Author: <span>Sheetar</span>
Gloves/Mittens

Evja Mittens

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Evja Mittens
Started: 28 Jan 2022
Finished: 5 Feb 2022
Pattern: Evja Mittens by Skeindeer Knits
Yarn: Locust Hollow Alpaca/Sheep in natural colors black and white
Needle: US 4 / 3.5 mm and US 6 / 4mm
Notes: I picked up the yarn from local farmers market friends and calculated it was somewhere around a DK based on the number of wraps per inch and the weight of the skein and reported yardage.  The white skein clocked in at about 14 wpi and was 4.2 oz (1.9 oz remaining at the end) while the black skein was about 12 wpi weighed 4.7 oz (2.4 oz remaining at the end).  Both were listed as approx 200 yard skeins.   Overall, this was a pretty quick knit, I found the needle sizes to be spot on for the yarn and pattern, the length and width fit perfectly, and the blend of sheep and alpaca fibers make for a delightfully warm and comfortable pair of mittens!  So, now here’s where I admit that as much as I respect the Norwegian thumb and the history of the knitting tradition, I deeply dislike how they fit and sit on the hands.  Our thumbs sprout out the side of our palm, not the center, so the Norwegian style thumb where there gusset begins just off center of the palm tends to twist the pattern on the top of the hand when worn and it just _feels weird_ to me.  Usually I’d hack the pattern and transition this to a “sore thumb” style (the thumb gusset starting on the side ‘seam’ of the mitten) instead, but I’ll be honest with you, it was a hell of a month and I thought just this once, I’d go ahead and do the pattern as written since I didn’t have the brain power to make the adjustment anyway.  I mean, it’s okay, and they fit, and they’re really pretty, but it’s definitely not my preference when it comes to mittens.  In the end, I’m still pretty damn proud of how they came out and will absolutely wear them tons!

Genealogy

Old Postcard – .. and send me home

 

Grandpa sent dozens of postcards to grandma while he was away with the Army Air Force, and it was neat to watch them go from being addressed to Miss and then Mrs after they got married.  This one was sent July 22, 1942 from Foster Field, Texas and there’s no stamp because postage was (and still is, in some places) free for the military.  Grandpa just wrote “Free” over the stamp box and it got straight to grandma, no problem.  I’m only posting the front of the card, not the back with the message since that feels a little too personal, but the back indicates the postcard was published by “Southern Card Co., Sa. Antonio, Texas.”  It’s a pretty funny postcard and seems to have a number of variations I saw on a quick google search.  The postcard has an image of a donkey and says, “I’m Out On a H.. of a time! When I can’t stand, tie this to my buttonhole, steal my pocketbook, wind my watch, and sponge my clothes, tie this tag to my [ass] and send me home.” There’s a space for name/address, then at the bottom, “Keep this out of the newspapers, and tell my wife it was an old stomach trouble.”

Postcard with a donkey that says, "I'm Out On a H.. of a time! When I can't stand, tie this to my buttonhole, steal my pocketbook, wind my watch, and sponge my clothes, tie this tag to my (image of donkey) and send me home." There's a space for name/address, then at the bottom, "Keep this out of the newspapers, and tell my wife it was an old stomach trouble."

Genealogy

Christmas Menu 1943

Another find from grandma’s scrapbook was a series of holiday mess menus grandpa had sent home from various posts.  This one in particular was from 25 December 1943 at Foster Field, Texas and featured a message from John J. Glennon, the post chaplain.  The menu also mentions the mess officer, Lt. Ned N Sweitzer and Mess Sergeant M-Sgt. H. E. Anderson, and there’s what might be a cover design credit to Pvt. Stanley S. Karafin.  It seems like a pretty standard menu with a turkey dinner, vegetables, and desserts, but notably missing from this one, at least when compared with others, is a mention of cigarettes and cigars below the desserts!  Short and sweet today – I have a few more of these to post, but I’ll line those up for future posts.  Click any image to see the full size.

Finished Objects, Gloves/Mittens, knitting

Bee Mittens

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Bee Mittens
Started: 28 Jan 2022
Finished: 5 Feb 2022
Pattern: Hey Bee-Otch Mittens by Drunk Girl Designs
Yarn: Valley Yarn Huntington in Mustard (0024) and Chocolate (B118) – 21 grams remaining of the yellow and 20 grams of the brown.
Needle: US 0 / 2 mm
Notes: Okay, so they’re not quite exactly to pattern, but as a beekeeper, I kind of wanted just plain bee mittens even though I deeply appreciate the bee pun.  So, I repeated the “Bee” part from the left mitten to the right once I got to that point in the chart, otherwise I left everything the same in the pattern.  I probably would knit the thumb another 5-6 rows longer (it was still a little short even after having added an additional 4 rows), and would swap out the thumb increases to run along the border to the mitten body instead of along the center outside of the thumb.  The construction just feels wonky and fits weird?  I’ve never done thumb increases this way and, it works, but it’s definitely not my preferred method.  Also, the patterning on the thumb made the float situation a hot mess on the inside.  If I knit these again, I’d probably just invert the design on the palm for the thumb to keep things tidier inside the thumb.  There were lots of long floats in this pattern, so it involved a good deal of managing those floats while knitting and then futzing with the finished piece to pull the too-long ones into submission, but it’s 100% worth it for the final result.  This designer does SUCH a gorgeous job on the colorwork designs and this is the second pattern of hers that I’ve knit, and I’m super happy with the finished mittens!

