kitty: habu kit-6 poly tobi scarf

	It is no secrete that I am obsessed with habu kits. When this one came up on ebay I decided to place a low bid just to try it. I figured it would work for a gift for someone at some point. I was kind of surprised that I picked it up for $3.50. It is a simple crochet project that can be done in a night. The A-29 is hard to pull through the loops when you go to add on the next strip. So there are a few loops that I am not happy with, but there is no ripping out without major shedding. On a side note: I just read on the Habu website that there prices are going up at the end of the month due to the exchange rate. So if you had been waiting time to go ahead and purchase it at a cheaper price.
Habu item #: Kit-6 poly tobi scarf content: colors of A-29 - 9 Green colors of A-27 - 7 Black price: $3.50 Manufacturer: Habu Textiles

kitty: friends don't let friends knit the habu knit felt shawl

item #: Knit Felt Shawl - Kit 73 Pattern: Setsuko Torii finished size: 120 inches * 30 inches Habu Stainless A-20/21 1/20 Habu Super Fine Merino A-177 Wow, it is finally finished. After a year to the day I cast of probably the most boring project that I have ever tried to knit. Although I am truly in love with the end project, I would not suggest this knit to anyone! Though the reality of the situation after having a long conversation with MG, is that I do have an expectation of how long it should take me to knit a project so that is a lot of the problem. Knowing my knitting speed I expect a project to take no longer than a month if I put my mind to it. Well the combination of the hair like steel and merino caused that month to only equal about 15inches. So the duration of the project has seemed to last for what seemed like a life time. I apologies to all my knitting friends who have listened to me cry, whine, and complain about this project. Thanks for listening and keeping to knitting this. Now the question: To felt or not?

OH... and M bought me a new camera for our 14th anniversary of our first date. It was a total and complete surprise. So half of the photos above were taken with the aid of a mirror and the rest were taken by M with my new camera.

kitty: happy ridges

2 strands of lace weight Cashmere/ Merino from Colourmart Needles 3.5mm The other night my hands were itching for a new project, but I couldn't find the right gauge for any of the sweaters I wanted to knit. So I just sat down with a yarn I wanted to knit worked up a swatch, did my math, and started knitting from the bottom up. I am not sure I even have enough yarn to make a vest, but currently it is bringing me a lot of happiness.

The yarn still has machine oil and will bloom after washing.

On the Kusha Shawl Kit front item #: Kusha Shawl (Kit 73) content: Silk & Stainless Steel& Merino I am finally after 8 months up to 82 inches, just another 1.5 cones of orange merino left.

kitty: as the olympics draw to an end... I leave you with socks for T

item #: Vegetarian Socks for T content: Green Corn - 95% Corn Husk, 5% Vegetarian Elastic (Vegetable Dye) price: $28.00 Manufacturer: Iowa State County Extension Office Size: 8 Narrow These sock are kind of odd. The yarn is very loosely spun. If you had to rip the yarn, it pretty much was useless afterwards. It came in two little balls and I ended up with about 3 feet extra. I was really terrified I was going to run out. It is interesting that they were made from the waste of the corn industry, just the husk and cobs. I thought they would make great gym socks since they are pretty padded. These socks are off to T (Mia's niece), but they are very special MG helped me with the ribbing on the first one. So they are truly a gift from Knitbuddies.

And as the Olympics end, I leave you with synchronized begging. Audrey and Kattie will be sad to see the olympics have end. Because the Taiwanese feast of food is coming to an end as we fixed British tea and fruit crumpets to bring in the thoughts of 2012. GOD SAVE THE QUEEN!!!!

There are many things that I will remember about the Olympics, most of which are not positive. M's post pretty much summed up my feelings. So I will leave it to him to post this time.

kitty: Jumping on the Chinese Tunic (Habu Kit 89) Bandwagon

MG reminded me the other day that I have been really quiet on the blog for awhile. Then I got to thinking where has this month gone..... It seems that so much has happened this past month; client mergers, travel, more work than anyone should try to accomplish, really sad news from loved ones and friends, and some good as well. So sorry to be so quiet. Hope everyone had a wonderful Memorial Day. I did finally get to take some time off over the weekend mainly to just hide from being an adult with that R word looming. So what has been going on in craft world on my end:

tem #: Kit-89 Habu Chinese Tunic content: 2 strands of A-60 in Red and Charcoal time: pretty fast knit Negative: This is the first time that I have purchased yarn from Habu and it was full of knots of broken threads. There were so many I didn't want to count.

