Revvin’ up your needles
Listen to the wooly roar
Angora under tension
Beggin’ you to touch and go
Stockinette to the Bohus Zone!
Knitting into the Bohus Zone!
Headin’ into a purl row
Spreadin’ out the stitches right
Stitches jumpin’ on the needles
And knittin’ into overdrive
Stockinette to the Bohus Zone!
I’ll take you
Right into the Bohus Zone!

(Abject apologies to Kenny Loggins)

Remember how I said I could really get into a zone with the endless stockinette? Well, last night? Not so much.

You ever have one of those evenings? You can’t get comfy, no matter what. You struggle with your knitting and every stitch seems like a chore. Last night was one of those nights.

So . . . not a whole lot of progress was made.

Hopefully I’ll find the Bohus Zone again tonight. Assuming I can stay awake past 8pm, that is.

In case you’re wondering if I really am enjoying Bohus knitting, this should confirm it:

It’s the kit for the Large Collar Bohus that I received in the mail today from Solveig. Wheeeeee!

And that’s not all:

This is a skein of Solveig’s gorgeous hand-dyed silk — all in shades of green. My photo doesn’t begin to show its beauty. It really is spectacular!

Mmmmmm . . . Glögg!

Jennifer asked what glögg tastes like. It’s heaven in a glass!

The glögg I like is made with burgundy wine, vodka, and spices. It’s served warm, with almond slivers and raisins in the glass. Yum!

(P.S. to Stinkerbell: Sorry my dear — no lutfisk for me! And for the record, there are Swedes who think lutfisk is heinous!

Once Again, It’s Thursday!

And once again, it’s contest time. This is the third week of the Birthday Month Contest. Another easy question this week:

On what day of the week was Wendy born?

Submit your guess (one guess per person, please) to The Official WendyKnits Contest Email Address by 3:00pm EST on Sunday, December 18 with your guess for the day of the week on which I was born. I’ll draw a name for the winner from among the entries with the right answer. You have a one-in-seven chance of getting it right! The winner and prize will be announced in Sunday’s blog entry.

Lucy Sez

“You talking to me?”

Sorry about the title there. Too much caffeine.

A couple of you have asked where I got my Bohus kit. If you’ll look over to the right in the sidebar, under Works in Progress, you’ll find a link to the blog entry where I discussed how to get a Bohus kit.

I’m afraid you’re in for a bunch of blog entries showing progress on plain green stockinette stitch done at a fine gauge.

See what I mean?

Perhaps I should write blog entries in Middle English to make them more interesting. Or vers libre. Or iambic pentameter.

Shall I compare thee to a forest tree?
Thou art as green and quite mysterious:
As I do knit the precious wool angora,
My needles slide through teeny tiny stitches.

I think my meter is off slightly. Well, I never said I was Shakespeare. I think limericks are more my speed.

There once was a Bohus divine,
Comprised of stitches so fine,
The knitter did knit,
Til she fell into a fit,
And finally crossed over the line.

But serious, folks. I love knitting this.

Diane asked:
Does it seem like is it taking a long time though since the needles are so small?

Yes and no. I can really get in a “zone” knitting this. It is great commuter knitting at this point because it’s relatively mindless. It makes great tv and movie knitting as well.

And the yarn is fabulous. I just started the second skein of the main color yesterday. I believe they are 300 meter skeins. The first skein had not a single knot or imperfecton in it. Gotta love that.

It sheds surprisingly little, considering it’s 50% angora. It’s got a lovely fuzzy halo, which so far does not seem to transfer itself to my clothes while I knit.

I should mention that at this point it’s probably about 1% Lucy fur as well.

Bah Humbug?

Nancy said:
No Spritz cookies? No breads? No tree? Bah Humbug. But your Bohus is lovely so far…. Maybe Lucy will donate some toys for a mini-kitty tree…

My Bohus is meant to represent a forest — can’t it be my Christmas tree?

No, I’m not really such a Scrooge as yesterday’s blog entry might indicate. I used to go all out. Tons of cookies. All handmade gifts. Decorations out the wazoo. I learned to just say no to the cookie-baking years ago and I’m much happier as a result. My family all have enough handmade sweaters to last them well into the next millenium.

The tree? Maybe the King of All Remote Controls, Lucy, and I will put it up this weekend. Maybe not. You never know.

Stinkerbell commented:
Some swede you are…
Did you at least dring glogg??

No glögg . . . yet . . .

Oh, and Cheryl? Lutfisk? Never. Pooeys. Ich. Blech.

But THIS is Festive!

Another lovely shawl pin from Designs By Romi!

