Checking out the Magical Moebius Strips

After the magic loop socks, I read a bit online about Cat Bordhi's books.. A Treasury of Magical Knitting, and A Second Treasury of Magical Kniting. I was intrigued about the idea of the cast-on she uses for creating and knitting moebius strip from the middle out. So at the end of February I bought both books. The first one is great for learning her method and then using it to create some fascinating scarves and wraps. The second also teaches the cast on, but she then goes on to use it to begin more 3d objects like bowls, bags and cat beds!

I tried out a simple scarf, one for a young friend of my partner's, and this one.. using a funky mixed fiber yarn I purchased on ebay, with a doubled thinner rayon yarn for the Icord edging. Fun.



Next, I HAD to try a cat bed! We have two Siamese cats, one 15yr old traditional and one almost 7 year old modern. Stretch, the modern, needed a new cat bed.. or at least something to distract him from me for a while (he's a bit needy).
I can't remember exactly how many stitches I cast on for the moebius part of this project, I think about 400 or so, but I used a very bulky lambswool yarn from a sweater I bought to recycle at Goodwill. Cost me all of $1. The only mistake I made was doing the initial moebius knitting part on Denise needles (and a very old set to boot), which kept coming apart on me. After many cursed nearly lost stitches, I bought a 60" Addi Turbo so I could finish this sucker.

The cat decided he liked the bed even before it was finished, as he'd crawl inside it as I was decreasing the bowl part and sit there in the piece as I knitted away, occasionally sticking his head out. Unfortunately we never got a photo of him inside the partially knitted bed.

Here's the finished bed.. felted, but still a bit too floppy. No matter.. Stretch still loves it. I promise to add a shot with him in the finished project some time. Meanwhile I took this shot this morning, on the kitchen table, sans cat.