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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.

Finished Objects, Socks

Sock Knitting Catch-up – Part 4

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Blue & Purple Speckle Socks
Started: ??
Finished: 26 Jul 2021
Yarn: Skein band missing, though I think it’s from Mountain Laurel Yarns
Needle: US 1.5 / 2.5 mm
Notes: I absolutely love the colors of this yarn.  I think I had originally bought it to make a hat, but it makes a mighty fine pair of pretty socks.

Dutch Vacation Socks
Started: Sep 2021
Finished: Oct 2021
Yarn: Malabrigo Sock yarn in colorway, “Indiecita”
Needle: US 1.5 / 2.5 mm
Notes: Started these on the plain on the way home from a brief vacation to the Netherlands while the husband was actually home, before he left for the UK for 2 years (that’s a whole ‘nother story) and while there was a lull in Coronavirus cases.  Yep, pandemic vacation socks.

Plain Old Socks
Started: Oct 2021
Finished: 23 Oct 2021
Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy in colorway “Good Luck Jade”
Needle: US 1.5 / 2.5 mm
Notes: This is one of those yarns that looked really heavy variegated in the skein but actually knit up in a pretty even set of color values (light/dark) and probably could’ve handled a simple pattern pretty well.

Purple Storm Socks
Started: 29 Oct 2021
Finished: 4 Nov 2021
Yarn: Wullenstudio Superwash Sock in colorway “Wooly Bully”
Needle: US 1.5 / 2.5 mm
Notes: I picked up this yarn at the Maryland Sheep and Wool festival in 2009, so it’s definitely on the older end of the stash spectrum.  I really dug the purple and grey together and they pooled up every so slightly around the leg in wide stripes.

That wraps up the plain old socks catch-up!  There’s one more that I need to post, but it deserves its own post since it’s actually a really neat design.  There are other knits to post too that aren’t socks, so I’ll be busy getting caught up for the rest of the year probably!

Genealogy

The Century Cook Book

We found a box of old books when my last living grandparent passed away that seemed to have been given to her by her mother-in-law and contained some pretty old books from even grandma’s mother-in-law’s mother (my 2x great grandmother).  While there’s no indication whose writing is in the book or a name printed in the front or back, one of the pieces of paper stuck in the book certainly looks like great grandma Olga’s handwriting.  My 2x great grandmother and her husband married in 1891, both immigrants from England – Alfred had come over with his adoptive parents in 1872, and Jessie had arrived in about 1890.  It certainly feels like the most likely scenario, that the book belonged to Jessie and her family, given the other books in the box as well as the handwriting belonging to her only surviving daughter.  The book has a copyright date of 1894, and this edition is marked on the front cover, “Compliments of the Pittsburg Press” (yes, Pittsburgh without the ‘H’ as the newspaper titled itself).  The inside cover notes the book cost $1.50.  I can’t be entirely sure when this particular edition was printed, but the newspaper did advertise the book in 1894, and by 1908, it was called, “The Standard Domestic Science Cook Book,” by the same author.  I couldn’t find any information in the newspaper about it offering the book for sale at a discount or as a gift to subscribers.  The book has clearly been used quite a bit since the leather on the spine has nearly completely separated from the rest of the book, held on by only two pieces of well-aged tape.

Inside the book are tucked random bits of newspaper articles containing recipes, notes on pages, and the end few pages were left blank to contain, “Recipes Gathered by the Way.”  All those pages are filled in, so I’ve scanned them here for you because they’re pretty interesting.  There were no oven temperatures listed, just “Moderate” or “Quick” oven, but fortunately there’s a temperature chart available here to help convert these recipes.  I may even give them a try at some point!  Small thumbnails here, click the images to see the larger version in case you want to try your hand at any of these.

 

The full book has been digitized by Google Books (available here), so you can have a look through the recipes in the book.  Beyond recipes, there’s a section on napkin folding, one on meal planning, personal care, stain removal, and how to care for your home.  The back quarter or so of the book involves a “Medical Adviser” which is obviously and somewhat hilariously outdated, but worth a glance if just to appreciate how far we’ve come in terms of medical knowledge in just over 125 years.  I’ll leave you with what’s easily one of my favorite pages because it’s SO cringe inspiring today.

