The new ITO spring collection 2017 has arrived!

There are two new special additions to the ITO assortment: ITO Zome Gima and ITO Mizu.
Both yarns follow the Japanese aesthetic of wabi-sabi and are quite unusual for western knitters for sure.

“Wabi-Sabi describes the beauty of things that are incomplete, imperfect and fleeting. It depicts the beauty of modest and plain things, the beauty of unconventional things.”

ITO Zome Gima is a flat yarn like ITO Gima 8.5, but a bit wider with a yardage of 125 m/136 yds for 25 g. The raw white yarn is mechanical imprinted in an elaborate process: centimeter for centimeter is stamped irregularly with 2 colors with different intensity. Every ball is different due to the printing technology. The colors can be considerably lighter or darker and the color intensity varies severely. People, shaped by Western perception, who link perfection with consistency, can rate that diversity as flawed. But exactly this wabi-sabi-character makes the yarn exciting and unique.

ITO Mizu is an untwisted cotton yarn that is dyed in the same dye house as ITO Zome Gima. The strand absorbs the color only superficial while running through the dye bath. The color is fixated just slightly afterwards. While knitting, the color already breaks open and the raw white cotton strand becomes visible. The yarn is unconventional through and through and therefore it takes some time getting used to for many knitters: 1. it has a bias. You should only use well balanced knit-purl stitch patterns (garter, rib, moss) for straight pieces; 2. the yarn slightly stains while knitting and bleeds a little during washing. The color gets a used look afterwards.

Aqua and Moss are two of the most popular colors in the ITO assortment. They are now available for ITO Wagami as well. There are three new popping colors for ITOs most popular paper yarn ITO Washi: Chili Pepper, Pale Blush and Lime.

The yarns are available at your ITO stockists as of now.