I Have a (Bohus) Dream

Ever since I bought Wendy Keele’s “Poems of Color, Knitting in the Bohus Tradition”, I’ve hankered after a ‘Blue Shimmer’.  Pullover or cardigan, it doesn’t matter!

The book was released in ’95, so that’s a long time to wait on a sweater, but the kit is expensive, and I need my luxuries to be frugal.

What quelled this Bohus desire (actually the desire to knit *any* sweaters) was discovering secondhand cashmere sweaters years ago at Goodwill and on Ebay.  Every other year or 2, I would spend $45 to $60 and get 3 new-to-me cashmere sweaters, to replace the ones that were falling to bits.  I still kept the bits going with patches and mending, and would relegate them to wearing to bed.  If you’ve never worn a cashmere sweater to bed, instead of a cotton or cotton blend top, you’re definitely missing out!  

The only way to get sweaters as soft as cashmere, is with baby alpaca or angora, both of which are pricey, so I put sweaters out of my mind.

What made me think of Bohus again was reading Meg’s blog post recently about the new-ish “Bohus Stickning på nytt, The Revival”, by Viveka Overland.

Yes, an 8-yr old book isn’t new, but it is, compared to the books in my library!  It seems, though, that the first edition is sold out – I can’t find it anywhere.  I can only hope they are planning to reprint it.

But, it got me thinking.  Specifically about the leftover skeins of Yarn Undyed’s (non-superwash) superfine merino DK and baby alpaca DK in a natural white, which I bought to weave a couple batches of winter scarves, along with Valley Yarns’ Becket, Sunderland, and Hampden - all beautiful yarns, the latter two of which are especially soft, and purchased during one of Web’s 30% off sales.  I was saving them for more weaving projects, that iss, until now.

I have a few skeins of lt. grey, med. grey, a deep blue, and charcoal in the Sunderland and Hampden, which get the same 6.5 sts/1” gauge as the 100% baby alpaca DK.  I may need to add more lt. grey or perhaps a fawn/sand – I won’t know until I swatch a few ideas to see what the final design needs in order to sing.  

The majority of the sweater, however, would be in 100% baby alpaca, and, of course, I’m questioning the wisdom of doing this, unless knit snugly enough.  All this softness, though, is yummy, so, I may go for it, regardless.  

As it turns out, the superfine merino DK works best at 5.5 sts/1”, where the baby alpaca (with the same yardage) is denser/thinner and knits at 6.5 sts/1”, as would a sport wt.

If I was just knitting stockinette, the gauge difference would be an issue, but, all the finer yarns will be in the stranded yoke pattern, so the overall fabric thickness of the yoke and the body will be similar, so long as the st count is adjusted at the transition.  

As I don’t have the lovely blues and teals needed for the “Shimmer”, my eye then turned to “The Large Swan”, another beautiful design, where the colors I have might work better, although I have less colors in total.  Part of what makes Bohus designs so beautiful is the total # of colors used.

But I also really like “Regnmoln - Rain Clouds Pullover”, which looks similar to the “Red Palm”, or “The Mists”.  I’m especially fond of that effect, as no matter the color used, the simple pattern just *glows* – it’s so striking!

So, I have a fair bit of configuring to do. If I do decide to rework a Bohus into a DK wt. gauge, it will also be affected by having less colors to shade, and the fact that i never work top down, only bottom up, so I’ll need to reconfigure where the purl sts go, as the (adjusted) yoke chart will be worked upside down from the usual Bohus top-down method for yoke sweaters.

All in all, it will be a good mental exercise, if not actually mental, although we knitters are used to adjusting designs, right?!  

And, it will still be special.  LOL, if I actually stick with making an adjusted Bohus, instead of doing what I am usually inclined to do, and that is design my own pattern, in the Bohus genre.   Which I have already embarked on!  It is a genre in which I have, thus far, only made 2 designs, so there is much more exploration that can be done.

I’ll re-post when I get these niggly details worked out.  In the meantime, i can dream of a lovely, super soft, yoke-patterned sweater!

Onward!
Dawn

Applied/BO I-Cord Methods

I’ve been knitting a lot of I-cord edges and straps lately, for my new collection of cell phone/eyeglass cases, and thought I’d post on the various ways to knit applied/BO I-cord, as well as ways to deal with the dreaded color blip!

I’ve knit some samples to demonstrate each method, knit in 2 contrasting colors of Bartlettyarns Fisherman Bulky on size 11 ndls.

The way I used to knit a 3-st I-cord
With the body sts still live on either dpns or a circular ndl, CO 3 sts in the I-cord color onto a separate ndl.
K2, ssk (the last CO st and the first body st) = 3 sts rem.
Slip sts to other end of dpn.
Rep last row, until all sts are BO.

With this method, the blip shows through the center of the first *row* of I-cord sts.

I have used this method with live sts to BO, but I have also just picked up an edge st (as with a cardigan front edge) and worked it into the I-cord.  One of the blips is rather large, as that edge st was a bit looser than the others.  It also shows *between* the first and 2nd I-cord sts.

