I'm in, the baby-bohuser is back for a long overdue update

And after a long break, I'm able to get back to blogging. What happened ?- Life, small children, study, winter, friends, lots and really nothing. But I'm back to the blog. After what seems like a long hiatus, I am finally updating. At home, earlier today I still could not access my blogger account. I could not even access the home page to log in, so this is a remote update - from off site. Not big deal to anyone except my photos are not here to upload. I will try again latter. .. and latter I did try, only to find my broadband modem no longer flashing like a christmas tree, but with 3 non blinking steady lights. So a quick power down of everything, power up the modem, then the mac, and here we are. Good, sure, speady access to blogger.

Blue shimmer, well she grows still slowley, but faster than the back did. Fewer stitches you see, much fewer. Sleeves sure are faster to knit than the back, I have only the hem on the last sleeve, to do, then the front. I have two compete skeins left of yarn. I am a little concerned that they might not be enough to finish. I have made the sleeves longer, but am knitting the smallest size so should be fine - but two skeins seems not enough. I have mentally tried to imagine the sleeve - which took one skein - as a area equivilent to the back which is the same as the front. Well minus the short row neck line shaping. It is a little like doing metal gymnastics. Before I start to use that last skein, if it seems to far to go to get to the hem, I will email Solveig Gustafsson and ask to buy another skein. That way I can alternate the yarns in with a new and old skein to prevent any dye pot dissimilarities. I had hoped to make Mrs Beetons, by Brenda Dayne, with any left overs. Worrying that there will not be enough yarn makes me a little sad. Although there is always the next Bohus- Rose collar and the left overs from that to look forward to ....

Thank you, Bertandfelix, for your comment(s), Lovely blog you have. Again I suffer from slightly green envy, maybe mint or sage? at the thought of being in a workshop learning Bohus, and other wonderful stuff, sourrounded by like minded people. Here I am surrounded by those who love fashion and design, but have more of a Margiella or Nom-D interest. The idea of spending months re-creating a vintage peice seems odd to them. Only slightly green mind you, in the nicest possible way. I realise I am just a Baby-bohuser, nearly fiished number one, 2nd in the drawer wanting to be done, and plans for more. There are many more experienced Bohusers out there. New Zealand is a great place to live, mostly green, mostly friendly, mostly warm, mostly affordable, aparently all that most people want. It just so far from much of the world, my friends in London can get to New York on a special deal, return for around $300 NZ, for me to get to new york from here is $2500. Really big difference in the amount of savings required there. Still we have internet, jobs, and I drive thru the town green belt to work every day, takes around 7 minutes max from home to work, park outside and get to teach fashion to degree students - how cool is that?

Socks, toe up, gusset heel,
Progress, well, maybe before one modifies a pattern just because they like a firmer gauge, one should really understand the pattern. I did make notes, I have kept track, I am good at math, but some how have lost my way mid heel. That coupled with the fact my LYS is out of extra balls of yarn to match and it looks like I really need one - lets just say that sock will be ravelled or as my blog title goes knitknit frog-ed. Now there was a reason for that title.

left sleeve begins, and tamagotchi takes over

I finished the hem on the back of Blue shimmer! that last little bit seemed to take forever, but now I am happily onto the left sleeve. It was on the instructions for the left sleeve i discovered that the instructions include specific details for increasing 3 stitches in from each edge. These should have applied to the back, and while I read the pattern thru before starting I did not remember this bit was there. On the back i increased at the edge, thinking it would then be part of the seam. So the sleeve has fully fashioned shaping, and the back hasn't. Argghhh. when seamed - the row of fully fashioned shaping should run between the back and front, I am not re knitting the back, no way. Current dilema is do I fully fashion the front to match the sleeve, I think I do, or do I make it match the back, could be the best option. Will keep you posted. Any way photos of progress, the hem is 4 cm deep, with the stitches parked on a waste yarn, waiting for the garment to be sewn up, then I will kitchener the stitches down loosely so no ridge on the right side.

The sleeve progresses well, up to the first decreases after the underarm. this should go quicker having much fewer stitches, and i am wondering about a hem or a ribb cuff? The pattern is for ribb, 8 cm, but I like hems, as you may have noticed. I dont mind ribbing, but wonder if it will go with the other hem.

