Original design by Kerstin Olsson for Bohus Stickning, 1964. Recreated with updated instructions by Solveig Gustafsson, 2008. English translation donated by Susanna Hansson in support of Bohus Stickning and Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières.

8 colors; cardigan calls for ten 13 mm/0.5 in mother-of-pearl buttons

In 1963 Kerstin Olsson created a design called The Egg, inspired by a papier-mâché egg she and other Bohus designers had been given by the Swedish Princess Desirée. Kerstin was very fond of the design and began using it with different colors of yarn. This design, Myrtle, is really a Green Egg; the New Azalea can be described as a Red Egg - Blue and Gray Egg designs exist as well. Because of the colors changes - both in terms of actual colors and numbers of pattern colors - it isn’t immediately apparent that the basic pattern figures are almost the same (there are subtle differences that the trained eye will pick up) in all these designs.

The Egg and New Azalea and The Gray Egg are alternative colorways of this pattern.