Fiberfiend is currently blogging on her attempt to knit an almost authentic Bohus sweater.

Monday, May 31, 2010


Starting over may have been a storm cloud with a silver lining; a chance to do a better job the second time around.

I knit the neckband to be doubled; ribbed on one side, stockinette at a small gauge on the other, with a turning purl row to separate the two. Liked the stockinette so much more than the rib that I plan to use the stockinette as the public side. (Funny thing, though; cast on correct number of stitches per pattern, knit at pattern gauge, and the neckband looks sort of big....)

Changing the colorwork sequence was a plus as well; too much green my first attempt, even though I tried to match the original. This time the colors seem more harmonious, and the pattern more discernable. The yoke, now knit on size 3 needles, is still a little smaller gauge than called for; just shy of 10 stitches to the inch (pattern calls for about 8.5). Any looser, though, and the fabric would be too loose; in fact, I'd like it a little firmer (but down that road lies madness.....). I'll knit the larger size yoke and adjust the body for the fit I want.

As I knit the yoke (for the second time!) I'm amazed at the genius that conceived of this pattern. The Bohus designers, most notably Karin Ivarsson who designed The Yellow Lace Collar and The Swan; Kerstin Olsson, designer of The Wild Apple, The Egg, and The Mist series; and Anna-Lisa Lunn of the famous Blue Shimmer, were amazingly creative. Using Fair Isle as a basis for many of these designs, the artists managed to raise them beyond Craft to Fine Art using purl stitches to add textures and depth that Fair Isle alone does not produce. This may be the most beautiful yoked sweater I have ever knit. And that, of course, is what makes the Bohus experience so elevating; connecting to the remarkable and unrelenting pursuit of artistic excellence.

Friday, May 28, 2010

New Beginnings


Thirty hours of knitting reduced to 10 balls of yarn in 40 minutes. Sigh.

At least I'll have the chance to rework the color pattern.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Gauge Swatch Lied!


For many years I knit without swatching first; I have a closet full of tops and sweaters that don't fit me (or any normal shaped person) to prove it. So I eventually learned the lesson, and swatch religously.

For my Bohus, I swatched not only the colorwork pattern but the stockinette body as well. Since I prefer a very small knit neckband, I swatched that, too. The pattern suggests size 0 needles for the ribbing and size 1.5 needles for the body. I'm a loose knitter, and found I got gauge of 8.5 stitches per inch with size 00 in stockinette and size 0 in colorwork. And that's what I used to knit the neckband and yoke.

For five days I knit. I knit and I knit and I knit. Hundreds upon hundreds of stitches. When I didn't like the dark color I had picked for the next-to-final-section, I ripped out three rows of 388 stitches each and knit them over with another color. I knit the entire yoke before checking gauge again. Though I thought it looked a little tight, I kept referring to the pattern which says "yoke will have only a slight slope" so I thought I was OK. I knit all 72 rounds of the yoke, averaging 300 stitches each, for a total of 216,000 stitches. That's almost a quarter million stitches. (OK, it's closer to a fifth of a million stitches, but that doesn't sound the same, does it?)

I was, therefore, absolutely dumbfounded to find that my gauge was off. And not by just a little; the pattern called for (and my swatch measured) 33 stitches over 4 inches. When done, my yoke measured almost 64 stitches over the same 4 inches. Twice the stitches per inch!

Aaaaaaargh!!!!!!!!!

So, with a heavy heart, I will have to start over. I will have to rip out 72 rows of angora knitting, in 11 different colors, and re-knit a quarter of a million stitches.

There's not enough chocolate in the world to console me.

False Start


I joined the Colourmart Lovers group contest on Ravelry so I could finally justify my desire to knit a "knock off" of the Bohus classic "Yellow Lace Collar". The "contest", such as it is, runs for two months, from May 20 to July 20. I'll knit the original pattern, with the original gauge, but with alternate yarn. Body will be alpaca (from Colourmart; that's the contest, to use Colourmart yarn), the yoke will be angora blend yarn, some of it hand dyed by me. Colors will be as close as I can get to original, but won't be authentic. If it turns out well I'll move to an authentic kit for my next project.

Swatched both stockinette and fair isle with many needles; I will need to knit ribbing on size 000 needle, the yoke on size 0, and the body on 00.

