Know Your Sweater: Bohus Stickning

I was super excited to learn about the beginnings of Bohus Stickning in Knitting Traditions Magazine .

The brains behind the patterns is Vienna-born Emma Jacobsson. With a degree in the visual arts and a PhD in Botany, she had an interest in the handicrafts, but she upset her father when she went into botany, as he felt that she should be doing something more “womanly.” Little did he know that during the great depression in the 1930s, she would be called upon by a group of women from Bohuslän, a southwestern province in Sweden, to start a business together. She was largely responsible for the designs and patterns themselves, based on historic textiles, including Peruvian weavings and Chinese textiles, as well as motifs found in nature. She was known for her high standards, precise recordkeeping, and effective marketing techniques.

Bohus Stickning was born in 1939 and lasted until 1969.

Jacobbsson died in her 90s and all who attended her funeral wore her famous sweaters.