Bohus or Go Home

I can't remember if I have mentioned the colorwork sweater of unknown colors and unknown pattern before here. I reached the conclusion after making a lace Wollmeise sweater, that the next logical step was colorwork. I allowed myself to be open to any possibility, so when it came time to start acquiring yarn, and a pattern, and whatever else, it sort of organically formed.

Now things are starting to come together.

First, I bought some yarn in the middle of the night, in apparently my number 1 Wollmeise color, Hortensie.

Later I got a coordinating grab bag with a black and a blue black and purple.

Then after more daydreaming I bought Poems of Color on Amazon.

I read through the entire book as soon as it arrived, and there are several gorgeous patterns in there. The history is interesting, and it is sort of sad that the Bohus tradition did not last for very long, from the 40's to 1969. It is suprisingly modern.

It is worth noting that the original designs were meant for an angora wool blend, which in terms of stitch definition is the polar opposite of wollmeise. Basically the softness and blending of colors is lost. What is won, is the chance to use some fantastic saturated colors.


If I can wrangle 6 more colors I will be good to go, because I am considering making the Dean pattern.

It looks stunning in bright colors, and I am really excited to get started.

Oh wait, when I went to go take the pictures, I wound the MC and freaking cast on!

Of course this means I will need to think long and hard about other colors I want to use for this.

I have a
1. MC Medium Blue
2. CC Black
3. CC Multi with Blue, Purple, Black
These are harmonizing colors, that work with that medium blue.

I need a
4. CC Lighter Blue
5,6. CC Orange, Yellow or Red
7,8 CC Greens
9. CC Purple

Really I have no clue. I see all of these as useful. Apparently they will need to occur organically, or I need to track down the colorways and get specific.

So, where do I stand on the current projects?

Aside from some photography I have not touched the Blood Queen. I have been diligently working on the hexagon socks.

I have reached the conclusion that I need to finish them, so I am delaying the gratification of working on the silk shawl. Really I do a poor job of spreading my attention. It is on one project at a time. I have not come across a project where it is too complicated to carry around with me, for long.

The closest I got to too complicated was the Briar Rose Shawl, because I could barely knit a row at a time. Thankfully it got easier, and I would work on it while riding my bike (on a trainer, not on the road!). Eventually I found a way to make it less complicated, break it into pieces and continue on my merry way. This also means that nothing is off limits. Some people have small projects they keep in their car, or complicated projects that need to stay at home. I don't need to segregate these things. All I need is a patten that fits on a piece of paper, and a bag that holds the yarn.

I have 2 projects on the horizon. One is Earl Grey, the other could be Wildflowers, or the Sock Design in my Head. For a few more weeks they will be cluttering my WIP section, just because I want to have a plan down.

Even thinking about the Sock Design in my Head brings up the whole idea of the goals I set back in January. Honestly I haven't had the time to work on them. Frankly, I have done completely unexpected things instead.

1.) Yes I have been working on balancing future socks vs. current socks. I did knit the oldest skein, and I did try to knit with the second oldest skein. Mostly I need to roll in the stash and figure out the next inspiration. I was far more distracted by shawls and lace than I thought I would be.

2.) I am continuing the Wollmeise bender. I am 9 'effective' skeins in, and 4.3 'real' skeins in. Lace has a 3 time yardage multiplier, so it really adds up, and in terms of knitting time makes sense.

3.) I have had no time to design,  rewrite the pattern I translated, write the pattern for the gloves, or put to knitting my sock idea, or even offer to teach a pooling class. The wedding, moving, work, school, and life in general got in the way. Maybe I will have more time.

4.) Healthier has been going fairly well. Now that the weather is nice the only impediment to biking in is the fact that my bike lock is still in an undisclosed box. I certainly have not had the same rate, nor consistency since I posted this goal. But any lifestyle change takes time.

All in all not as bad as I feared. Really only goal #3 has really suffered, and that is the one that competes with directly chores, internet time, and sleeping.

On the fractal front, I accidentally came up with something new.

 One of the most visually striking, and colorful 'styles' in fractals are called grand julians. Even the rawest beginner can make one, but at the same time, it takes true mastery to make one that is 'yours'. The last time I made a breakthrough was when I added wire/tubes.

So, what did I do differently this time? The main structure of the flame is based upon a julian transform, that creates a center, two lobes, and internal reflections in between. I substituted juliascope, which gives everything a balanced and delightful asymmetry.

Everything still works, but the possible shapes are much more interesting, and there is more interest since there are differences in brightness, and saturation which a plain old Julian can't do. With 3 transforms and 3 variations there is so much you can do with this, and really 2 of the three are juliascope and julian. The third transform just needs to be something round to fill in the space, and give the other 2 variations something to reflect.

We shall see if this idea filters out into the broader fractal community. I don't tend to post my work in a place where most fractal folk see it. I make fractal wallpapers, and since I am not posting where most fractal artists post, I am a bit of an anomaly.

I am not done mining the possibilities.

That's all for now, well before I randomly finish knitting a sweater.

Take care guys,

Molly : )