled program...

Y'all can blame TECHKnitter for lighting a fire under my butt to figure out how to make illustrations, rather than relying solely on photos. For the past week or so I've been rather obsessed with learning this skill. And there's a learning curve, so I don't have anything presentable to share with you this week.

Well ok, I guess I can show you the result of my first lesson...

Anyway, in an effort to keep you entertained in spite of my lack of instructional materials for this post, I bring to you this little ditty:

(Watch on YouTube)

I suspect it will appeal to parents and cat-owners alike. It's amazing what babies will find to entertain themselves.

Stay tuned, my first illustration project will be instructions for Judy's Magic Rib.

Ode to Judy

There once was a knitter named Judy
And one day, while sick and all woozy,
She made up a trick
It's really quite slick
It's a cast-on, and it is a beauty.

In the Spring of 2006, Judy Becker published her Magic Cast-On in Knitty.com. Sock knitters around the world quickly adopted this ingenious technique and applied it to toe-up socks.

But what about other ways to use JMCO? And other patterns, besides stockinette stitch?

After I learned how to do Judy's Magic Cast-On, I adapted it to a rib pattern. This is useful for all kinds of things -- but mostly I use it to make mini-moebii.















This little guy, for instance, is the perfect size for making baby socks. (Yes, that's Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bind-Off at the edge.)
















My latest video walks you through doing the traditional JMCO, reverse JMCO (i.e., purl), and JMCO Rib -- which, with Judy's permission, I have affectionately named "Judy's Magic Rib."



(watch it on YouTube)


In the video I show two strands of yarn tied together in a knot. This is just for visual reference so you can more easily see which end is the working yarn (purple) and which is the non-working, or tail, end of the yarn (red). Normally Judy's Magic Cast-On is done with a single strand of yarn -- in fact, that's what's so great about it!

Note that Judy's Magic Rib will always have a visible half-stitch shift at the cast-on row. I happen to think this is an endearing feature, but I know Judy doesn't love it.













Thank you Judy for sharing your ingenious cast-on with all of us!

Below are some images that I hope will clarify the process of doing JMCO-purl. You need to get comfortable with this before you can master Judy's Magic Rib. (10/23 Addendum: Note that the exact method here shown for starting JMCO-purl is a little different from what I show in a later post, "A crash course in Illustrator." The newer one is better!)

1. Put the yarn around the bottom needle with the ends coming toward you, the non-working end (red) coming over the top. Get ready to swing the working (purple) yarn up with your forefinger so it crosses in front of the non-working (red) end.
















2. With your forefinger, continue upwards; swing the working (purple) yarn up and over the top needle, bringing it back through between the needles.
















3. With your thumb, grab the non-working (red) yarn...
(The working yarn is now IN FRONT of the bottom needle -- sorry this is a bit obscured in the photo).
















... and swing it in front of the working (purple) yarn, and up and over the bottom needle.
















4. After you swing the non-working (red) yarn over the needle, rotate your hand clockwise.

5. After you have rotated, use your forefinger to bring the working (purple) yarn up, over, and between the needles.
















6. Then, as in step 3, grab the non-working (red) yarn with your thumb and bring it in front of the working yarn, and over the bottom needle.

You now have two stitches on your needles. From here, continue from step 4 (in which you rotate your hand).

Hope this helps to clarify Judy's Magic Cast-On in purl. Stay tuned for written instructions for Judy's Magic Rib!

Is there a topologist in the house?

Seriously. Because I would really like to know what is the proper name for this form:

It's a double-knit moebius. But what's the mathematical name of this thing? It's got a half-twist, so it must be a moebius. But it has an inside and an outside, which means it has volume, so it can't be a moebius. So what is it? (My best guess: some kind of twisted toroidal form). If there are any topologists out there reading this, I hope you know the answer, and that you will let me know.

Here is my latest video, which explores these topics.

(View in YouTube).

Here's where this saga began...

Once upon a time I learned from Cat Bordhi's book A Treasury of Magical Knitting how to knit a moebius. Pretty cool. Then I heard through the grapevine that Judy Becker had made a doubleknit moebius, which naturally made me want to try to make my own. Only I wanted mine to be continuous, with no insertion point. The image above is what I came up with. The red crochet chain shows where the stitches came off the needles.

While I was knitting it, I was vastly curious what I would end up with if I bound off the edges separately and unfurled it, instead of grafting the edges together. So, here's what you get if you pull off the crochet chain...

Pull the sides apart...

Untwist, and voilá!

To my complete surprise, I found it to be the *exact same* form that you get if you cut an ordinary moebius down its center axis: a tube with 720 degrees (2 full turns) of twist.

Ergo, you can take this form and re-shape it into an ordinary moebius (note how the knit and the purl sides meet in the middle here):

I don't know about you but I thought, oh man, this is way cool!!

If you stuff the closed form to give it some volume, you get this:

Note how the half-twist goes away as it gains volume, and instead you get a spiral running through the middle. Awesome!




I've continued to explore this topic and found that there are yet more ways to create a doubleknit moebius, some of which may surprise you. Stay tuned...