Lisa Kay Knits... and Quilts!

I finished my "Bohus-inspired" sweater which I have been calling, "Blue Mountain Bohus." I should note that it is more appropriate to call the sweater “Bohus-inspired” rather than “Bohus.” The term “Bohus” really refers to Bohus Stickning, or the work of that organization, in Sweden. The group began in the 1930’s as a charity organization, providing work to knitters, and becoming an extremely successful business which was in operation until 1969. This information, and much additional interesting background, is available in the book “Poems of Color” by Wendy Keele, a beautiful book and extremely interesting read. My previous posts on the Blue Mountain Bohus: Planning and yarn spinning and Spinning Completed Knitting started Yoke completed There are more pictures and many project notes on my Ravelry project page . I wore the sweater skating, yesterday. Chris and I took Mitchell to the Forest Park skating rink. It was a perfect day to skate outside, and...

I made it to the bottom of the Bohus yoke, and I added some "dripping" colorwork at the bottom of the chart, after dividing for the sleeves. I worked the entire chart, even though it was designed for much smaller gauge. The result turned out to be a "funnel neck," which I actually like! I thought I was going to end up with the neck as expected but the body starting late (underarms well below where they should normally be). So I was pleasantly surprised, which is just luck or good knitting karma or something. I can't claim to have made it into a funnel neck on purpose... Here is a closeup of the "dripping" at the edge of the yoke. Some blocking will make it lay a bit flatter... but I'm happy with how it fits! So far, so good. Happy Knitting, Lisa Kay

I finished the "Eclipse" yarn for the bohus body yarn (and the rest of the yoke). I had 4.25 bumps left, which yielded about 625 yards. I hope it is enough! Happy Knitting, Lisa Kay

I took some pictures after reaching about half of the length of the yoke, Row 37 of the chart. I already knew I was going to take the collar off and redo it, so I needed to get a shot of that, anyway. I needed to go ahead and take it off because I am about out of dark blue... the first 3 ounces. I have another 17 ounces to spin, though, so that will hopefully be sufficient. I think I'm knitting a little too tightly... the sts are pulled out of sight at the color changes. I hope it will block out a bit. Meanwhile, I'm trying to ease up just a bit, without making it obviously different. Other than being a bit snug, I like the way the knitting looks with the purls in there. Happy Knitting, Lisa Kay

Bohus sweaters resemble Fair Isle in many ways, though the technical differences consist mainly of purling in the color pattern, use of more than two colors in a row, and traditional use of fine gauge (34 sts per 4 inches) angora (fuzzy) yarns. The Bohus Stickning sweaters were well known examples, as documented in the wonderful book, " Poems of Color ." Solsilke has made a great effort to provide kits true to the original designs, available here . While knitting an "original" using a kit certainly has its attraction, I'm not quite sure I would ever complete a project with so many stitches! Another option has presented itself, inspired by Adrian Bizilia of Hello Yarn . Her handspun Fantom Bohus in worsted weight provides proof that it doesn't have to be tiny, fuzzy yarn to be an amazing Bohus sweater. I set about spinning some worsted weight yarn using Shetland fiber in SCF's "Blue Mountain Combo" color set. Southern Cross Fibre's s...