Habu Headquarters Visit

Last Tuesday Vanessa and I took a ride to New York city to visit Habu Textiles showroom and meet up with the owner, Takako Ueki. We wanted to show her what we have been up to for the past year and what we turned the gorgeous yarns into that she had started bringing into United States almost a decade ago. Since our last visit the showroom has changed a little and had acquired some new things to exhibit.





Being there feels very invigorating and inspiring, it's like a vortex of inspiration that is consuming you entirely and you have to, absolutely have to come out with a mind full of new ideas for exciting knitwear design! Habu textiles provides you with a very tactile experience.



We saw some new linen paper experiments dyed in indigo, which you can see above, the shades are absolutely intriguing! This yarn is not going to be carried in their regular line though.



And if you rememberthis linen, we have learnt that now it is being produced in various fantastic colors! Just look at the basket above.

Takako explained, that she has brought a lot of new yarns in and going to introduce them at TNNA in Long Beach in January 2010. But some of them are already available in the showroom. Visiting the showroom is worth it if you are in NYC, just to look through the baskets on the floor that quite often contain amazing bargains! Making a choice is what usually would take most of your time along with fondling the silk and other exotics!



But don't be discouraged if you haven't seen what you absolute have to have, you probably simply haven't found it yet. I realized that getting a yarn catalog is a great way to learn about yarns and inspect them under different lighting. You may also want to grab a couple of bargain mystery bags that contain various yarn, so you can swatch and pair up together to get the texture you like.

Concept of this yarn line is exploration. It needs to be swatched and handled, washed and pondered over. Then it would "speak" to a knitter what it wants to become!

Lace Textured Shawl - Habu Textile A-1B Kakishibu Tsumugi Silk

Pattern: Lace Textured Shawl
Fiber: Habu A-1B Kakishibu Tsumugi Silk
Colour: 52 - 4 balls

This Shawl started during Summer Solstice as I took part in the observation of Candle Night. I had wanted to be able to take it in my bag for a brainless project during a convention, but it grew to much those first couple of nights and ended up on the back burner.

This pattern began is't life as a textured shawl recipe shawl, but it took on a life of its own. I had just finished a textured shawl recipe shawl in indigo hand spun and wanted something a little lacier. So I started to throw in random faggot stitches. The pattern is made up of a combination on 8 lace patterns and stockinet rows in decreases row counts.

This was the first time I had used the Habu A-1B Kakishibu Tsumugi Silk and I absolutely love the fiber. I used two strands of the yarn held together, but due to the fineness of the yarn it still achieve a lacey appearance. The yarn is rather stiff when blocked and does seem to bleed out a lot of dye when soaked. I will be interested to see if it gets softer with use this fall.

:: in Love with Stainless Steel ::

Just the other day I have noticed on kpixie website the arrival of new Habu Textiles A-20/21 Silk wrapped stainless steel yarn in amazing new colors! Check them out yourself and think what a great range is given now!

I want to share today my favorite jacket, that took me less time to knit on small needle than to sew, but the result!!! It is stunning, it took 2 colors of A-20/21 : lavender and grey and every time someone asks me about it, they admire the fiber content, but yet are very stunned by amazing look.
This is Kit -24 in M size.





Fall in love with Habu Textiles all over again and though this jacket took me a while I am certainly planning out the colors on another one!

Fountain Pen Shawl

I was so happy to finally be able to use my Habu stash for something!

I combined Habu's Wool/Linen A-175, and Silk Mohair A-32B for the Fountain Pen Shawl.



Truth be told, I ran out of the A-175, and had to improvise. I think the mohair adds a nice ruffley edge.



What do you guys think?