Baby Steps

Before the summer of 2004 I was a relatively new knitter who'd never heard of Habu. That is, until I ran into an overwhelmingly interesting article on knitting with out-of-the-ordinary yarns, e.g., paper, stainless steel, and corn, in the Summer 04 issue of Interweave Knits magazine. I immediately fell in love with the idea of knitting with such unique fibers, but while it all sounded incredibly enthralling, back then I could barely get my run-of-the-mill wool stitches to behave, so I stored the intimidating magazine away, hoping to someday become a brave-enough knitter.

Three years later I still dream of making the bag that accompanies the Knitting Out of the Pantry article, especially now that the pattern no longer reads like a foreign language to me: Knot A Knitted Paper Bag (Setsuko Torii) A-1 Tsumugi Silk (100% silk; 455 yd [415 m]/50 g): #02 medium gray, about 3 oz (85 g). A-62 Paper Moire (50% linen, 50% nylon; 1080 yd [988 m]/1oz [28 g]): #05 mocha, #08 brown, and #06 charcoal, 2 oz (57 g) each. Yarn distributed by Habu Textiles.

In the meantime, I’ve started working on my first Habu project: a wonderfully sculptural piece that behaves as if it were alive, a.k.a. the Kusha Kusha scarf.


To say that I'm in love with the play of the silk stainless steel and merino wool used to make this scarf would be an offensive understatement. Yet, I am still a little nervous about the whole process…mainly because after seeing so many beautiful Kushas, I want mine to be just as stunning.


Nonetheless, my Kusha keeps growing. And as I get closer to the end, and start to worry about the felting process, Olga's words of wisdom have started to sink in: “It's OK! Every Kusha is unique. You are studying art; you of all people should know that we are all unique and that you are giving the thread, the fiber, YOUR mold.”

Ay, Olga. Where would my Kusha and I be without you?

Baby steps, people, baby steps.

Habu Haiku

Light gossamer strands
of architectural air
feel so substancial.

So, this is my first experience with Habu. I wasn't sure what to think of it at first. I'm doing a kinda-sorta-kusha kusha scarf using the silk stainless and extra fine merino. I plan to have a bit of the silk stainless by itself on both ends of the scarf, not just on one end the way the pattern suggests. The thread...er, yarn...was so fine that it took me awhile to adjust. Several stitches cascaded off the needle a few times, and it was a bit of a challenge to recover lost stitches. But once I got used to these fibers...wow! They're so fun! I keep wanting to play with the scarf instead of knitting on with it. And I know that once it's felted, it'll be even more irresistable.

This is obviously not going to be a warm scarf, which is good, since I've recently moved to a warmer climate. It'll be more of an early spring accessory, I think, so I chose springy colors. The silk stainless is #1, white, and the merino is #40, a grassy green.

SoKnitpicky