Japanese Style Part I - Yarn

I was going to write a post about my last weekend with my sister and her family before they headed back to Japan. But I got distracted when the postman slipped a little grey card through my letterbox. It was one of those good news/bad news moments.

The good news: my Habu had arrived at long last. I have been lusting after some of their yarn ever since I read a review of their cashmere in Knitter's Review. The bad news: Customs & Excise and the post office between them were "taxing" me another 50% of the purchase value... Grrr. I didn't want to buy it from the US, as I knew I was likely to be clobbered by C&E. I had searched all over the Internet for UK retailers - there are perhaps two, and neither sold what I particularly wanted to buy for my first exposure to this unique company's yarn.

I checked Habu, and saw that they would be putting in an appearance in London in October. I told myself to wait, at least then I would be able to touch the stuff before I bought it. I began to exercise a level of restraint previously unheard of in my lifetime, and then one day I innocently wandered over to Coloursknits and read her post from 31-Jul-07. Oooh boy, oh boy, oh boy... Let's just say that from Vanessa's blog, somehow or other with no conscious thought on my part, and entirely on their own, my fingers typed out Naturesong Yarn. Click, click, click and 15 days later, I received this... Kakishibu Tsumugi Silk A-1B 2/17 (100% silk) in #52 Bengara.

And this... Silk Mohair Kusa A-32B 1/12 (60% mohair and 40% silk) in #26 Madder. I can't begin to tell you how beautiful these yarns are... The colours are so subtle, so natural, so restrained. I can't imagine that I will get anything other than the most elegant article made from this.

I am hoping for many new experiences with these yarns, not least of which is trying the Shibori felting technique.