Starting Kusha Kusha

One of the good things about finishing up a couple of projects is giving yourself permission to start something new.  Okay, I know that I have more things that need finishing and I will get to them.  But, I couldn't resist starting the Kusha Kusha scarf from Habu Textiles.  For this I shopped my stash.  I bought the kit at A Knitted Peace during a trunk show several years ago.  I'm making this for a very nice lady that has been in my corner for very many years.  It's a small way of saying Thank You.

When I took this picture I only had about 20% finished.  I'm now up to 60% and I expect that it'll be done within a few days, especially with a long weekend coming up here in Alberta.

The yarn is very unusual, as are many of Habu's yarns:  two strands as thin as thread are held together.  One strand is merino wool in a rich chocolate brown color and the other is 69% silk/ 31% stainless steel in black.  I kid you not.  Stainless Steel.  It's been a joy to knit with and not at all difficult like you might think.  The only part that took a little getting used to was knitting such fine yarn on 5.0 mm/US #8 needles.  Using non-slippery wooden needles made it possible to knit and keep my sanity.

At the other end of the scarf is a section using only the silk/stainless steel yarn, discontinuing with the merino.  When the knitting is done the scarf is washed and the wool will felt slightly.  The stainless steel allows the wearer to scrunch the scarf into a bit of shaping.

The kit for this scarf (#78) has been discontinued but the yarn is still available.  There is an English version of the pattern on the Purl Bee website.  I'll be giving this scarf away but I'm pretty sure I'll make another one day for myself.  I might even have some of the yarn in my stash!

By the way, if you're anywhere near Littleton, CO on the weekend of September 28th and 29th why not drop into A Knitted Peace?  They are having a Habu trunk show and classes and the owner of the company will be there.  This also happens to be during the Yarn Along The Rockies yarn crawl.  I'll be there for the previous weekend.