Bohus on the back burner

Bohus Blue shimmer seems to be on the back burner, although I had mail from Solveig saying the rose collar bohus kit had been shipped. Will need to make drawer space for Rose Collar!

Toby's sock number one is all but finished, a 56 stitch, on 2.25 mm needles, with 2 rows of tubular cast on on my new 1.75 mm german dpns, 1x1 ribb for 4.5 cm, then 3x1 rib. A 'granny square' slip stitched heel, a round heel cup and onwards to the toe. I like a shaped toe, so will degrease every second round to about 12 or 15 stitchs. Very nearly 7 year old Toby posed for the photo, keen on having the pointy dpns as part of the sock, and reluctant to use the floral footstool. Same story last year when i made him a pair of black mittens. He wanted the final mitten to be fingerless and have the dpns retained as spikes. Not a show, not so much the safety issue(well a lot of that) but the scarcity of fine dpn's here, I was not about to let him gallop around the playground with my precious sock dpns menicing the others.

I plan to knit lots of Bohus this week, but have to admit that I do not find acres of flat knitting motivating. And it seems harder to sit and complete a row in a few minutes, at least even with colour work in the round I could pick up and put down for a minute or two at odd times of the day. I have a fear that to halt mid row would leave a hole, but I don't know why I think this. Am I brave enough to try a mid row needle park overnight and see if it is true? Will report on this next sunday.

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.

Girl friend Shrug is finished !

Girl friend shrug was finished, and on the party day. But was she finished in time for the party - no. GFS was finished at around 10 pm on the night of the party. Given the party was for a four year old, the party was all over by 4:30 pm, shrug was officially late to the party, and well past bedtime. So what happened? A little thing called responsible roles at work and research funding - thats what they think they pay me big money for. Well they think they pay me big money - I do ok, but I might argue the big money bit. Any way here is the Poppy-girl in the girl friend shrug. btw - have you ever tried to photograph a small exited four year old who had way to much fizzy, chips and sugar the day before? If you had you would know that even on the sport setting this was as good as it was going to get.




Blue shimmer bohus, no progress shot, I have knit all the increase rows for the back yoke, and now am working on the below the arm hole/syce section. I will have to stop dithering and come to a decision about waist shaping very soon. Bear confirmed last night that Rose collar was on the shoping list for my big '4-Oh how did that happen' in July, but both of us are a little easy-osey about delivering prezzies on time.


Knitting demo - how I knit and purl on my Bohus with the yarn in the left hand,
As mentioned in my last post, I am not suggesting this is the best way to knit and purl a Bohus. It is working fine for me, and gives me nice even tension with both yarns. Bohus knitting is famous for its use of both knit and purl stitches to give a textured effect to colour work as well as using three, four or more colours in a single row. When I was researching how to knit bohus found little info which demonstrated how to work colour where there was both knit and purl used. I have a copy of Poems of colour by Wendy Keele, but wanted to learn more about the techniques. Living in New Zealand knitting workshops are few and far between, i searched the net, I quizzed the gurus on knittersreview(see sidebar) and developed a technique which works. Eventually I developed a variation on the continental purl stitch shown in Sally Melvilles Purl Stitch book, and in this video here where it is called the Finish purl. No sadly I do not understand what I take to be Finish, but pictures are universal, and it really sounds pretty. i also aplogise for those with a dial up connection for the number of images in this post, but as a learner I was frustrated by sites that had a before and after shot of a knit technque or had line drawing of the needles with no indication of what the hands were doing.

Anyway, when I knit with two colours in my left hand, I hold the yarns as detailed two posts ago, and then to knit, I start by inserting my right knitting pin into the next stitch on the left needle.





























When the knitting pin is through the stitch, I twist my right wrist so the pin is now vertical/pointing up, and scoop under the yarn,


























I untwist my wrist bringing the point of the pin down and keeping the yarn under tension 'pop' the pin and yarn back thru the stitch.

Then I slide the stitch off the left needle, leaving the new stitch on the right pin, I tend to give a slight tug of the right knitting pin away from the yarn, at this stage to settle the new stitch in place.




To purl, I first 'lift' the purl yarn into place so it comes over the left knitting pin, this is not so much lifting the yarn as putting the left knitting pin under the yarn and lifting it up. Then I insert the right knitting pin purlwise into the next stitch on the left needle, the knitting pin needs to push through a good distance, so it can be twisted up and 'hook' the purl yarn.


Ater that I twist the right knitting pin down and slide the old stitch off the left pin leaving the newly formed stitch on the right needle. Some times I use my thumb tip to hold the yarn in place as I slip the yarn through the stitch.






I have learned to keep the yarn under tension while this happens, and do this in part by pinning the yarn against the left knitting pin or against a finger to stop it feeding so easily, I also roll my fingers away from the knitting. Most knitting diagrams show the left index finger raised to tension the yarn, but I find that causes me problems with tension and even feed.

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