:: 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!

kit 24 - stainless steel jacket

habu kit 24, stainless steel/silk jacket

recently completed jacket in delicious midnight blue, totally perfect for layering.

this was a planned long-term project for me. i wanted something light and large to knit over the australian summer months (the thought of heavy, warm wool on my lap for extended periods is not desirous in 40 degree heat...).

i found the pattern simple and straightforward (aside from the incorrect row count on the front piece).

materials: 1 yarn black ss thread, 1 yarn navy ss thread.

as this is an open weave mesh, i spent considerable time stitching the pieces together to achieve an even and consistent seam which will be visible though the garment.

my biggest issue: to add the buttons or use a brooch instead... at this point, i am wearing it with the brooch with the intention of putting the buttons on in winter to then wear the collar up as designed. maybe next time i will knit it with a round neck and no collar for a brooch...

and my copy of this arrived in the mail yesterday. hmm. the list is getting longer.

to kusha

after much lurking and drooling over alison's sensual descriptions and photos, i succumbed and took my first habu plunge with the kusha kusha scarf kit 78 (black ss thread and charcoal merino colour combination).

when the threads arrived, i was thinking i had perhaps taken on more than i could handle! i called my mother over to help me get started as it had been some 15 years since i had knitted...

considering my fears, i was amazed at how quickly the scarf grew and after one initial hiccup with my understanding of the pattern, i was hooked. (not literally.)

again, i wasn't feeling too confident with the felting aspect but after i found this blog and read some of the kit 78 posts, i just gave it a good rubbing and rolling on the drainer of my kitchen sink in hot soapy water. i didn't really work up the felting, i wanted to keep some of the open weave nature of the scarf whilst enhancing the merino thread.

end result: beautifully soft scarf that can be pinched and pulled into various forms giving a superb adaptability and textural quality. love it.

postscript: presently ordering kit 24. not bad for a novice!

Kushu Kushu Jacket Update

I posted about making Kit 75 the Kushu Kushu Jacket in mid July before leaving town for 5 weeks. Hoped to have all the pieces knit by now but not as much knitting happened as I had hoped.

Both sleeves are finished and felted though and the back is 2/3rds knit. On the left is a photo of the sleeve before felting. And on the right are the sleeves after felting and stretching them out. I've described the felting process at http://www.knitsane.squarespace.com/

Let me just say a bit about the stretching out process here. It's like blocking but using your fingers instead of pins and an iron. The knit pieces look quite misshapen when you pull them out of the wash but I put them on our table and just gently began tugging on the sleeve to get the shape I was after. It takes time but you just keep working at it. It's done when the sleeves are still wet and you just ease them into the shape you want. I'd tug a bit and then hold the sleeve up to my arm to see how it was fitting and then tug some more. The edges curl under quite a bit and you have to grab them and slowly stretch. The shapes are still wonky but I think it will be fine when sewn together and put on. If you have any questions about the process you can e-mail me at hannabirke AT gmail DOT com.

I highly recommend this kit.

Another Trip to Habu

So, all of the beautiful things I've been seeing on this blog and the Flickr page all became too much for me, and I had to make Veronique accompany me to the store for some enabling. That's what friends are for, right? I fully intended to get just one thing, a Kusha Kusha kit, which I had called about in advance so it would be ready when I got there:Black Stainless Steel and Terracotta Merino. I can't wait to get started on it!!!
But as usual, there were way too many things there that caught my eye. There was this lovely stuff:Now, I have used Habu's cashmere (2/26, I buy the single strand and hold it doubled, knit on size 1's) in the past, and it's one of those that doesn't feel soft at all till you wash it. And then, oh then, it is luscious. The perfect thing for soft little mittens and gloves....I'm thinking about this combo (the yellow-green is leftover from the Anemoi Mittens) for some very special fingerless gloves....
And then there was this!Bamboo (20/18) in Slate (color 4). Seriously, who could resist? Not I!
I got 5 skeins of it, which will hopefully be enough for a slim little cardi, we'll see. I had to cast on right away:and I am loving every minute of it.
Cross-posted at Yarnmonster.

COUNTING HABU

#24 : A20-2/22 : 3mm-80cm : 161 reduced x 44 : 1 - 154 : 80%

I could technically leave that as it is and continue on my merry way, but I'm sure I would leave behind a lot of confusion.
Numbers are clarity. Control. Legitimate definitions of conclusion. You cannot argue with numbers, and I find a lot of solice within the mathematical process of putting things together. Numbers make sense. Anyone who has read a Setsuko Torii pattern, and in turn japanese knit patterns, will know the entire knitting process is reduced down to numbers seperated by hyphens. Extraneous detail stripped. It makes for a very neat, legible, and for me - highly visual - way of pattern writing, and in turn, pattern recognition/materialisation. Allow the process to manufacture itself. I love that.

To Clarity:

Habu Kit 24 Silk Stainless Steel Jacket in 2 threads of black and navy silk wrapped stainless steel. Knit on 3mm needles, 80cm long, Addi Turbo Bamboo [switching to bamboo has made a huge difference to the statistical weighting of Speed:Fear Of Loosing Stitches ratio]. 161 stitches now reduced by 44 with clever shaping. Currently working on the 1st piece, the back, and now on row 154 which means I am approx. 80% complete on this section.

And enjoying that connection of intimacy I have with something for me, that I have wanted to make for years, made out of a product I love, and from a company and designer I have enormous respect for. That place where your head seeks ahead the next stitch:row:pattern:marking and you find fluidity and rhythm and everything begins a low hum of concurrence - a place of zoned participation hand:eye:heart. And now I just want the molten fibre to melt and drip from my needles - because that's exactly how it feels and photographs, as a molten metallic fabric.

[The original version of this post was posted on 6.5st August 2nd 2007. Different photos, and some additional ones have been added here].