Saturday, March 09, 2013

Kusha Kushlette

The Kusha Kusha scarf was finished just in time for my friend's birthday. 

kusha kusha modelled

It's an interesting scarf from Habu Textiles that is knit with a stainless silk yarn throughout, combined with a lace weight merino.  The stainless silk makes this sculptural - you can pull and stretch this to a desired form.  You can see below that I added some little scallops along the edge by simply pulling gently on the edge of the scarf about an inch apart.

kusha kusha detail

For the first portion of the scarf you knit with the stainless and merino at the same time.  Once finished you gently hand felt this section to make the merino bloom. 

Here's where my scarf went a little awry:
When you have finished knitting the scarf it is a good 62" inches long, which seems a bit much, except with any felting you expect shrinkage.  I followed the directions and hand felted the scarf, but the merino just didn't seem to bloom as much as I'd hoped.  So the following morning (day of gifting) I hand felted again and left it to dry.  Hmm still not blooming much; it just wasn't looking the way I'd hoped.  So I figured that quick 5 minute spin in the dryer should help remove the last bit of moisture, and felt it a little more. Hmm yeah, felt it did:  The kusha kusha scarf shrank down considerably! 
Yes, I know better.  But the impatient me isn't very smart.

On a positive note, the felted portion looks exactly as I'd hoped. 
However it is now a little Kusha Kusha scarflette! :o)))

kusha kusha scarf

My dear sweet friend is truly gracious and has even worn this scarf to work.  But we did agree that it's big sister would follow at a later date ;o)

Hope you are having a lovely weekend,
Sam xxx



4 comments:

Andi said...

I swear I keep coming back to drool over this beautiful scarf. I love it!

jody said...

i know you're unhappy with the size, but it's beautiful - and a great pic of you!

Unknown said...

What an interesting concept. I admit, I do not follow Habu stuff, too out there for me. LOL. This piece is very pretty.

Stefanie said...

It is an interesting scarf with neat texture. You look cute in it.