Before the contest officially started, I tried a tubular cast on for the neck, but didn't like how it looked. I really don't want a fold over collar, so I guess I'll just do a long tail cast on and go from there. This will be a cardi knit in the round and steeked, then cut and button bands added.

Cast on noon, May 20, 2010, while in the car on the looooong drive from Minneapolis to Grand Forks to visit the kids..... And knit and knit and knit during the five days we were there.

I knit a fair bit of the yoke and was surprised to find how much harder it is to knit two handed colorwork when there are purls involved! I've been doing two handed fair isle for many years, and have a real rhythm for it, but when a row has 3 colors AND purls, the rhythm is lost. It's lovely, but pretty slow going.

Three days into the project I finished the reached a part of the yoke where the darkest of my colors gets knit in. After three rows of the dark color with light spots added I decided I didn't like it. Colors were just too strong for a Bohus. So I'll have to pull out those three rows of almost 400 stitches each, in sticky angora, and change colors.

Bohus Musings




I've always wanted to knit a Bohus sweater. I've been dreaming about it for the past four or five years, always giving in to my anxieties and putting it off. Bohus sweaters are incredibly beautiful, incredibly complex and not for the faint hearted. The knitting requires real skill, and though I've long thought of myself as a better-than-average knitter, there is a mystique surrounding Bohus that kept me at arms length.

There are many reasons for the mystique; the "true" Bohus (as opposed to anything close-but-not-authentic) is usually a yoked pullover or cardigan 1) knit at 33 stitches to 4 inches, 2) in stranded color work and in 3) angora yarn. Any one of the above is reason enough to take pause.

I've been doing two handed stranded colorwork for years, and think I'm pretty good at it. The thing about Bohus patterns is that there are often more than 2 colors worked in any one row; some of the patterns have as many as five! I can manage two, probably even 3 colors at a time. Picking the right pattern (meaning to say one with not more than 3 colors in any row) would be key.

Then there's the fact that I'm a loose knitter, and have to knit on needles 2 sizes smaller than called for in most patterns to get gauge. And 33 stitches over 4 inches is a lot of stitches. A lot of stitches. So a Bohus is not a quick knit project. Especially when you consider that I'd need to knit on size 0, 00 or 000 needles. Not particularly good for my increasingly arthritic hands and wrists.

Angora yarn, like mohair, is notoriously finicky. When knitting with angora I find fuzz flies everywhere; my nose and eyes get red and watery from inhaling the flying fuzz, and tinking a mistake in angora is an exercise in frustration.

Bohus kits, only available from one dedicated dyer in Sweden, are expensive. Deciding to blow upwards of $200 on a sweater that I still have to knit myself is no small consideration.

But the history! Knitting a Bohus sweater is a tribute to the women who made them famous; their tenacity, their skill and their pride become a part of any knitter who successfully completes a Bohus of her own.

Most of us know about Bohus sweaters thanks to Susanna Hansson. I took Susanna's class at Stitches South two years back, and my desire to knit one of these most remarkable sweaters has been growing ever since. Before attempting to knit an "authentic" Bohus from one of Solveig Gustafson's kits, I purchased the book Poems of Color by Wendy Keele. It has many of the most popular Bohus patterns, but at a larger gauge (7 stitches to the inch instead of 8.5. Like that's a big enough difference to make it easier......) Then I started searching for acceptable substitute yarns; the "authentic" Bohus yarn is only available in the kits. I came to know that there are a lot of angora yarns out there, but very few meet the exacting criteria of percentage of angora to wool, and are the correct weight. I purchased every type of angora yarn I could find; my collection now numbers almost 20 balls, each in a different color! (Didn't consider buying each brand in white; dunno why not.) I did finally find a vendor on eBay who had the perfect yarn in a variety of colors. Purchase almost a dozen skeins, many in white, figuring I could always dye my own.

For months I've been reading everything Bohus I could get my hands on. I have the pamphlets, the books, seen the video, took the class on knitting wristlets. Even managed to get my hands on several kits (one is my second favorite, the Green Meadow, but it isn't knit in angora....) and patterns. My heart is set on the Yellow Lace Collar cardigan, a variation on the Rose Lace Collar, a stunning piece of knitting art.

When the Colourmart Lovers group on Ravelry started a contest for May and June 2010, I decided it was now or never. So I am about to embark on a Great Knitting Adventure:

Yellow Lace Bohus, here I come!