MOEBIUS COWL PATTERN
mobius cowl: a one-sided nonorientable surface
The twisted cable stitches give a continuous waving edge to this moebius cowl, a twist on a twist as it were.
Twisting the cowl and joining the opposite edges together during finishing is what creates the Moebius strip. The Moebius is an interesting structure that doesn’t have a right side or a wrong side, once you get on the Moebious highway, you can follow it and go round and round forever if you like.
This cowl is made up of 3 cable sections (24 stitches each) & 2 rib sections (12 stitches each) The cable sections on each edge create the reversible waving border. You can make your own Moebious strip longer or shorter depending on how much wool you have on hand – or how much cashmere you can afford. Just do the twist and finish it whenever you run out of yarn.
Finished Size: 44 inches long, 9 inches wide
Yarn: Worsted weight, wool & cashmere blend.
Needles: 4mm or whatever size give you a soft rib: a nice soft texture is more important than precise sizing on this pattern.
Notions: Waste yarn for provisional cast on. Crochet hook if you do a crochet provisional cast on. Tapestry needle for Kitchener stitch join. Third needle if you do a 3 needle bind off. Cable needle.
Gauge: 12 stitches = 2 inches in K2, P2 rib
Size: Adult
Stitch Guide:
24 stitch front cross cable; 12 stitch K2, P2 rib
Reversible Cable Moebius Cowl
Use your favorite provisional cast on, and waste wool, cast on 96 stitches.
Row 1. With main yarn work K2, P2 24 times.
Rows 2-5 Knit the knits and purl the purls (rib stitch)
Row 6: Cable Row
Slip 12 stitches onto cable needle and hold to front of work, (K2, P2) 3 times, (K2, P2) 3 times from cable needle. (K2, P2) 3 times. Slip 12 stitches onto cable needle and hold to front of work, (K2, P2) 3 times, (K2, P2) 3 times from cable needle. (K2, P2) 3 times. Slip 12 stitches onto cable needle and hold to front of work, (K2, P2) 3 times, (K2, P2) 3 times from cable needle.
Row 7-11: K2, P2 rib stitch
Row 12: Cable Row
Do 12 row repeats of the established cable & rib stitch pattern until you’re down to the last ¼ of your last ball of wool.
After final cable row, K2, P2 rib stitch for 5 rows. Do not bind off.
Finishing:
Unzip the provisional cast on, and put the live stitches onto a needle. Lay the piece flat, then give it one twist so that the end stitches of cast on row, line up with the beginning stitches of the last row, this creates the Moebius strip. Join the two rows of live stitches with a three needle bind off, or kitchener stitch, or your favorite invisible graft technique.
jabknit 
this looks amazing! do you think i could do 6 repeats of the pattern to make it go around the neck just once? do you know how much wool you used?xx
Thanks, I’m glad you like it. I have to admit the cable edge makes it really nice to wear, even if it does mean that you have to cross a lot of stitches at one time on the cable row while you’re making it. At least its only 3 cables per row. The one in the pictures is about 20 repeats. I tried it around my neck and six repeats weren’t enough, I’d say you need 7 or 8 to fit around a neck, then I measured and it took 10 repeats to get it big enough to pull it on over it my head without taking my ears off. At 20 repeats it hangs down to the middle of my chest. I used 6 balls of cashmere/wool blend yarn that my sister gave me, unfortunately I lost the label so I don’t know the yardage. Sorry.
Love it! I have decided next year I will make items that I want so this will be one of them. Thanks for the patterns!
Let me know when you get it done. I would love to see how it turns out.
I’m in love with this! It is beautiful and classy. I’m planning on making it with some really amazing yarn I just purchased online (at a close out because there were only 6 or 7 balls left! Yay me!). Do you mind telling me how long it took you to finish it? I knit medium fast when I finally get into the groove. Thanks for the amazing patterns.
It took me half a day by the radio on the weekend and a couple of evenings in front of the tv to finish it. I think you could probably do it in a weekend if you had a compelling DVD TV series to watch at the same time. Or you could do it on a train trip from Montreal to New York. And I bet my sister could probably finish it in less than one audio book. It sorta depends on how you calculate and create your knitting time.
I made this using size 10 needles, and really chunky yarn in a beautiful sea foam green. Love it. I wouldn’t use acrylic again, though. It is really bally.
I reduced the number of stitches to account for the thick yarn and divided everything by 3. Cast on 32, K2, P2 once, cable 4 etc. Took a bit of mathing, but it worked out great! Now I will try it with size 4’s as you suggested. Thanks for the awesome pattern! I get a lot of compliments on it.
oops. After examining my cowl, I actually cast on 36. Used Slip 8 stitches onto the cable needle, then k2, P2 only once in between each set of cable stitches. There ended up being 3 cables in my cowl.
It sounds really lovely! I never thought of doing it with bigger needles but I can see how that would work, did you make it longer too?