However, unless the last row or rnd of the body is the same (or close in color) as the I-cord color, this method will cause color blips, either in the center of the first *row*, or between the first and 2nd *rows* of I-cord sts.

Here's the I-cord worked in the same white yarn as the swatch – no special treatment is needed, as there's no color to show through.

The way I knit I-cord now
With the body sts still live on either dpns or a circular ndl, CO 3 sts in the I-cord color.
Knit 1 st from the body edge = 4 sts.
Slide sts to other end of dpn.
K2, k2togtbl = 3 sts.
Rep until all sts are BO. 

Even though a st is knit up in the I-cord color, before dec’g on the next row, a blip can still occur, even if less obviously.

3 ways to deal with the color blip
A color blip can occur when the color of the last row of the knitting (that the I-cord is worked onto) varies in color from the I-cord yarn color, as is clear with these red on white swatches.

This blip of color can peak through between the 1st and 2nd I-cord sts, along the front of the work, or through the center of the first I-cord sts, depending on which way the cord was attached.

Fix #1
I have seen some mention that by working the I-cord from the WS, that *row* of blips will land towards the WS of the work, instead of the RS.  I haven’t used this method, but, in swatching, the blips do indeed fall to the WS of the work, as expected.

And here's the crisp RS:

The 2 fixes I *have* used before follow.

Fix #2
The simplest fix is to knit 1 row/rnd in the color that will be the I-cord color.  As the I-cord curls around the edge, this extra row/rnd visually becomes part of the I-cord.

Fix #3
This fix is more fiddly (and time consuming), especially when working snugly.  This method was un-vented by Joyce Williams, mentioned in Schoolhouse Press’ “The Opinionated Knitter”, pg. 55, in their “Knitting Glossary” DVD, and I’m sure also in many articles.

Her method adds a yo to Elizabeth Zimmermann’s I-cord method of k2, sl 1, k1 edge st, psso.

With live (un-BO sts):
CO 3 sts in the I-cord color.
Slide sts to other end of the dpn.
K2, sl 1, yo, slip 1 body edge st, pass the yo and sl 1 over this last slipped st = 3 sts.  
Slide sts to other end of dpn. 
Rep until all sts are BO.

If the body sts aren’t live, as with a cardigan’s front edge:
CO 3 sts in the I-cord color.  
Slide sts to other end of dpn.
K2, sl 1, yo, knit up 1 st along body edge, pass the yo and sl 1 over the knit up st = 3 sts.
Slide sts to other end of dpn. 
Rep until all edge sts are incorporated into the I-cord.

 

I have also seen the yo coming before the sl 1, as follows:
K2, yo, sl 1, knit up 1 st along body edge, pass the yo and sl 1 over the knit up st = 3 sts.  
Slide sts to other end of dpn.  

BUT, I do not think this method makes the neatest looking edge.  There’s no color blip, but it messes up the appearance of the first *row* of I-cord sts.

I find the sl 1 and yo business, then passing the 2 sts over, slows down the I-cord process enough that I’d do almost anything *not* to work the I-cord this way!

If working the cord along a vertical edge, I’d still likely knit up sts along that edge in the I-cord color first, and of course, in the proper st to row ratio, before working the I-cord.

Happy Knitting!
Dawn

Meg's Blog

I should have done this ages ago – add Schoolhouse Press’ blog to my sidebar.  My oversight has now been corrected!

I taught myself to knit by reading EZ’s “Knitting Workshop” in the late ’80’s.  Actually, I just read the first few chapters, then walked to the local dime store to buy circulars, and CO for a color pattern pullover in my handspun wool.  

Up until that point, I was knee deep in washing fleece, picking, carding, spinning, naturally dyeing it, then weaving it.  No, we didn’t live on a farm!, just a small house in a village.  I’d lay washed fleece out on the grass and skeins of yarn would hang from the wash line, to dry.  The neighbors had never seen anyone do what I did.

Later, when we sold that house, I also had to sell all my equipment - the picker, the carder that hubby had motorized, and the floor loom.  

But the knitting needles stayed, although I replaced the cheap dime store ones with Addi Turbos and Bryspun’s previous style of dpns with the blunt tips – both still my favorite needles.

When all else is lost, there is still knitting.  I have a floor loom again, though I don’t get to weave as often as I’d like.  I no longer want to process fleece, and although I *think* about dyeing yarn, I never seem to have the time and real motivation to carry through with this thought.  Maybe one day.

Knitting, though, is a permanent fixture.   Most of my ideas involve the endless hours of enjoyment in making those hundreds to thousands of loops of yarn.

Blogging, however, I know I am not as good at!  Ideally, it would be like Meg’s blog, which is a delight!, but there is only one EZ and Meg, with Cully’s video skills.

On my rather long to-do list is to one day redo the videos I have, and add more.  Mine were done decades ago, with a camera of low resolution, as was typical then.  Even the camera I’ve had since is out of date, resolution-wise.  Hence, its place on the list.

Meg’s videos are excellent, clear, and charming.  I find myself clicking on topic after topic is the tag list, eager to read and see more, even with topics I know.  So, I defer to their excellent presentation of knitting info!

Happy Knitting, Happy Spring!
Dawn