Kit 70 - Completed

Since it was a gift, it was important for me to "get it right"...

That meant following the pattern's suggestion on gauge, measurement and fit...

Did the Habu Kit-70 redeem my faith in knitting or knitting patterns?

Well, it is what it is...

Airy - A sweater that's light as a feather, knit on fine gauge yarn and large needles:



Fragile - An extra effort needed to avoid catching the sweater on sharp objects and being cautious about pulling on buttons/stretching button holes:


Minimal - A sweater with clean lines, simple shaping and construction.

And in keeping with the minimalist styling of the pattern, I took it a step further...

Stockinette - Decided to make the public side of the garment in stockinette stitch instead of reverse stockinette (smoother appearance - less 'bumpy'):




Hidden Seams - Employed mattress stitch for the arms/shoulders/neck, invisible horizontal seam for the sides and grafted the collar pieces together:




Improvements - More minimalism:

If I were to make this sweater for myself, I would make it even more minimal by changing the closures, attaching some hidden metal or magnetic snaps.

While I'm on that tangent, is there such a thing as magnetic yarn? I suppose you could get some metallic yarn and 'charge' it with a magnet. If it actually worked, you could hold the magnetized yarn with the main yarn where needed, resulting in a very minimal and invisible closure.

Fabric - Denser:

Fine gauge yarn is perfect for this pattern, only it needs to be knit on a more 'appropriate' needle size. Next time, I would probably choose a DK weight yarn and knit it on size 4-6 US needle. This would give the garment more strength and 'memory' that is lacking.

As noted on my previous post, I used US size 8 needles and got the corrected/suggested gauge of 16 stitches & 25 rows per 4 inches of stockinette fabric.

It would also be cool to incorporate some of the Habu stainless steel yarn into both the collar and plackets. That way, those pieces would hold their shape 'vertically' when unbuttoned or left open.

Sizing - Larger:

All the panels were knit and shaped to the specifications of the pattern, but the sweater came out more form fitting than what Habu's photo represented (the photo makes the sweater look more 'over-sized' and 'roomy' than it really is).

I like the oversized jacket 'concept' better and would resize the garment accordingly (more positive ease - additional length/width/larger arms/broader to fit my shoulders).

Japanese Efficiency - Kit-70 New Gauge

Hi Everyone!

Just to let you know, this is my very first time posting on the KAL.

I've visited the group before, but didn't have anything to contribute until now :)

I purchased my Kit-70 last year, but didn't get started on it until this week. It was actually supposed to be a Christmas present for my Aunt in London, but now it will have to be a birthday present instead (I'm kind of a slow knitter and have been sidetracked by other projects).

Once I reviewed the instructions, I found that I really loved the style and efficient 'beauty' of Japanese knitting patterns and the use of numeric 'sequences' to guide the knitter.

Since those numeric sequences were so different than what I'm used to working with, I decided to 'map out' the whole thing in Excel (I love my spreadsheets, plus Kirsten and a few other knitter's kept mentioning the irregularities in this pattern and I was scared to jump right in).

After inputting everything for the sweater's back panel, I zoomed out and noticed how wide it looked...

It was alarming!

Somehow, the shape was horizontally 'skewed', as if it were stretched lengthwise:

Since something was visibly wrong, I double checked the Habu schematic. All the measurements looked good and the illustration was drawn like it was supposed to fit a 'normal' adult human (not an orangutan with really long arms that drag on the ground).

Then, I decided to break out the calculator and dig deeper...

The instructions note that you should get a row gauge of:
18 rows = 4" (4.5 rpi - rows per inch)

On the schematic, they want you to achieve the following measurements WITH that gauge:
162 Rows = 26" (6.24 rpi)
100 Rows = 16" (6.25 rpi)
140 Rows = 22.4" (6.25 rpi)

Does anyone else see a conflict here?

It seems like the only way to get those measurements is to use a row gauge of 6.25 rpi or 25 rows per 4", making the correct gauge for this pattern 25 rows and 16 stitches per 4" square.

Here's what it looks like with the row gauge corrected:

At least now, I feel more confident casting on.

Hopefully, this is the only bug in the pattern?

time to swatch

A few years ago I went to New York and was lucky enough to visit Habu headquarters. It was very exciting and I bought a few items. All the scarf kits have been worked up and given away as gifts, the funky lunch bag turned into a hat and some of the cottons became swatches but not finished objects. In honor of this new blog I think it's time to finally get to work on this fascinating linen (#N-3). It's dry like straw and I have 850 yards...can't wait to begin experimenting but maybe somebody has a good idea for a project too.

Habu is peace.