Woman’s Chances of Marrying at Various Ages
Gloves/Mittens

How Cold Is It?

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How Cold Is It Mittens
Started: 13 Jan 2022
Finished: 24 Jan 2022
Pattern: How Cold Is It Mittens by Drunk Girl Designs
Yarn: KnitPicks Palette in colorways B961 (Light Blue) and 2425 (Dark Blue) – used just about half a skein of each
Needle: US 0 / 2 mm
Notes:  This is now the second time I’ve knit these mittens and these ones went to a friend as a holiday present.  It’s not too often that I knit for other people, but there are some folks who are absolutely knit-worthy!  Most of the time I’m knitting for just me because it is a sizable amount of time, energy, and cost that can go into producing a knitted object.  You’re damn right I’m going to do that for myself!  There’s a longer conversation here that I saw on Twitter about men’s vs women’s craft/hobby endeavors and how women are called selfish if they engage in a craft or hobby for themselves while that’s not said of men.. and also a conversation about how I knit for the enjoyment of knitting and don’t need to monetize it and sell what I create in order to make it valid and worthwhile.  Buuuut anyway, back to the mittens!  I had to check back to my notes when I knit the first pair, and I did indeed go down 2 needle sizes to a size 0 since I tend to knit a bit loose in colorwork and the pattern called for a US size 2 which seemed way too big.  I also always use a Norwegian Knitting Thimble for colorwork since I’m a continental knitter, and it works great to keep the yarn organized on my left hand without getting twisted or falling off my finger.  The mittens came out a tiny bit tight straight off the needles, but after washing and laying out, the yarn loosened up a considerable amount and the fit is damn near perfect.  The pattern also comes with a Norwegian style thumb, but I find that those twist the mitten funny when it’s being worn – our thumbs sprout out the side of the palm, not the center – so I switched up and added a “sore thumb” instead.  For the thumb, I started increasing every other row at the edge of the mitten body starting at row 3 of the mitten chart till I got to 25 stitches and then slipped those onto a holder and backwards cast on 1 stitch.  When it came time to work the thumb, I picked up 5 extra stitches along the thumb ‘crotch’ for a total of 30, then worked the thumb till it was long enough, decreased, and cast off.  This is absolutely my favorite mitten thumb type to knit and IMHO, it fits the best without twisting or distorting the pattern while wearing the mittens.  Uncensored version below the jump!

Continue reading“How Cold Is It?”

Drink, Whisk(e)y

Manatawny Whiskey Club – February 2022

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A few months ago, one of my favorite local distilleries, Manatawny Still Works, opened up a Whiskey Club which involves four shipments per year of standard or cask strength selections of their whiskies.  I definitely do more damage than that every year at their distillery, so I figured this would be a fun experience, getting bottles of unique whiskies with no worrying about showing up to release day on time or placing a pre-order, plus the shipments come straight to my door.  Can’t go wrong with that!  When I told the husband about it, his only question was whether I’d go for cask strength or regular, not whether or not I’d join, so, yeah, pretty obvious I had to sign up.

My first shipment was due to arrive while I was visiting the husband who is currently assigned to a posting in the United Kingdom, so they thankfully held it for me and delivered once I returned home in the first week of March.  I think I got the call during the last week of February, so we’re calling this February’s edition since that was the planned delivery date (the delay was my fault!).  The shipment arrived packed extremely well, with a layer of bubble padding on the bottom and paper shred fill inside, and the delivery person even called before to confirm I was available to receive it which is something I REALLY appreciate.  Included along with the bottle was a Glencairn glass with the Manatawny logo, a letter about the whiskey, and a club sticker.  On to the whiskey, it’s a 750 mL bottle of a Single Barrel Four Grain American Whiskey at cask strength, 62% ABV.  The letter included with the shipment details that this was aged in new, charred American Oak barrels for 6 years and says that the nose is cherry, pepper, and vanilla with sweet oak and gentle spice on the palate.  Mine is bottle 6 of just 9 at cask strength making this super unique!

