Moebius Scarf Pattern

Loosely cast on 150 stitches (I know).  Place one marker every thirty stitches— This is as much to help keep track of how many stitches have been cast on as it is to help with the actual knitting later on.  Use markers of one color for these first 150 stitches; save the others of a contrasting color for later.

Making sure stitches are not twisted, pick up and knit a stitch below the first cast on stitch, along the lower edge of the cast on row.  That is, you are knitting the thread below the first cast on stitch while leaving the first cast on stitch on its needle.  The cast on row is now a closed circle.  The newly picked up stitches should be on the working needle, closest to you, in front of the needle holding the first cast on stitch.

There will probably be many false starts and fuck ups at this stage.

Continue around in the same manner, picking up one stitch below each of the original cast on stitches and leaving those cast on stitches on their needle.  (The circular needle will coil up and adopt the shape it had when it was brand new; it will likely remain thusly coiled throughout the project.)  Place markers of the contrasting color every thirty stitches.

Before beginning the knitting proper, try imagining the path the work will take.  The Moebius strip is basically shaped like a figure 8, or two rounds of a coil with the ends joined together.  One coil will form inside the other as you work.  The first several rounds will likely be quite tricky, but once you get going and have knitted enough fabric that you have a bit of room to play with, it will become easier.

So, for the next round:  If your last marker is not already in place, place it now.  There should be five markers of one color spaced within the 150 cast on stitches and five markers of a contrasting color spaced within the 150 picked up stitches.  Check again to make sure the work is not twisted!  I can't tell you how many snarls (both the yarn's and my own) I dealt with in making this.  There was a lot of angst and wasted yarn involved.  So.  Pay attention here and thus avoid disaster.  Bring the end of your right needle up to meet the left needle, knit the first stitch the normal way, and remove it from the other needle as usual.  This action creates the famous half twist, unmistakably identifying the scarf as a Moebius strip.  Now, continue working around until you reach the first marker, where the tail from the first cast on stitch is.  That's all 300 stitches knitted, and you may be able to detect the shape of the scarf forming.  Continue knitting around in the pattern of your choice—it should be reversible (note that it may be difficult to find a reversible pattern that doesn't look weird along the center seam; plain garter stitch might in fact be best for a first attempt at a Moebius strip, unlike the insanely ambitious thing I did)—for about 25 rounds (this will create 50 rows total across the width of the scarf) and bind off.

The following is the pattern for the figure eight I used.  Round 1 is the round where you joined the stitches as above.



And this is the chart for the reverse eight:

Or, if you insist, here are both charts together, with the right-facing eight side on the right hand side of the chart:




Legend for the charts:

With all 300 stitches on the needles, I had a total of thirty figure eights, alternating between right facing and reversed.  It was a simple matter of repeating the pattern all the way around; if these were regularly written instructions (which I am not doing—the charts were a bloody nightmare to create; damned if I try to put them in writing), each row would end with "repeat 14 times."  In other words, each row of the (largest) chart should be done fifteen times total before moving up to the next one.  I hope this makes sense.

And one more thing.  Because of the increases and decreases within the pattern, although you start and end with 300 stitches, most of the time you will actually have 540 stitches on the needles.

Yep.