I am trying a new sock, this is my pool project, the one I take to the pool and knit while wee ones have swimming lessons. This term my oldest is in at 9 am saturday, so I lane swim while he learns then we have a play swim.
My poppy-girl is in at 12:15 - Yes you would think with the same surname some one would put them in classes closer in time. This is the first term I have not had the energy to complain. Any way I change quickly and knit while she learns - so less knitting but more exercise this term. an way new sock, based on one in knitty summer 2006 by Brooke Chenoweth Creel. Being me and liking a firmer gauge, I have had to modify the pattern somewhat, maybe not the best idea when knitting a new structure. This is a toe up sock but with a gusset, and short row under-heel and slip stitch heel pad, all new for me. I had to make it bigger by one cable repeat so image one show the resultant pattern, knitting for 66 stitches not 54, a little maths as I go to work the adjustments for the larger number of stitches.






and the tamagotchi, this craze is back, and my boy who turned 7 really, really, rally wanted one for his birthday, so after much teasing and then a sale advertised on T.V which resulted in 2 of the three stockests in Dunedin selling out the week before the said birthday, after much searching we bought one - full price. Then his school pal Bebe gave him one, so now we house two of the critters. Well the longest one has lasted is around 7 days, but they beep, they require attention, and they get in the way of family life. but he loves them and yet dosn't care if they die. Weird.

I have mail !

Many months ago, on the 22nd of March 2006, I found the Girl-Friend shrug pattern, and searched my only two LYS for suitable yarn. It seemed the perfect thing for my wee girl, given it had no front and all the paint/play dough/ and food spills would in theory miss it. Being the end of summer here and being far from the knitting centers of the world I found nothing suitable. Had I been looking for novelty yarn to knit on size 10 mm pins, made of polyester, polymid or acrylic in bold bright colours I would have been happy. So I window shopped on-line, and after much searching found some Regia cotton/wool/nylon sock yarn at Elann.com. I ordered some, two balls. I paid my mastercard bill, pleased at our strong dollar and the favourable exhange rate. Many months passed by, I started a blog, my local LYS rang me to say the latest Opal was in stock, I remembered GF-Shrug, I called in and bought some, I started the GF-shrug, I set a date to finish for Poppy-girls 4th birthday party, I split my knitting time between Bohus Blue shimmer and GF-shrug, I finished the GF-shrug.

One friday night, in early June, Bear came in to the lounge with a small white box, found at our back-door, we knew it was a small white box, as clearly stated on the top right corner were the were the words 'small packet - petit paquit'. So... cute.

Memory stired, vague memories of choosing yarn, what exitment. Scissors were found, the box opened.


Bold multi coloured sock yarn, but what was I thinking when I ordered it? It was more vibrant than I would usually choose. But it is not for me and will work really well with jeans, and soft preschool knit tops for Poppy-girl. Latter that evening, as I tidied up, I slipped the recipt from the box, and a slim flat white packet fell out. I had also ordered a set of 5dpn's in 1.75mm. I guess I decided as these were hard to find, no nigh impossible to get locally, and since I was paying for international shipping I would also get a size I didn't have already.

And now I have stash, For while I have a good and quality fabric collection to feed my work based hobby of tailoring and sewing, I generally do not have a lot of yarn waiting to be knit. Usually just a few balls of cotton for wash cloths. On Saturday Bear decided that Toby, son number one, aged 6.9 needed socks. Now son number one (there is only one son) will not wear any sweaters, he used to, until he was teased about a spider man sweater one day at school by his 'friends'. Apparently to other 6 year old boys spider man sweaters are babyish and not cool - I think an element of envy came in here given they had only plain polar fleece with nary a spider in sight. Devestating news for a boy of 6 who had helped me plan and chart the spidey bits, and who now avoids all sweater knitting by his mother. He will cuddle up into anything knitted I am wearing, and snuggles on the couch into my discarded sweaters. He will still wear my hand knitted socks, in preference to more commercial ones - so we went sock yarn shopping and got








Bohus, well she grows, well on the way with the lower back section, and no rowing out! That is a problem I have recognised in my flat knitting and one I have worked hard on to solve. So nice to see the solution is working, I needed to knit 'firm' and purl 'firmer' .


After sitting with a calculator last night and working out what the ecommended patterns haping will result in I have decided to use most of the waist shaping given but to customise it a little. I have knit to 6cm past the underarm point, and am in the process of decreasing every 3 cm, which will take me to 20 cm past the underarm, a narrowing in of around 3.5 cm, subtle but there. When I tried this on the dress from this point will sit at my waist.

