This is a Bohus Stickning cardigan designed by Anna-Lisa Mannheimer-Lunn in the mid 1940s. It was recreated by Solveig Gustafsson in 2008 and revised by Pernille Silfverberg in 2016. I am making the navy base color but it is also available in natural gray. (BTW, the pale gray lamsbwool color #2S included in this kit is just lovely! It is soft and pale enough to be just one tick away from 1S which is a white Lambswool.
The directions say to knit all pieces separately but I have decided to do what a few others have done and knit the fronts and the back all in one piece up to the underarms. In doing this, I will be managing 7 skeins of yarn at one time and as many as 11 since there are a few rows with 4 colors per row and the button bands and back will always have their own skein. I have not regretted this yet since the bottom ribbing will be seamless which I prefer.
I fully intend to add both of the knitted sleeves to the mix once I reach the underarm point and continue with the solid sleeves and back with the patterned fronts all the while shaping the sleeve caps and upper fronts/back as per pattern stitches. This means that when I get to a good point in the project I will have to knit two sleeves to the point of joining. The only hard part about this is that I’ve been enjoying the delightful patternwork part. Despite being knitted flat, the rows are straightforward.
I also plan to lengthen the body since it is relatively short - only 13” from bottom of ribbing to underarms. I will add at least 3” to this so I am watching the motif repeats carefully in order to know where to repeat one with good success. Even though the kit provides enough yarn for an XXL, I ordered extra patternwork yarn from Pernille to relieve any worries about running out of yarn.
The extra yarn is sold only in quantities that she offers…so if the kit only provides 3grams of one color, when I ask for more, I need to pay for the quantity for which she sells each color (yes, they vary) either 20 or 25 gram skeins depending on whether angora blend or lamswool. This usually does it but some of the kit colors were in 30 gram increments and in one case, the particular color was only sold/available in 100g skeins and this was fine with me since I have no worries about using extra yarn from her since I have alternated the plans for this design. ;-D
I started with an Italian Cast On which is one of the tubular cast ons featured in the book by Katharina Buss, The Big Book of Knitting. (June Hiatt calls this the Alternating Cast On for Single Rib page 57 in the second edition of Principles of Knitting). The reason I used Buss’ version is that she gives two options, one with a provisional yarn and one using main color yarn. I used the provisional since I needed to work on 1.5mm needles for the first 5 rows and it was pretty fiddly work. I am pleased with the results and it was worth it to go down in needle size to get the details just so.
April 14, 2018
Completed chart row 41 and decided to start waist shaping (on the back piece only). Also need to decide how to lengthen using proper motifs added before underarms. There is a significant, large (20 rows) motif that is expected to land just above the bust so I will need to add my rows below that but there is also a modest, midriff motif that I believe is intended to land at the waist so I have to decide if I want to add rows above and below the waist or just below. Looking more carefully at the design has increased my admiration for the complexity of the whole!
Also realized that I am really enjoying the fact that there is some plain knitting and some colorwork in each row which makes the knitting a bit more fun. ;-)
April 16, 2018
Am I just trying to make this more complicated than it already is? I need to keep track of waist shaping and buttonhole placement so I guess I’ll just start a reminder for myself here. Also, someone else mentioned in their notes that they used the wrong green for a couple of rows. This was a very helpful alert since I nearly did the same thing just now. I may go back to my chart and make some indication where two of closely colored greens are placed.
Another caution to myself…all those hanging balls of yarn colors can pull on the last stitches where used, so I lengthened the “tether” in order allow the balls to all rest on my lap without any weight while knitting on other sections but of course this means they want to tangle more. Arg!
One complication: As I am going to repeat a section of chart, the placement of future BHs and WShaping will be referred to with chart row plus a letter when performed in that added section.
Worked chart as is from row 1-55. Then went back to row 28 to reknit that section (28-55 which will be called 28B-55B for clarification and to call out BH and WShaping rows) which will add 3” to the body and will be below the waist motifs which are rows 56-69.
