Yarn: September 2006 Archives
About a month ago, at the same time Stitches Midwest was going on, Nina's had a a very fun trunk show: Habu Textiles. Nina's is the only place in Chicago that I know of that carries Habu yarns, and even she only keeps a small selection on hand, so I was pretty excited about getting the chance to see more of the fibers up close and personal and to have a chance to see how one might use a stainless steel and silk blend or paper yarn in a garment. The trunk show featured most of the garments that you can see as kits on the Habu website. And there's really nothing like having the chance to get up close and personal with a unique fiber/fabric combination.
As you might suspect, most of the garments are relatively simple in texture and design since the yarns themselves are so unique. Instead, most of them have an interesting twist on the shaping that shows off the yarn to its best advantage. Habu yarns are a very tactile experience. There were many pieces that I was drawn to but would never wear. But there were also a few that really seemed clever and as if they might fit in my wardrobe. Combine that with a 20% discount on all kits that night, and it's no stretch to understand why a little shopping was done.
With the stylistic guidance of the divine Ms. B I ended up with two kits. The olive green and navy blue cones on the left are 100% GIMA cotton tape yarn for Kit 76, the GIMA Cotton Cardigan. This is one of those garments that doesn't look like much in the picture on the website, but that I really liked when I put on. The combination of the two colors of yarn held together with the very open basketweave stitch creates a lot of depth. It will be nice over a turtle neck in the winter or something with shorter sleeves in the spring. Clearly, it's more of a decorator piece than something that will provide actual warmth. But a girl needs a little decoration every now and again.
The second set of cones are for the Kushu Kushu scarf. The grey cone is a blend of stainless steel and silk, while the black cone is a 100% merino. Both of these fibers are exceedingly fine, and for most of the scarf they are worked together. The unique aspect of this scarf is that the area with the merino is meant to be felted to give the scarf extra texture. But what really sold me on this scarf? The stainless steel does these crazy wild shaping things. And it stays put. So very very cool. Once again, not practical, just decoration. But a most excellent decoration, I think.
One thing that you might want to know if you are interested in these kits, is that the patterns are in English, but the instructions are definitely Japanese in style. The Jacket pattern is almost entirely schematics, as is the scarf pattern. The scarf patterns have instructions similar to the French instructions I've worked with in Phildar patterns that tell you how to perform any shaping. Also, at least for the cardigan, there is only one size provided. So if you want it to be bigger or smaller you would need to get out your calculator and make the necessary up- or down-scaling. I've heard that this one size per garment is very typical of Japanese knitting patterns. The knitter is expected to know how to manipulate the sizing to get what they want, given all the structural information.
The cardigan will probably be the next project up in my rotation for myself. It's colors have a lovely, if somber, fall quality to them and except for the texture, it is a simple garment to construct. And I think two cones of cotton could travel very well on vacation if it didn't get finished before the vacation got started!
P.S. The needles in the foreground are the Lantern Moon rosewood circulars that I found at Nina's when I picked up my cardigan kit. They don't have the sharpest points on them, but they are wonderfully smooth, have very nice joins and a flexible cable that doesn't require steaming. Kind of pricey, these needles are, but I very much like knitting with them, and can definitely see myself gradually adding a few more sizes (this is an US 8 on 29") in the future.
