Bohus Stickning was a Swedish knitting cooperative that was active between 1939 and 1969. It was established as a cottage industry to provide income for poor families in

Bohuslän Bohuslän () is a Provinces of Sweden, Swedish province in Götaland, on the northernmost part of the country's west coast. It is bordered by Dalsland to the northeast, Västergötland to the southeast, the Skagerrak arm of the North Sea to the ...

(Sweden) during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Knitwear designed by the founder Emma Jacobsson and other designers was handknit by women in

Province and sold to department stores, boutiques and fashion houses both in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

and internationally.

Background and establishment

Emma Jacobsson, wife of the governor of

, was approached in 1937 by a group of women who wanted to help launch a cooperative to increase economic opportunities for low-income families during a time of high unemployment. They experimented with the manufacture and sale of various products; the goal was to find a craft that did not require special equipment and that most women in the province could perform without special training. They decided upon the manufacture of handknit garments. Bohus Stickning was officially founded 12 September 1939 by Emma Jacobsson, who was its leader and guiding force throughout its thirty-year history. During its earliest months, the cooperative produced mittens and socks. Emma Jacobsson was able to sell a number of these to large stores in Stockholm, such as

Nordiska Kompaniet Nordiska Kompaniet (colloquially NK, and literally ''The Nordic Company'') is the name of two luxury department stores located in Stockholm and Gothenburg, in Sweden. The store in Stockholm receives some twelve million visitors annually, with ...

. From 1940 onward, Bohus Stickning produced scarves, hats, sweaters, and jackets, specializing in women's wear. Exhibition-of-Bohus-knitting-in-NKs-atrium-352105814156

Exhibition-of-Bohus-knitting-in-NKs-atrium-352105814156

Design

Since there was no local knitting tradition in

, Bohus Stickning recruited artists to produce new designs for the cooperative. During the 1940s, a characteristic "Bohus Stickning" style emerged: multicolored patterns making use of lightweight,

wool Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have some properties similar to animal w ...

or angora blend

yarn Yarn is a long continuous length of interlocked fibres, used in sewing, crocheting, knitting, weaving, embroidery, ropemaking, and the production of textiles. '' Thread'' is a type of yarn intended for sewing by hand or machine. Modern ...

, formed from distinctive combinations of

knit Knitting is a method for production of textile fabrics by interlacing yarn loops with loops of the same or other yarns. It is used to create many types of garments. Knitting may be done by hand or by machine. Knitting creates stitches: ...

and

purl A persistent uniform resource locator (PURL) is a uniform resource locator (URL) (i.e., location-based uniform resource identifier or URI) that is used to URL redirection, redirect to the location of the requested web resource. PURLs redirect HTT ...

stitches. Aside from Emma Jacobsson (a trained art historian and artist herself), Bohus Stickning designers included Vera Bjurström (1939-early 1940s), Anna-Lisa Mannheimer Lunn (1940s-1953), Annika Malmström-Bladini (1952-1959, then as a freelance designer until the mid-1960s), Kerstin Olson (1958-1969), and Karin Ivarsson (1960-1969). Mona Reuterberg, Margareta Nordlund, Ulla Eson Bodin, and Erna Gislev also took an active part in the artistic work of the cooperative. Göta Trägårdh also acted as a fashion advisor to help boost the cooperative's artistic profile. The Bohus Stickning brand became synonymous with high style and Swedish fashion. Notable clients included

Helena Rubinstein Helena Rubinstein (born Chaja Rubinstein; December 25, 1872 – April 1, 1965) was a Polish and American businesswoman, art collector, and philanthropist. A cosmetics entrepreneur, she was the founder and eponym of Helena Rubinstein Incorporate ...

Juliette Gréco Juliette Gréco (; 7 February 1927 – 23 September 2020) was a French singer and actress. Her best known songs are "Paris Canaille" (1962, originally sung by Léo Ferré), "La Javanaise" (1963, written by Serge Gainsbourg for Gréco) and "Désh ...