Genealogy

Mothers’ Day Postcard

 

Every once in a while, I remember I have something in the genealogical stash that lines up with the holiday at hand!  This postcard was found in a box of grandma’s things in a set of postcards that didn’t belong to her or any family member.  I honestly have no idea how she came across them!  I had contacted someone via Ancestry.com who was related to the person most of these were sent to, and neither of us could make a link.  Anyway, today’s postcard was in that set and I only found it online one other place, so I thought I’d share it today.  The front is printed in tones of blue with “Mothers’ Day” at the top, a photo of a woman, and carnations framing a poem that is as follows:

To Honor Our Mothers
Just one such kindly face,
A heart so filled with grace;
Gift of the One above,
A mother, and her love.

The back says it’s No. 212, price $1 per 100 by Meigs pub. co., Indianapolis, Ind.  Made in the U.S.A.  Someone wrote in pen what appears to say, “Compliments of the Epworth League 1934” – the Epworth League being a Methodist association for young adults that existed under that name from 1889-1939.  Grandma was Methodist, so it’s possible this was actually hers or her mother’s, or that the link between her family and the family mentioned in the postcards lies in a connection made through the church.  As far as who that woman on the postcard is, it doesn’t appear to be of Anna Jarvis, the founder of Mothers’ Day, and I couldn’t find anything more about who she might be even after doing a Google Image search and trying to find the author of the poem.  If you happen to know, definitely drop me a comment!!

Genealogy

1942 Reade Township High School Graduation

I’ve been trying to keep a good mix of posts coming so that it’s not 100% knitting all the time, but also because the most recent genealogical scanning project has a bunch of gems that should probably be put somewhere on the internet in case someone might be searching for this stuff.  This one is probably a little obscure since Reade Township is a tiny township in Cambria County, Pennsylvania.  The program for the 1942 Reade Township commencement wasn’t for grandma’s graduation, but that of her cousin, Nellie Gasparri which is probably why she tucked it into her scrapbook.  It has a red construction paper cover and is hand tied with a red ribbon.  The program date is Tuesday, June 16, 1942 at 8 o’clock and was conducted at the Reade Township High School in Mountaindale, Pennsylvania (now the “Mountaindale Conference Center”).  For a history of the school, the Cambria County page at CamGenPA has a good write up as well as a listing of graduates.  A list of the graduates in this program is typed out here for search engine indexing purposes, and the images from the program are below.  Click any image to link to the full size scan.

Academic Course:
Emma Babbits, Margaret Bennett, Henry Colwell, Robert Duke, Mardell Eakins, Anna Frank, Wilda Hollis, Margaret Kost, Marjorie McCartney, Harold Metzger, beatrice Morrow, Donald Yingling

Commercial Course:
Lee Ammerman, Martha Braniff, Lavonne Davis, Nellie Gasparri, Marcella Gates, Calvin Gregg, Leroy Hollen, Jack Kough, Emma Letcher, Lorraine Miller, Nancy Mulhollem (Mulhollen), Matthew Valent

General Course:
John Gates, Betty Gill, Ruth Glass, John Hollen, Florian Tomchek, Milton Zupon, Madolin Beck

Finished Objects, Socks

Beekeeper Socks

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Beekeeper Socks
Started: 18 Feb 2021
Finished: 3 March 2021
Pattern: “His Last Bow” by Lotta Groeger
Yarn: Haldecraft Yarns Andre in colorway, “None of your Beeswax” (80% SW Merino, 20% Nylon)
Needle: US 1.5 / 2.5 mm
Notes: You know that a beekeeper who is also a knitter is contractually obligated to knit these, right?  Read the fine print, it’s in there.  These are toe-up socks which is something I try to avoid since I find the cast on fussy and, really, I’m just way more comfortable with cuff down.  The little bee detail in some of the cells means they really do need to be knit toe-up, and they’re bees (!!!) so it was 100% worth forging ahead with a method that isn’t my favorite but produces a beautiful set of socks.  As is usual with toe-up socks, I can never seem to gauge where to start the heel, so the foot is just a tiny bit too long.  Then I got overzealous and knit the leg a bit too long, so it’s a little tight near the cuff.  In hindsight, I could’ve added a few extra stitches around to accommodate my calves, but by the time one was done, I wasn’t going back to fix it since it wasn’t too-too bad.  Can we appreciate though, the beauty of lining up the sock pattern and the yarn color and colorway name here?  I’m absolutely delighted with how these came out and obviously am going to bee wearing them a bunch!

Photography

Brownie Starmite II

 

A few years ago, I came across a camera at a little vintage market.  Usually cameras like this aren’t worth much now since they were mass produced and inexpensive, and not very complicated, making them pretty accessible.  For whatever reason, it sparked my eye, and I picked it up only to find that it was still full of undeveloped film.  Well, it obviously had to come home with me.  The camera is a Brownie Starmite II and I’ll leave the folks at the Camerapedia to go into the details if you want them.  The film inside was 127 film, probably still from the 1960s when the camera was made, so I knew the folks at Old School Photo Lab could handle it just fine.  I saw there was a frame left, so I shot that off (last photo below), then wound up the film and sent it off for processing.  In a matter of days, the scrappy Lab Rats at the film lab had emailed me the scans and popped the negatives (and reel) in the mail.  The images are below.  I don’t know anything about who owned the camera prior to my finding it or where it might have been used, but judging by the clothing, it’s probably about 1960s, and somewhere that it gets cold enough to ice skate, so it’s entirely possible the photos are of a family in the Philadelphia area where the camera was purchased.  Maybe some day I might be able to reconnect these photos with the family who left them behind in the camera!  Click any photo to see the full size.  The camera is probably still usable since there’s not much to it in terms of moving parts, no battery, etc, and you can still find 127 film albeit at ~$13/roll.  It would be fun to run a roll of film through this just for kicks someday.