From the Deepest, Darkest Corner of the Stash Closet...

...where wooly dreams wait for their day in the sun and naughty projects go to think about what they've done, comes something from Blog Past. The Bohus Gray Mist pullover!

I don't think I've done anything with this since we moved to Texas. According to the project page for this on Ravelry, I started it in January of 2007. I set it aside during the move, knowing that I'd mess it up, and then every time I thought about it, I remembered that I needed to weave in ends (the pattern specifically says to do them as you go) and stitch down the neckband facing. I got the ends woven in a couple of nights ago and yesterday I stitched down the neckband facing.

Now it's full speed ahead on the colorwork and I did get a little more done in the knitting department too. I'm more than halfway through the chart for the colorwork (though not by much), but I'm not quite to the halfway point visually in the colorwork - make sense? I've just started the lightest color and then I'll start fading back to the darker colors of gray and blue. I was sitting on the floor with Finn curled next to me, sleeping, looking at the way the colors work together, and thinking of the traditions behind this Swedish style of knitting, with the fine needles (US 1.5 - 2.5 mm), tiny wool and angora yarn making tiny stitches, the patterns of color and purl stitches growing beneath my hands and listening to Aerosmith scream about how "Dude Looks Like A Lady." Yes, just like they did it when the designs were fresh and new!

For those of you who are wondering, this was purchased as a kit from Solveig Gustafsson (click Bohus Stickning for the Bohus kits) . I just checked out the "newer" kits (they are all traditional Bohus designs, reproduced as kits for knitters now, the "new" ones are just new to the site - not new designs) and I can see I'll need to add the New Azalea to my stash - I love the pinks and reds against that black. I already have the Forest Darkness in Black and the Large Lace Collar Jacket kits stashed away. I'm playing with the insane idea of making one of these for the Olympics - we're supposed to push ourselves, right?

You would think that having a name like "Gray Mist" would be my first clue that I should knit it in daylight...

I've gotten a little bit more done on the Bohus Gray Mist. There are several increase rounds in this area, and after I got confused on the first increase round, I realized I need to use lots of markers and work when I won't be distracted by riveting tales of Noodle Hockey from PE. Needless to say, this has limited my knitting time a bit. I'm on round 22 (or 23 - I can't remember), but I know I have another increase round on round 25 and round 30, then there's a bit of straight knitting (but with colors) so I should be able to get going again once I clear the increase rounds. The other thing that's currently slowing me down is that the colors of the yarn are so close (the round on the needle and the two right below it all have two different colors of yarn) in this section that they don't show up as different in artificial light. If I really look at them, I can tell, and the yarn balls are marked with color numbers, but just by knitting along, it takes more than a glance to know which color I'm using and which color I need to use. I think it would be best to knit this section of pale, creamy grays in daylight, when I've got truer colors.

Last time I showed this, someone asked in the comments what yarn it was - this is the wool/angora blend yarn included in the kit. For more information about ordering a kit I've put links in previous posts (I'm feeling a bit link-lazy today), and if you click the Bohus Knitting tag at the end of the post, you can see all the Bohus posts, including the one with the purchasing links.

OK, I have to admit that last night I saw an Appleb**'s commercial and got a little freaked out by the talking apple - anyone else get the heebie jeebies from that one?

It Has Begun

Do I really need to say anything about this?

Every Journey Begins With a Single Step

After MS3 wound down, late last Summer, I did a little shopping to treat myself for surviving it. Shopping in Sweden to be precise (OK, it was online, but with the Internets you can shop in Sweden - it's easy). I picked up a few of the Bohus knitting kits from Solveig Gustafsson. I had been drooling over these (although in a delicate and charming way, not the way Finn drools on Ramius) for a while and decided to splurge.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the Bohus designs or these kits, these are put together with yarn that is spun especially for them as close to the traditional yarn as they can get, which is a fingering weight fine wool/angora blend (yummy doesn't even begin to describe this yarn - this is the kind of stuff you want to strip down and roll around in nekkid - maybe too much information there, but you get the idea, ahem). Then the colors are hand dyed to match the originals, the designs are reproduced from the original charts and directions, and we can purchase them as kits either from Solveig or (I believe) through the Bohus Museum. As I understand it, Solveig is doing this singlehandedly and without an apprentice, so my guess is that these kits (which are about as historically accurate as you can get) will not be available forever.

The yarn you see above is for the Grey Mist design with the folded down neckband. (Click on the link above for Solveig's website and Click "Nyheter" at the top to see pictures of the Bohus kits she has available. Scroll down for the Grey Mist design.) The color that's in the two big yarn balls shown is the main color and there is more of it, but I didn't put it all in the picture. Each skein of yarn came labeled with a number that corresponds to the chart and there is also a small yarn sample of each color attached to the chart to help keep me straight as I knit. The directions do come in English, which is good since my Swedish is extremely limited (or perhaps non existent would be a better way to describe it). I am currently waiting for a needle to come in the mail since I didn't have all the needles I needed to get started, and then I will cast on. This will probably be an ongoing project, not one I crank out in a week or so - definitely more about the journey, and not so much about the destination, but I won't blog every stitch I take - don't worry.

If you're interested in ordering one of the kits, there is an email address on her home page and you can drop her an email with what you're interested in and a shipping address and she'll get back to you with a price. Solveig does speak English very well (again, with the limited/non existent Swedish thing, this is good) and while I don't remember exact prices (which are also dependent on the value of the dollar to the Swedish Kroner), I think that the kits come out under $200 including shipping. This seemed pretty reasonable to me for a historically accurate, hand dyed kit with such a luxurious yarn.