The Estonian Cast on edge really reminds me of the paper loops you make as a kid for a toy necklace. The best thing about it though with three rows of moss stitch it created a flat professional edge.

11 Buttons from Olga with crochets button holes

Though the one question that I really had while knitting the pattern is whether a 1 thread raised stitch would have worked better than a slipped stitch with the way that I knit.

One Thread Raised Stitch - dropping one stitch down three rows and picking it up purl wise Slipped Stitch ( Slipped Stitch No. 1) - slipping the stitch purl wise & then wrapping around the stitch to the back on each row each row following

When I first started the sweater I talked with Olga to see if I was missing something with the way that I was doing my stitches. The close up of her stitches , click here appeared more like a honeycomb while mine looked a lot less polished.

kitty: Habu Kit-25 summer multi color cardigan

item #: Kit-25 summer multi color cardigan content: #: 5 strands - 100% cotton time: 4 days Over the last couple of months, I have really been feeling overwhelmed by my stash and the thoughts of MS&W frankly worry me. (Oh... By the way I am going.) In November I had great plans to weed out the piles by May. Ummm.... I don't think I am going to make it. Especially considering I have enough work to do that I literally am starting to not be able to see strait. Though that has been the case for the last 5 months. I even packed up my knitting for awhile so it wasn't a distraction for deadlines. So given that, I decided to look at the oldest things at least in my pile. This kit has been setting there for probably 3 or so years. Something about it just didn't sit right about it when I bought it. I didn't really know what, but it was on sale and it was Habu so I didn't care. After knitting it, I can not say my opinions improved. Though I think it has to do with the open stitches. Knitting 5 strands on US 15 of thin cotton I guess kind of looks sloppy to me. I was dangerously close to running out of yarn, so I actually shortened the sleeves slightly so that I could knit the collar. This one is going to have to sit awhile though. It may get frogged.

Close up of the hem detail

kitty: Paper Yarn & my new KIT-27A "shippo" paper and silk stainless steel jacket

item #: KIT-27A "shippo" paper and silk stainless steel jacket content: #: A-60 "shosenshi" paper - Habu and Habu silk stainless time: 1wk price: original kit off ebay $36.00 though I used khaki yarn instead I have to say that I absolutely love my new Shippo tail jacket. It still needs buttons which I am having a lot of problems find ones that will work. So I ordered the ones that Habu showed with the kit. Especially since they were only 17Cents a piece. I did made two changes to the jackets. I changed the arms eye and increased the cap on the sleeve to give my shoulders a little more room and I didn't make as sharp a tail in the front. I wanted to move it away from my hips.

So you can see the front and the back of the tails. :)

We all know that I have been obsessed with paper yarns and paper clothing as of late, so I just thought I would pass on some of the resources that I have found for paper yarns. I haven't tried to order from any of them. Though I do have some linen in my stash from Borgs Vavgarner that I purchased from a weaving store that went out of business. Paper Yarn Art Van Go Borgs Vavgarner AB Oji Fiber PaperShed C/o Fibercrafts Semac SAS Somic Pic Welcome Trade Company - South Korea

kitty: habu kit #110L

item #: KIT-110L Mohair Pullover content: Silk & Mohair Habu Tsumugi Silk Combination A-110 1/0.9 and Habu Kid Mohair N-52 1/20

Woho... It is finally finished. I like the final product, but it certainly had its problem. This is the second version of the sweater and it is still aspects that are kind of awkward. I have to wonder if the pattern was test knit in a Large. The sleeves were actually suppose to be 12 rows longer than they appear here. Also the length from the underarm to neck along the raglan was way to long. So I had to suddenly increase the decreases rather rapidly when I hit the shoulders or it would have probably hit my waist. The sweater though is so amazingly airy and warm. I love the photo of the sleeve so you can see the snow and my hand. But my final version certainly looks different from the standard pattern and the sample at the trunk show.

kitty: you know your project is in trouble when...