From then on I will use my own shapping. I will knit plain for 3 cm, then increase 2 stitches every 1.5cm, until 10 cm past the waist when I plan to purl a row and continue knitting to complete a 5-7 cm turned up faced hem to replace the ribbing instructed in the pattern. I know I will have to increse in this facing so it fits neatly inside the garment, so will decrease to match the below waist shaping. I will check this shaping as I knit, but I would like something a little shapped, to wear with fitted firm jeans or casual trousers. I will see what that looks like on the back before I start the front.

I also wasn't happy with the length suggested, nor the lack of shapping after the narrowing in to the waist. But maybe those Swedish girls have no hips, all bust and no hips? The ones who visit here on their OE, are tall, blond, tanned, fit, trim, the bike everywhere and have georgous boyfriends. Of course they can't all be like that but those are the ones I notice.

Knitting with two colours in the left hand

or at least, how I knit with two colours in the left hand.

But first a quick update, I finished all the colour work on the bohus, which is a little sad, although there is enough yarn left for me to think about some Mrs Beetons as the next project. Brenda spoke of having a completed Mrs Beetons page, but I couldn't spot one on her site. Of course knowing they are designed by the wonderful Brenda D from Cast on also adds to the tempation.

So I divided the stitches up for the front and sleeves, parking these on dishcloth cotton. I have completed around 3-4 com on the back. Above is the photo I made after knitting the first cm or so of the back section. My dress makers dummy came home so I can use her to hold blue shimmer for the photos. Now that I am knitting the body section I have paid a little more attention to the shaping in the pattern. Blue shimmer is shaped by decreasing until 30 cm below the arm scye/hole, then adding a rib. I am not a fan of ribbing around my hips, not that I am big or anything, but on me that always rides up to my waist. I prefer a tunic and in and out waist shaping. I think I will see how the back sits on the dummy as I knit and I may adjust the shape some.


GF shrug is going well, I am up past the elbow on the 2nd sleeve. I am not yet sure if I should just knit like a crazy woman on a mission for the next few evenings and attempt to finish for the big four year olds birthday party on saturday, or just enjoy blue shimmer and catch up with the blogs and knitters review, and my homework instead. Flickr, my photo host-er is having some 'hicups' at the moment, so I will update my progress images in the side bar soonish.

And knitting with two colours in my left hand, how I do that. I have found a few web sites with knitting with two colours in the right hand, but when I went looking late last year didn't have much luck finding two in the left hand. I must say friends at knitters review were very good n sharing ideas and experiences with me, but mostly in words. I would have loved to see photos. So in a spirit of sharing here is what is working for me now. I have tried to be web friendly, and saved these as gif, and for the web, but apologise for the number of images. I wanted enough to how the steps and make it clear how I form my stitches. In my last blog I posted an image showing how I wrap the yarn when kniting with two colours. The wrap is essentially the same as when knitting with only one colour. OK,
Step one, with both the yarns in place over my first finger, move the right knitting pin thru the front of the first loop on the left pin,



After that, swing the right knitting pin up and under the yarn, in this case the green yarn wraped around my 2nd finger. You will notice that it is my wrist that does most of the work, the right knitting pin ends up pointing towards the ceiling. If you are more used to knitting with the yarn in the right hand it is your fingers that provide the most movement.


Once the yarn is 'hooked', return the right knitting pin to a more angled position and twist the knitting pin tip down and back thru the loop on the left knitting pin. Slide the right knitting pin right thru and carefully lift the loop off the left pin. At this point I have developed a habit of giving the new stitch a tighten by pulling it away from the yarns in my left hand. This is a wee technique that really helps me keep even tension and stops rowing out with stocking stitch knit flat. Its so automatic I had forgot I taught myself to do this, until I analysed the photos.


I have not show how to knit with the 2nd colour, as the movements are the same as the those shown, you just hook the 'other colour yarn' instead. I must admit this whole project, to take the images and get them in order and ready for the blog has taken more time than I had anticipated, but I am quite pleased with the result.

As promised I have some showing how I complete the knit then purl stitches used in the bohus, and a set showing rib, using the Finish purl - my current favorite.