Most whiskies, I prefer to have the cask strength so that I’ve got control over the ABV.  I’ve had some whiskies at 40% that were disappointingly over-diluted, and some incredible whiskies at 50% or higher that honestly didn’t need even a single drop of water.  Everyone’s palate is a little different, so I enjoy having that flexibility with the cask strength edition, especially since I tend to drink whiskey neat.  I’m not a whiskey tasting expert, but I enjoy a fine dram and have gotten a good handle (I think) on that whole taste-to-brain translation thing, so here are my thoughts!  On the nose, I definitely get cherry – a dark, red, dried cherry, maybe a little bit of raisins too, and definitely the vanilla and caramel I’d expect from an oak barrel.  Undiluted, on the palate, it does have a fair bit of fire from the 62% ABV.  After adding a little water, it mellowed out and my brain immediately sparked to those fancy Amarena cherries we’ve used for cocktails.  That dark, rich, syrupy cherry is definitely what I’m getting on the palate with a really nice rush of dark chocolate (like a 90% dark chocolate bar) as it rolls down the tongue, and spice at the finish with a tinge of smoke from the barrel char.  I mean, wow.  Absolutely perfect for the cold and snowy day we have while I write up this post, and a great whiskey to open the club!

If you want to sign up, the club is open to Pennsylvania residents, and is, in my opinion, absolutely worth it if you enjoy whiskey.  I haven’t been paid or reimbursed to say any of this – the distillery has been one of our favorites since they opened, and it’s been a delight to see them grow and produce some incredibly good whiskey in their 8 years of operation.  I’m only here to share the love of a fantastic whiskey, and I’m so glad to have gotten a spot in the club.

Finished Objects, Socks

Sock Knitting Catch-up – Part 3

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Continuing on with the sock knitting catch-up posts, but at least we’re into 2021 now!  This is some peak winter pandemic knitting, just basic plain stockinette socks, but honestly it was all my brain had space for at the time.

Fall-ish Socks
Started: 25 Dec 2020
Finished: 2 Jan 2021
Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock Lightweight, Mill Ends
Needle: US 1.5 / 2.5 mm
Notes: Mill Ends are the not-quite-perfect runs of sock yarn that are still plenty good, but not perfect.  Ravelry says I picked this up at the Rhinebeck Sheep and Wool festival in 2009, so wow was it due to be used finally.  This yarn is an absolute delight – it’s SO squishy and comfortable to wear even if a little thicker than most sock yarns, and what a pretty colorway.

Day at the Beach Socks
Started: 2 Jan 2021
Finished: 11 Jan 2021
Yarn: Spindle City Yarns Handpainted Sock in colorway, “Day at the Beach”
Needle: US 1.5 / 2.5 mm
Notes: It’s my best friends, blue and brown again!  Ravelry says I bought this in 2008, so this was one of my first few sock yarn purchases ever.  Pretty wild how a few skeins of sock yarn became bins of yarn, enough to keep me warm for an eternity.  This project marks my transfer from keeping records on Ravelry to keeping records in a notebook because of Ravelry’s site redesign and refusal to add basic code for accommodating those who found the new site intolerable or harmful to use.  I even noted on the project page, “Last FO on Ravelry.  Going to notebook logging or posting on the blog.  BYE RAVELRY.”  Part of the reason I got back to blogging was to keep better track of Finished Objects, so, here we are.

Stormy Night Socks
Started: 6 Jan 2021
Finished: 11 Jan 2021
Yarn: June Pryce Fiber Arts Plum Panda sock in colorway “Stormy Night”
Needle: US 1.5 / 2.5 mm
Notes: Oooh aren’t these pretty?!  The yarn was picked up at the Pennsylvania Fall Fiber Arts Festival in 2015 so it didn’t wait too long to become socks.  My notes on this say that I left the leg longer than I usually do to preserve the color transition.  I even alternated and used the other end of the ball for the heel since the yarn was supposed to transition all the way back to the dark green again.

Bacon Socks
Started: 14 Jan 2021
Finished: 23 Jan 2021
Yarn: Holiday Yarns Flock Sock in colorway “Bacon”
Needle: US 1.5 / 2.5 mm
Notes: Plain old sock!  The yarn was acquired at Rhinebeck in 2010, and how can you possibly resist a colorway called “bacon” which pools up like streaky bacon?!  I mean it really is pretty great.