Gothic Window Bohus Sweater

In these pictures the yoke is a little over half done! Even though it's made on size 1 1/2 needles I'm loving every stitch! We'll see if that changes when I get to the body.

Bohus Stickning Exhibit

The walls of the American Swedish Institute are probably still echoing from all the excitement and enthusiasm of the opening weekend of the Bohus Stickning, Radiant Knits: An Enchanting Obsession exhibit. Bohus Stickning was a Swedish cottage industry started in the 1930's during the depression. To make some money, the women started knitting. At first it was socks and toy animals, but in order to do something more unique, the bohus sweaters were designed. It became a well run organization with the wife of the Governor of the Bohus Provence as the head and first designer. After the war the sweaters were well known and coveted garments, making their way to the US. With the advent of modern machine made garments the market and organization died out. In 1995 Wendy Keele wrote the book, Poems of Color, which awakened this tradition to the US and world.

No pictures could be taken in the Swedish Institute which was very hard! The sweaters were beautiful! Here is the back of a Bohus sweater worn by someone attending the exhibit.

Laura brought a sweater her mother owned.


Susan brought three Bohus sweaters she has made in the last year. The patterns and yarn are available from Sweden.

Solveig Gustafsson hand dyes the yarn exactly to match the original sweaters and sell kits with the patterns and yarn. The yarn is 50% merino and 50% angora. Solveig spoke over the weekend telling about her work. Other highlights of the weekend were a documentary film,"Bohus Knitting-from Relief Work to World Success" with the filmmaker present to talk about it. One of the designers of the sweaters in the 50's and 60's gave tours of the exhibit. To view the available kits and order one of your own, check out http://www.solsilke.se/

Susanna Hansson along with Wendy J. Johnson are responsible for putting this exhibit together. It may not be done anywhere else, so we are very privileged! Susanna has been teaching classes on Bohus Stickning and translates the patterns to English. She taught workshops over the weekend where we made wristlets.

Wristlets started in Susanna's class.

Wristlets from previous classes Susanna has taught were made into socks and mittens.



What a wonderful weekend! To read other blogs about it, check out Ellen's blog, http://twinset.us/ and Susan and Sally's blog at http://www.theraineysisters.com/ The exhibit is open until March 29 and I encourage everyone to see it. Check out the booklet, Bohus Stickning. Radiant Knits: An Enchanting Obscession. It tells the whole story of bohus knitting and the people behind it. It is a wonderful remembrance of the exhibit as no pictures are allowed and is available in the gift shop and online. It is written by Wendy J. Johnson and Susanna Hansson.

Tuesday Sky

Is this beautiful, golden sky on Innauguration Day an indication of a golden term for our new president? I've kind of forgotten Saturday Sky postings, so here's a sky picture.

Gothic Window Pink Sweater

Last night I read on Ravelry that the bohus sweater kits had arrived at the American Swedish Institute. January 23, 24, and 25th are the opening days of the Bohus Exhibit which will run until March 29, 2009. Information is available on their website: www.americanswedishinst.org .

I'm signed up for all the activities on Saturday, the 24th plus am taking 6 hour workshop on Monday by Susanna Hansson.

Even though I'll be at the Institute next week, I was anxious to get my grubby hands on a sweater kit before they were picked over. Today I had the luxury of being the only person looking at them, so I was able to look, ponder, make up my mind, change my mind, ponder again, and finally make up my mind. This is the kit I chose: Gothic Window Pink. I think I'll make the pullover to keep more patterning in the front. I haven't even wound the yarn yet and I'm thinking how I'm going to change how I'll work it. (Do you see a pattern here?) The yoke is worked in the round and then the body and sleeves back and forth, so I think I'm going to work it all in the round. I was considering starting at the bottom instead of at the top the way the pattern is written, to do the boring stockinette stitch first and have the patterning to look forward to, but I think I will at least do that as written.Excuse the grainy picture-I took it from the ASI website.

Many Things

My intentions were to blog more frequently with the following 2 projects, plus another one in separate posts, but I haven't been able to follow through, so a group posting. Following the hectic holidays, I did two small, easy projects-plus I do need new dishcloths.Love To Knit With Friends dishcloth-free pattern at http://www.knitsbyrachel.com/page49
Yarn: Cotlin by Knitpicks. I really like this yarn and imagine it will wash up beautifully.

Needles: Size 6

Two things I did differently-I graphed the pattern and did the patterning on the right side rows instead of the wrong side rows as the pattern is written. The first cloth I did I did the first half as written, then converted to patterning on the right side and thought the lettering stood out better on the second half and it was much easier to read my knitting to put the purl stitches in the right place.

I love patterns that support a cause, with breast cancer being one of my favorite causes. This pattern is available as a download for $15, I think it was, and is one of 13 dishcloth patterns created to raise awareness and money for breast cancer research.

Calendar of Hope 2009 available at www.thinkpink.com

Yarn: Sugar and Cream

Needles: Size 7

These patterns are not graphed, so I did graph them out as I find it much easier to knit that way.

I'm in the Newspaper

Today's (Wednesday, January 7) Minneapolis Star Tribune has an article about my knitting group that meets at Culver's every week. Check it out.

www.startribune.com/local/north

The article is listed as Wool gathering.

Mailman Was Good Today

Oh, the mailman's delivery was good today! First of all, no bills, then 3 packages! The first book is written by my cousin's wife describing her life on Isle Royale. My cousin has been doing the wolf study on the island for many years and the book talks about the work and life from her point of view. Not only is it enjoyable because of the relationship to me, but the writing is good and the topic very interesting. (It is available from Amazon.com )The second book is by Carol A. Anderson of Cottage Creation fame and is her memoirs written in her fun, witty way. The book is available from her-Cottage Creations, At the Farm on Deer Creek, Carpenter, Iowa 50426.
The 3rd package was the December Shawl Club yarn/pattern from Joslyn's Fiber Farm. The pattern is by Sunflower Designs, Cherry Country Shawl and the yarn is red/black from Joslyn's Fiber Farm.

Jingle Claus

Isn't he cute? He's another one of Cid Hanscom clever Designs, pattern available at LYS. (Amazing Threads in Maple Grove is one- www.amazing-threads.com ) and another quick knit when I was bored. I made him from stash yarn-Raumagarn on size 1 1/2 needles. You can't see it but a large bell shapes his belly.