Stell

The Bohus photo shoot

I'm back to knitting Blue shimmer, the final 10 rows or so of colour work. But before I ran out of colour to work with I had Bear take literally hundreds of photos of my knitting. Hundreds to get the lighting right, the focus right and to get the images to have enough infomation so I can show how I knit. Digital cameras sure make that easy, and cost effective and instant. I was pleased with my digial minolta, it is over 2 years old yet worked fine. We did resort to using a tripod to make sure the focus worked and the images were simillarly set up. I have divided the images into four sets, which I plan to post on my blog over the next few weeks. The four 'sets' are

1. How I hold two different colours of yarn in my left hand
2. How I make a knit stitch, while holding two different colour yarns in the left hand
3. How I make a purl stitch while holding two different colour yarns in the left hand
4. How I rib, using the 'finish' purl method.

At some stage further down the track I will add more, like how I hold two colours in my right hand. I do feel that there is a lot more infomation on the net about right handed colour work.

Why did I do this? Not because I think I knit the best way there is, but because over the last two years I have tried lots of variations of knitting. All of this infomation and experimentation has resulted in a current style that works for me. Over the past few months I have had several on online conversations with various helpful people over how best to work with up to four colours for the Bohus work. I am so glad that others on the net share their experience and tips that I would like to offer the same to others. Not all of us live where there are advanced knittig workshops, for me I would have to travel very widely to take part.

So how do I hold the yarn? Like this, I wind the first yarn or 'dominant' yarn around my first finger, then weave it over my 2nd finger, under my ring finger and under my pinky. In this first image I have wrapped the first yarn, but the second yarn is just sitting, waiting to be wrapped.
By dominant yarn I mean the colour that is used the most in the work, or the colour with the longest floats, so I can weave it it if the floats are longer than 3 cm or over an inch. If a yarn is used to purl with in a row of knitting that is the dominant one that I wrap around the first finger.


The second yarn, is wraped around my second finger, then woven under the middle finger and over the ring finger, and finally under the pinky. I tension the yarns in three ways, I can and do use my pinky finger to grip the yarns a little, but try and avoid that. Griping with the little finger can lead to a kind of cramp up the side of my hand and wrist if done for several nights knitting. I hold my first and second finger close together, this stops the yarn sliding as easily. I also hold the side of my first finger against the needle at times, again to increase friction and this allows me to lift my finger and tug a little to ensure the junction between purl and knit stitches is firm.

GF Shrug, is over half way complete. I do need to tell you that while I am being guided by the pattern, I have made quite a few changes to accommodate my own knitting preferences. Firstly and probably most importantly I am knitting shrug in the round not flat. I used a tubular cast on and have a lifted increase 2 stitches appart for the forearm increases. The other major change is that I have chosen to knit shrug as two matched pairs and graft these together across centre back. Shrug is knited in self striping sock yarn with an unbalanced repeat to the colour-way. If I continued to knit from wrist to centre back and then down to the wrist, the striping on each arm would be a reverse match rather than a mirror match. So I am knitting the second sleeve from the cuff up, to match the first. I am nearly finished the rib on the second sleeve. I still don't know if I will make my may 28th deadline, as after I finish the second sleeve, there is 1.5 inches of rib, on 2.25 mm pins around the shrug opening.

And Bear, has offered to send for a 2nd bohus kit, for my upcoming birthday (40 eeeekkkkk), I think it will be Rose collar and knit as a cardie. So Flat fair isle with whole rows of purls. The bar raises.

Bohus vs Shrug vs Work,

Just a really quick post this time, this has been one of the more hectic weeks, it included

• teaching monday afternoon,
• teaching all day wednesday and thursday,
• giving a lecture on 'good design' to a room of around 80 this morning, including 5 fellow staff which was a little nerve racking,
• planning meetings all afternoon,
• hairdresser tuesday night,
• Book club wednesday
• homework for my study tonight.

I have a full day of meetings tomorrow including one with my supervisor for my study,
so time seems a tad short this week. Things should settle down next week.

Blue shimmer is looking good, I managed a little more progress on her. I must say Bohus Blue shimmer is a girl, at least in my mind she is. Here is a picture. There was a little more frogging, fribbit, fribbit. When reading the chart I found it really hard to see the difference between the two blues, 103 and 102 on the chart under incandescent lights. I initially thought I had made a mistake half way around the row, so frogged, then realised it was right and reworked it. I had a simillar incident of uncertainty a row or two latter, eventually I took a drawing pencil, 2B and carefully outlined the areas of each colour. That made it much easier, and I would strongly recommend that to anyone knitting at night from the chart.