You actually calculated how many rows you have left and how many rows you need to do each night to finish by the beginning of April. (5 rows a night until April 4th) You contemplate the cost of a fine gauge knitting machine. You contemplate how much it would cost to pay someone else to finish knitting your shawl. You really wonder if you have the perseverance to finish the project or should you just rip the project after 22 inches. When I first saw Setsuko Torii Anniversary book there were two projects that I knew I had to knit, the Kusha Shawl (Kit 73) and the Patchwork Shirt. I had lost my Kusha scarf last year when I was in China. So I knew that the shawl would be a wonderful replacement, but I also knew that I didn't really enjoy knitting the first scarf. I fear that boredom has only been magnified 10 folds with the shawl and it may be the death of this project. So when things get really bad I do have two inspirations that are keeping me going, Isel Knits and Iomester / Paloma. I must admit that I copied the colours that Isel did in hers, since I thought it was so beautiful.

kitty: habu kit #5

item #: KIT-5 fringe ribbon choker content: acetate & polyester price: $18.00 dimension: approx. 32" long x 3" wide time: Like the instructions said only about 15 minutes. Now if you didn't like it in the burgandy, here is the same kit in the white. I still can not believe the textures in the yarn.. close up - 1 - 2

kitty: habu kit #5

item #: KIT-5 fringe ribbon choker content: acetate & polyester price: $18.00 dimension: approx. 32" long x 3" wide time: Like the instructions said only about 15 minutes. Once I realized that you couldn’t just split the yarn in half you have to have the second side much longer than the first for the red. Yes, I am weak. I see a small Habu kit and I have to add it to my special Habu stash bin. The textures, colours, fibers, call my name and my credit card suddenly appears. It is really kind of funny there are very few things in life that really motivate me to such a sudden purchase as Habu yarns or bring as much pleasure. One tiny hank that I really have no idea what to use it for is suddenly ok. I picked the kit up from Kpixie a while ago during one of their Habu kit updates. It saddens me that they haven't updated their Habu collections in a while. It seemed like it sold well, the kits were always gone soon after they were posted. I am glad I picked up the kit, because I seriously doubt I would have ever picked up either yarns. They were both really fun to work with though. I could definitely see wearing it under the collar of a dress shirt for those boring business meetings that I seem to be getting forced into a lot lately. Habu Love to the rescue of yet another long meeting.

kitty: this kitty loves habu/avril

Wow, I just looked at the lack of posting as of late. I guess what MG always says is true; I am a fair weather craft blogger. If the project I am working on is going well I freely post. If the project I am working on sucks eggs you don't hear a peep out of me. Guess I just don't want to b**ch about how bad it is turning out or how the translation sucks. As mom use to say, "If you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all." The Phildar cardigan that I posted about back in October is done except for the buttons. So all I can say is that it is done. Maybe some harsh blocking will improve the finished product, but I don't have high hopes. So on to the positive post of what I am working on. After Felicia, from Sweet Georgia posted about her trip to AVRIL I knew I had to dig up a Habu kit to knit out of my stash. As you probably know I have a great weakness for Habu yarn store in NYC, so the thoughts of AVRIL just makes me gitty. The funny thing was that I hadn't put two and two together that AVRIL was the supplier for HABU. I stumbled across AVRIL when I was surfing Amazon JP and found Setsuko Torii book that was released in September. It has been waiting on my wish list until there is more I want to order from JP.

Photo from Habu Site The Specs: Pattern: item #: Kit-78 "Kusha Kusha" silk stainless steel & merino knit felt scarf Yarn: super fine merino wool in 28 Bordeaux & silk stainless steel Time: still in progress Cost: $24.00

The transfer line from yarn A & B to just B.

Kitty: I'm hot :(

Sorry there isn't a lot of knitting news to report. I just haven't felt like knitting or doing much of anything the last couple of days.

It's hot, humid, hazy, and the barometric pressure is all screwed up. I don't think I have been without a migraine or on the verge of a migraine for more than a week and a half. I spent most of my weekend in bed only wishing that I could get the room cooler and wishing my head would stop hurting. Could someone turn off mother nature for a day or two. It really makes you think about how much we are screwing up our environment.

I mean I hated the weather as a kid even though I spent most of my HS life researching the effects of sunspots on our weather. I would live my summers in the basement that was half underground trying to stay as cool as possible. But it just seems in recent years the weather has gotten so much worse.

I did finish up the habu textile scarf last night. It really is pretty cool. I wish the texture would remain like it is when it is wet. Unfortunately it is a lot bigger than my blocking board. I had to turn the corners and overlap it somewhat to get it to lay down flat. The instruction tell you to mush up the scarf like you would for a rice ball, but I wasn't happy with out uneven the end tail ended up to be so I decided to block it flat.

We will see what happens. :) Well I am off to cook something cool to eat.