Ingrid Bergman Ingrid Bergman (29 August 191529 August 1982) was a Swedish actress.Obituary ''Variety Obituaries, Variety'', 1 September 1982. With a career spanning five decades, Bergman is often regarded as one of the most influential screen figures in cin ...

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, and

Barbro Alving Barbro Alving (12 January 1909 – 22 January 1987) was a Swedish journalist and writer, a pacifist and feminist, often using the pseudonym Bang. She wrote for, among others, the Swedish newspaper ''Dagens Nyheter'' and the magazines '' Idun'' ...

The Revival

In 1995, Wendy Keele published '' Poems of Color: Knitting in the Bohus Tradition and the Women Who Drove This Swedish Cottage Industry''. Her book kindled a revival of interest in Bohus Stickning, particularly outside of Sweden, offering the first extended history of the cooperative in English, including color reproductions of original design cards, and republishing photographs of vintage Bohus Stickning garments. In 1999, working with th
Bohusläns Museum
master dyer Solveig Gustafsson sourced and dyed yarns to recreate Bohus Stickning garments from original pattern cards and instructions. She later recreated 70 Bohus Stickning patterns and offered the patterns and dyed yarns for sale through her business
Solsilke
and via th
Bohusläns Museum
before retiring in 2014. Angora rabbit farmer Pernille Silfverberg then took over the enterprise and expanded the pattern repertoire through her business
Angoragarnet
The story of their research and efforts is chronicled in the museum's book, authored by Viveka Overland, ''Bohus Stickning: På Nytt, The Revival'' (2015). Gustafsson and the Bohusläns Museum are joint owners of the Bohus Stickning trademark. Bohus Stickning recreations are popular among knitters interested in fine gauge, multi-color, stranded knitting. Notably, Stephanie Pearl McPhee has blogged about her knitting progress during work on two Bohus Stickning reproduction sweaters, and Kate Davies has analyzed the Bohus Stickning yoke style through knitting the ''Gotiska Fönstret'', or Gothic Window sweater. In 2009, Susanna Hansson and Wendy J. Johnson curated the exhibition, "Bohus Stickning. Radiant Knits: An Enchanting Obsession," at the

American Swedish Institute The American Swedish Institute (ASI) is a museum and cultural center in the Phillips West, Minneapolis, Phillips West neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The organization is dedicated to the preservation and study of the histo ...

Minneapolis, Minnesota Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

, which highlighted both the history and legacy of the Bohus Stickning cooperative.

Notable designs

*''Stora Nejlikan''
The Large Carnation
by Emma Jacobsson, (early 1940s) *''Blåklint''
Cornflower
by Vera Bjürström, 1940. *''Röda Randen''
The Red Edge
by Anna-Lisa Mannheimer-Lunn, ca. 1940 *
Härskogen
', by Anna-Lisa Mannheimer-Lunn, (mid-1940s) *''Blå Skimmer''
Blue Shimmer
by Anna-Lisa Mannheimer, Lunn, 1949 *''Skogsmörkret''
The Forest Darkness
by Annika Malmström-Bladini, 1953 *''Vildäpplet''
The Wild Apple
by Kerstin Olsson, 1958 *''Gröna Dimman''
The Green Mist
by Kerstin Olsson, 1963 *''Ägget''
The Egg
by Kerstin Olsson, 1963 *''Stora Svanen''
The Large Swan
by Karin Ivarsson, 1966

References

External links

Bohus Stickning at the Bohusläns museum in Uddevalla, Sweden

Images of Bohus Stickning Garments in the DigitaltMuseum

Modern Bohus Stickning Reproduction Garments
by Pernille Silfverberg of Angoragarnet

by Solveig Gustafsson of Solsilke

Schoolhouse Press Newsletter article about Bohus Stickning and the Elizabeth Zimmerman/Meg Swansen Collection

Kate Davies. Discussion of the Bohus Stickning yoke style.
{{Authority control Swedish design Knitting Cooperatives in Sweden Knitting organizations 20th-century fashion