This week I started the Girl Friend Shrug, working the rib on my vintage 2mm knitting pins. I inherited them from Mrs B, my MIL, who was a prolific knitter in her day. But she never knit socks, making my husband - Bear - only one pair and they were a new and significant experience for her in the 1970's. So significant they were remembered 20 plus years latter. I have no idea where the knitting pins came from or how they came to be Mrs B's, but can only imagine she saved them from another relative, her sister died much yonger and she had a lot of special things saved of hers. There are only 4 in the set but they come in a delightful vintage wooden tube, with size "14" carved into the side. to stop rust they are stored in talc powder, so smell all baby fresh and spill a fine dust whenever I open the tube to use them or to store them away. I do prefer to knit with a set of 5 dpn's so I have to add a modern Milwood needle, which is shorter and feels different. The knitting is not affected, but I always know when I am not working on the steel pins.

Anyway, GF Shrug grows well, I have decided to rib for twice the length in the pattern, so around 6 cm, this will allow my wee girl friend to grow somewhat over the winter. I have not yet decided if the sleeves will match in colour repeat or not, knowing how fussy I can be they most probably will. This image was scanned, rather than photographed, as my camera is at work. The colours are brighter or more garish than in the real yarn. If I was more photoshop savy I would remedy that, but I am not.

Book club, meet last night, we swoped the last book by Witi Ihimaera, Bulibasha: King of the Gypsies (1994), for Silas Marner by George Eliot. Bit of a difference between those two! I didn't get very far into Bulibasha, but wished I had after listerning to the group talk about how much they enjoyed the story. Witi has a wonderful way of describing people and situations, you can smell the environment it seems so real. It will be on my things to read over the christmas break latter in the year. They all said the first few chapters were really hard work then it became a 'can't put down' book and the story with its characters was great. I missed out, with being so busy I didn't stick around past the first 60 pages.

Of now to read a chapter or two on educational methodology and research methods, so I will be all fresh and know stuff for the discussion tomorrow.

The Bohus begins ..

Well I did it, I finally began the Bohus, a few days ago, I used the cast on method in Wendy Keele's Poems of Color. It took a few goes to make it work, some how my brain and her instructions didn't seem to conect. I really wanted to look up the method in Montse Stanleys The Handknitter's Handbook, but I had lent my copy to a student. Sometimes I am so generous with my precious things and then regret it, but mostly it turns out fine. Its just I find myself wanting to use books I have loaned away, and then I really miss them. It did remind me to ask for her to return it. I had taken it in for another student who was interested in hand knitting, just so she could see that there was always more than one way to do anything. And a second student asked to borrow it, how can I refuse a request from a noobie knitter wanting to learn ? Short answer is I can't, or rather I can't be 'mean' and not share - I guess my mother taught me well. I hope I do as well with my own two kids.

Anyway the Bohus, I mastered the cast on last weekend, cast on for the rib, and knit every night since, and finished the rib quite quickly, scarily fast in fact. Some nights I almost felt guilty as I wisked both kids off to bed with only 1 story each. There was no dally-ing tolerated. our dinner was quick and easy, soup, or risotto, salad, with minimal clean up. I really wanted to say just have a smoothie and thats all but knew we needed 'real' food. Some times I feel like we are among the few remaining families with out a dishwasher, so I excused myself while my hubby washed - I owe him. Enough of that, some time I will blog and show you my antique 1930's kitchen. It elicits comments of cute and fantastic, but then the guests, they leave and I try and fit modern kitchen stuff and cooking into 1930's spaces. We do have the most practical wooden bench you could imagine, if only it was wider and longer. Amazing what you can cook in less than a metre.

Back to the Blue Shimmer, after the rib, I moved on to the colour work. Even though I had swatched it doing it in the round for real was easier than I had imagined, and as you start with only around 154 stitches each round works up fast. The pattern repeats are really small and relly repeatative, 4 this colour, 2 of another, repeat, so the chart is really easy to follow. Dee offered in my comments to tell me how she was taught to carry two colours in one hand and two in the other, I worked out a method to carry two in my left by quizzing knit gurus on Knitters review.com, and can do 2 in my right, and lots of practice on my daughters preparation for the Bohus sweaters. So have only had sucess with even tension with 2 in the left and one in the right. Any hints and tips greatly appreciated Dee, thanks for the offer. I am envious in a good way that you have access to workshops on colour work. I find it hard to keep the stitches spaced out along the right needle (essential for me to knit evenly when doing colour work) when carrying yarns in my right.

