The American Swedish Institute's “Bohus Radiant Knits,” a Swedish explosion of color and texture, opens January 23, 2009, and runs through April 5.

Bohus knitting, which flourished under the aegis of the Bohus Stickning knitting collective in Sweden for 30 years (1939 to 1969), is well-known to American knitters through such books as Wendy Keele's Poems of Color.

The Minnesota Knitters' Guild began 2009 with a year-long Guild service project:  The "Block of the Month" club.

We are knitting 8-by-8-inch squares out of machine-washable fibers for afghans. Each month we are posting two patterns, one easy and the other challenging, to our Service Committee blog. To create your square(s), you can use the patterns provided on the blog, or use your own pattern.  Either way, we will collect the squares at the 2009 monthly Guild meetings.

Patsy Fisk, chair of the MKG's annual fall Knit-Out, reports that it was "a wonderful success."

With many volunteers and participants, the fifth annual event, held Sunday, September 28, at the Brookdale shopping center in Brooklyn Center, featured two fashion shows and two Fastest Knitters contests. "We had expert knitters and a community service table," Fisk says. "We had Susan Rainey's Thursday Grand Knitters. We had a wonderful master of ceremonies in [MKG past president] Bob Gotwalt. We had a fabulous yarn shop display. We had many, many teachers. Out of an estimated 250 participants, we taught about 100 new knitters the knit stitch."