I made no lusskatter in celebration of St. Lucia Day today. Lucy was not forced to wear her Lucia crown.

Eva asked in the comments if I was doing any holiday knitting.

Nope. No holiday deadline insanity for me, thank-you-very-much. No cookies, no handmade doodads, etc. I still haven’t decided whether to put up a tree. Seems like a lot of work, you know?

Bohus-ing Along

We are now in the interminable stockinette portion of our program. Here’s the armhole shaping:

And my progress thus far today:

I have finished the armhole shaping and am now just chugging away on the back of the sweater. It’s made a bit more interesting by virtue of having some shaping in the body — decreases are done as one heads down towards the bottom ribbing.

You may notice that the body is knit in pieces, rather than in the round. Which might lead one to ask — wouldn’t it be easier to knit it in the round? Well, yeah it would. But I think the seams will add some stability to the garment. This knitted fabric is very lightweight and delicate and will benefit from the seams structure.

Apart from that, knitting the body in the round would be a whole lotta stitches per round. Just sayin’.

Tomorrow is St. Lucia Day. The King of All Remote Controls had a link to a good description of how Scandinavians celebrate this day — here.

I had a personal brush with Lucia fame when I was a child. Here’s the account of it, lifted from an old blog entry:

When I was a tiny tot (three years old) our church decided to have a Lucia pageant. I was chosen to be Lucia, most likely because I was a little blonde angel and my mother knew how to make the Lucia bread. Probably more of the latter than the former. Right before the pageant they stuffed me into the long white gown (recycled from my fairy princess costume for Halloween) and tied a red sash around my waist. I was handed the tray of Lucia rolls. The other children in my Sunday school class were dressed in white and given candles to hold. An evergreen wreath with candles was jammed down on my head. Okay, so far so good. Then one of the women stepped up with a box of matches.

The rest of the pageant is a blur. I’m told I marched down the center aisle of the church in abject terror, wearing my crown of lit candles. Somewhere there’s an old photo of me standing at the front of my Sunday school class, holding the tray of Lucia bread, lit candles on my head, and an expression of primal fear frozen on my face.

Well, L-B thought it was high time that Lucy carried on the family tradition. So she sent Lucy a little gift. Here she is:

Wearing the little Lucia crown sent by the ever-thoughtful L-B. Doesn’t she make a beautiful Lucia?

As you can see, Lucy has recovered.

Bohus Update

I’m working on shaping the armholes on the back of the sweater.

Answers to some questions:

The yarn is very soft — not at all scratchy or itchy.

When knitting the yoke, you increase evenly around several times during the pattern. After the last increase, there are 400 stitches around.

I hold all three yarns in my left hand when knitting with three colors. I just make sure to keep them in the same order throughout a row. I did floats throughout — no weaving.

Here’s the inside:

I’m using the same needle size (2.5mm) for the colorwork and plain sections — my gauge is the same for both.

Back to work tomorrow after a four-day weekend. I did surprisingly little knitting today — but I got the majority of my Christmas gifts wrapped!

Lucy helped.

Friday, 7:00am:

Friday, noon:

Friday evening:

By Saturday, the Bohus was ready to go out and party, so I took her to the Washington DC American Scandinavian Association Lucia Festival. (Update: Check out The King of All Remote Controls for a report and more photos of this event!)

She got to see Estonian folk dancing:

And Nordic dancing:

You can see how well-behaved she was, sitting quietly in her seat:

This morning I finished the yoke pattern:

Here’s a close-up:

A couple of you have asked how I would rate the difficulty of this knit.

I think you’d want to have some experience in stranded colorwork for this. There are some three-color rows in this design, and some of those three-color rows have purl stitches on the right side, so there’s a lot of manipulation of yarn going on.

It’s also knit at a very fine gauge on small needles. In a yarn with a bit of a halo — it’s half-angora.

So this is not a beginner sweater. Still, there’s nothing hugely difficult, technique-wise. If you’ve done some colorwork and feel comfortable knitting on 2.5mm or smaller needles, do not be afraid to try a Bohus!

Lucy has been a big help in the knitting, by keeping my knitting bag weighted down:

Birthday Contest, Week Two

There were 70 correct answers, identifying my place of birth as Worcester, Massachusetts. Fairly easy question, as the information can be found in more than one place on my website.

I did a random drawing from among the correct answers, and the winner is Bethe (who actually lives in Worcester!), who wins this:

A skein of Kaalund Expressions laceweight mohair in the Toucan colorway. Bethe, I’ve emailed you.

Thanks to everyone who sent in a guess!

Tune in tomorrow evening for some further Bohus adventures . . . and for a shocking photo of Lucy!