I’ve always been a sucker for unusual (and weird) things and nowhere is it truer than with fibers. It comes as no surprise then, that Habu Textiles is my favorite website. There are items there that are found nowhere else. The site began as a brainchild of Takako Ueki.
When she was young, Takako learned to knit, crochet and weave. Then in her 20’s, she traveled the length and breadth of Japan for months looking for unique, hand-woven textiles. And she fell in love with the beautiful, translucent fibers from Okinawa. So, in 1999, she started her company Habu, named a snake indigenous to Okinawa. The Japanese characters for ha and bu mean “wavy fabric” which looks like the moving snake.
Habu is a boutique yarn company. The fibers sold there are made especially for Takako to her exacting specifications. Most of these fibers are sourced in Japan and made using ancient methods, by hand, occasionally laced with modern technology. There is no mass production here. Many of her fibers are offered in their natural color, but some come in many colors. For example, her silk wrapped stainless steel(!) comes in 18 hues. Recently, she has found an indigo dyer in the U.S. and now carries some of her fibers in pale and dark indigo, as well as some of the green shades of the dye.
Habu sells 293 different yarns. Of course, there are the usual suspects: cotton, bamboo, silk, linen, merino, cashmere and mohair. Most of them, however, have been made in a way you’ve not seen before. There are at least six different kinds of silk from the well-known smooth and shiny yarn to some very wild, very rare, very textural fibers. Some of the silks are degummed, some are wrapped by hand with more silk or with another fiber, and some are used as the wrappings over a different yarn. The cashmere and merino are so, so thin and airy that a shawl or garment from them is feather light. And most of the linen creations have been made into paper yarn. Habu has lots of skeins of paper. Some linen yarn is as thin as a human hair or a thread, while another linen offering is knitted into a flat tape, 4mm wide, ready for you to knit with. My favorite yarn is “tsumugi” which is silk wrapped silk. The inner core is about as thick as worsted weight wool; it is wrapped with very thin silk of a different color or tone. It almost shimmers.
The rest of her yarns are the outliers. Takako carries stainless steel to knit, crochet or weave with. You will find plain stainless steel and 18 shades of bombyx silk wrapped stainless and five shades of raw silk wrapped stainless, and one shade of merino wrapped stainless, and four shades of linen wrapped stainless. Other materials include ramie, kuzu, cypress, hemp, cumare, gewan and pineapple. Whew! Habu also has blends and novelty yarns. I’ll let you find those on your own at the website.
If you want a quick peek at just a few of Habu’s yarns, yarnatwebsters.com carries a small selection. Webster’s website also has lovely closeups of the fibers. Or you can look up Knit House on Main. In addition to the six Habu fibers that they sell, they have a much more detailed backstory about Takako and her company on their blog. If, however, you happen to find yourself stuck inside because it’s a wee bit too hot outside, find a comfy spot, kick back, and access the motherlode at habutextiles.com. Take your time, occasionally looking at Takako’s descriptions; some are straightforward, others read like little haiku phrases. A glass of wine is an acceptable accompaniment.
KnitWits. Come join us. We meet in the Arts and Crafts room #4 in HOA-1 on Wednesday mornings from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. We talk, we laugh, we create.
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