Web-Letter, Issue 9 – Caitlin Pullover Greetings—and welcome to Web-Letter #9 in which we talk about Bohus knitting, slip stitches, and classic one fifty, a smooth merino yarn in a luscious palette of 22 colors. If you’re like me, you treasure every book in your knitting library. But some may be more prized than others. On my list of favorites is Wendy Keele’s Poems of Color: Knitting in the Bohus Tradition. I remember the day that I came across it in a local yarn shop. I was so excited by the book that I could hardly rest my copy on the counter long enough to get out my wallet. Read more.
The Story: Bohus at our House The lively, color-rich patterns used in the mid-twentieth-century sweaters knitted under the Bohus Stickning label were the work of the Swedish knitwear designer, Emma Jacobsson. In the 1930s, Jacobsson started Bohus Stickning as a cottage industry to help women supplement their families’ incomes in post-depression Sweden. After World War II, the business turned from a relief organization to a small fashion house for exquisite knitwear. I never grow tired of looking at her designs and trying to find ways to incorporate the subtle color shadings, rhythmic pattern progressions, and tiny purl specks that make up a Bohus patterns in my own knitting. The Caitlin Pullover shown here is a current attempt to incorporate small Bohus-like geometric color patterns in a fitted round-yoke pullover. Though the sweater could be worked entirely in the round, it is knitted in separate pieces—front, back, and sleeves—that are joined after a few rows of underarm shaping. A few more raglan rows are worked in the round before the patterned circular yoke begins. What’s cool about this sweater is how easy it is to work the color pattern. Although authentic Bohus designs were worked in Fair Isle using two and sometimes three colors per row or round, our pullover relies mostly on slipped stitches—a breezy technique that allows you to knit with only one color per row. (If you’re not familiar with slipped stitches, check below for more information on this great colorwork technique.) The Yarn: classic one fifty—100% wool Classic one fifty is a smooth merino yarn that feels like velvet next to the skin. Its smooth hand has to do with the softness of the fiber, and it's also the result of the structure of the yarn. It's made from fine, fine plies which are themselves, fine, fine, fine plies twisted together. All the plies and the twisting create a round, tube-like yarn with very little fuzz on the surface. Classic one fifty comes in a palette of 22 colors chosen to work together in shaded color-work patterns. It knits up between 5½ and 6 stitches to the inch. The Stitches: Slip stitch patterns are great for easy color work; they require that you knit with only one color at a time. Forget the headache of juggling more than a single strand of yarn at a time, the frustration of trying to remember if the MC goes over the CC or under it, and the snarly mess when you forget. And you never have to worry about the tension of the carried yarn and the length of the floats. There’s no yarn to carry behind the work and no floats. Learn more about how to slip stitches.	more photos The Pattern: Here's the free downloadable Caitlin Pullover pattern.
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