Picture, yes here one is, and pretty true to colour, on my screen anyway. I used a tripod and daylight which seems to give the best results. Now the guilty confession, I made a mistake, in the colour work and I will have to frog it. Yes really, in the dim light of our lounge, synthetic light, its begining of winter here and dark by 6:15 pm, not daylight I misinterptreted the chart colours and used the darkest blue when it should have been a mid blue. The actual yarns are quite different, but the ink used on the chart is simillar. So that last row of pattern, about 4-5 rows, of 217 stitches on 2.5 mm each need to be undone. That means froging 800-1000 2.5mm stitches, and picking them all up. With no lifeline .... argghhhh.

And when I look at it and compare to the completed pictures of 'real' Blue Shimmers, I see the dark dark blue is not right at all. I'm off to frog, but maybe tomorrow, to much for me to face today. It was all I could do to tell you about it.

Preparation for the Bohus.

I am in love, in love with a 'sweater' - or more specifically a Bohus, Blue shimmer. Maybe it is more an infatuation, but I think it is more solid and meaningful and unlikely to fade so must be love. I bought the kit from this site attached to the bohus museum, after seeing Wendys on her blog late last year (here). I ordered mine in the light main colour and had to save up, they are not cheap but when the yarn arrived and i saw the colours for real I was thrilled. anyway, I was also in awe of people who knitted whole sweaters on tiny needles. I was in awe of people like Wendy who knited with many colours in one hand and who's work was flat when on the needles. I was afraid to 'stuff' up the Bohus. So I conceived a cunning plan .... I would knit several colour work sweaters for my daughter in preparation for the Bohus.

Sweater No 1. a steeked fair isle in baby yarn, fingering yarn to those in the states, and 4 ply to my fellow New Zealand knitters. Knitted up on 3mm needles. I based it on an article in knitty on steeking and using a baby sweater for practice (here). My daughter was going thru a pink thing, and she looks soooo good in blue that matches her eyes, I compromised and developed a variation on the baby norgi. I also sized it up somewhat - using gauge and a wee skivey that fitted her well to determine the size. My fair isle got better and better as I worked up the sweater, by the time was knitting the tops of the sleeves it was flat and even. I do admit to designing as knit - not a good idea. the aesthetics of this peice leave me a little cold and reminded me that drawing and sketching lots of variation before starting has an important role in designing. After finishing the sweater I was inspired by Nippertails to knit a matching hat.

Sweater No 2. A top down Raglan, knitted in sock yarn on 2.75mm needles. You can see I was working my way down to those 2.5mm needles, and was hoping that my gauge was matched enought that I didn't need to use smaller than 2.5mm. I bought Addi turbos in 2mm and 2.5mm, and Inox in 2.25mm just in case. For the raglan I used fair isle patterns from Magnificent Mittens by Anna Zilboorg, 1988, page 41, and Lasekofte 2, page 137 of Knitting in the old way by Pricilla Gibson-roberts and Deborah Robson. I tried to map out the maths for a Top down Raglan using EZ/s ESP formulae, but resorted to Joan Scoggins About knitting instructions (here). My maths is good, but I just couldn't get it to work. Joan's works well but I do feel the increases are very sudden. When laid flat the yoke ripples. I had it all finished and was knitting matching socks - it was made of sock yarn and I had a ball left over. When my girl wore it the sleeves were a tad short - looking like she was just growing out of it. So after the socks were done, I cut a thread in each sleeve, picked up the stitches, and knit down two new sleeves, about 2.5 inches longer.

So its April, and I have knit two sweaters, one pair of socks and a hat since January. the Bohus awaits. the yarn arrived all skeined. So I borrowed a ball winder from work, sweet talked my man into being a human swift and last weekend we 'balled up the yarn". I've done the swatch, Bohus are worked with the colour work in the round and the body and sleeves in the flat. My swatch took 3 nights as i worked out how to match my 'in the round' to my 'flat'. I also had to work out how to eliminate the rowing out! I guess I have been knitting in the round so long i now have a knit/purl tension difference. Turns out I have to knit firmish and purl tighter to have even flat knitting with no rowing out. My other preparation involved determining what size needle was one size smaller than a 2.5 mm. That was the instructions for the ribb. I posted a question on knittersreview forum and recieved a wonder full response from a Swedish knitter able to tell me that in Sweden - the true home of Bohus - one size smaller than a 2.5mm is a 2mm. This makes me sound so anal, but I so want this to be 'perfect' or as perfect as it can be.

So .... its all go for the bohus, next move cast on 154 stitches on 2mm needles and rib for 5cm.