BUTTON HOLES approx. 3” apart (Edited later to add this this is too far apart!)
- In lower ribbing 3/4” from bottom.
- Chart row 22
- Chart row 28B
- Chart row 62
- Chart row 96
- Chart row 130
WAIST SHAPING - 8 rows apart
- Chart row 42
- Chart row 50
- Chart row 28B
- Chart row 36B
- Chart row 44B
- Chart row 52B
- Chart row 60
April 19, 2018
Finished with repeated rows 28-55 for added length and also now finished the nice “waist” motif on chart rows 56-69. Finally used the last of the colors, BS148 in that colorful motif that used 4 colors at once. This meant I had 11 balls of yarn in play for a couple of rows which was hectic and slow going.
April 27, 2018
Separated fronts from back and began right front shaping at chart row 101 but I’m actually upset with the whole for this reason: the back plain rows of knitting measure shorter than the patterned fronts. This could be my own knitting issue with row gauge but I must say that in the future, if I knit the fronts and back in one in this manner I would place some short rows in the back piece (easy to do) in order to keep the length appropriate to the fronts. The reason the fronts are measuring longer is that they are basically a stitch PATTERN of knits and purls vs. the plain back knitting. We know that knitting patterns have a different row gauge than stockinette so I should not have been surprised by this but alas, I was the dummy here. Perhaps a bit of blocking will help.
May 2, 2018
Finished Right Front which was lengthened at the upper front neck edge by working additional rows starting over at chart row 8 as per pattern and continued through row 17. Then worked short rows in navy on the 30 shoulder stitches in 10 stitch increments.
(ETA: thinking of ripping out the added 9 rows (I needed an extra inch of length) and extending the ‘green’ pattern for added rows before finishing with the final blue bit. Arg!)
Wove in loose ends and started knitting the Back for a break to knit something brainless for a bit. ;-)
May 8, 2018
Finished back and started left front.
May 12, 2018
Finished body. Whew, what a lot of technical colorwork! I decided to leave the upper blue motif alone…not from laziness, but it felt ‘just right’ after I got the shoulders joined but I look at other photos of this finished garment and the placement of motifs is interesting. I did not want large lozenge across the bust and made decisions early on to lengthen below that but I would strongly advise future knitters of this project to decide how it would be lengthened after row 159 since there was a good bit of knitting there as well to make the 8” or so mark for the arm holes.
I think I’ll do the neckline ribbing before I start the sleeves but will finish the last bits of weaving in yarn tails even though I have been trying to keep up as I went. At least there will not be scads of yarn bundles from here on out! ;-D
One regret…buttonholes should have been closer together. I spaced 3” as I did with the shawl collared Bohus cardigans but that ribbed front placket was wider and so the vertical spacing made more sense. With a narrower button ribbing, I should have known to make the buttonhole placement closer together…next time I will change that.
May 24, 2018
Finished neck edge. Now finished first sleeve. Picked up 126 stitches around armhole after the shoulder join (63 front and 63 back) using size 2.0mm needles and knitted one round. Changed to 2.25mm 16” needle and worked short row shaping starting at the shoulder with knitting 10 stitches past the shoulder join, turned and short rowed back 10 stitches (used German SRs) and continued short rowing by adding one stitch each side until 35 stitches had been incorporated on each side of shoulder. Then worked two stitches and then 3 stitches and finally 4 sts before knitting in the round again on the last 14 (7 per side) sts.
Then knitted 6 rows plain before starting sleeve decreases every 6 rnds until 76 sts remained. Continued plain knitting until piece measured 17”. Then switched back to 2.0mm needles to make one purl row before going back to 2.25mm needles for 2” of ribbing. Bind off was sewn kitchener rib.
May 30, 2018
Finished First sleeve with total of 72 stitches at ribbed cuffs. Sewn kitchener BO. Started second sleeve but hurt my hand and knitting is painful. It makes me realize how important knitting is in my life. I will make sure to get my fingers working hard again soon!
June 13, 2018
Finished knitting. Will block and sew buttons.
Finished weight: 373g.
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