Clear Weather for New Year's Eve

Seems it will not rain on New Year's Eve.

Christmas Morning Service in Swedish

Because I have undergraduate Swedish studies background I have been able to do a few things in Swedish, but this is not fluency. In other times First Lutheran was not always the Jul Atta Christmas Morning service site, but in a few of the recent years people have gathered there for a Swedish Service.

This is Christmas morning 2004 - at First Lutheran Church after the Christmas morning service.

God Jul -

Lilla Mors Bok Jul 1923

This advertisement is from Lilla Mors Bok Jul 1923 - look closely at the machine to see the word Record on it -

Every Mother of the house dislikes darning stockings

But if she has a

Rapidknittingmachine Record

It becomes a pleasure to knit

a pair of new stockings instead!

One can use homespun or reused yarn and thereby

avoid many expenses, even earn money

For the complete information with no obligation

Rapidknittings AB (company limited) Record, Department X

Gamlabrogatan (Old Bridge Street) 21, Stockholm

Public Domain

Color xeroxed from a small photo in the pages of Husmodern's article about the mission to search for lost Swedes in the United States, Julius Wellhagen and Otto R. Carlstrom stand, between them the 1938 announcement board outside First Lutheran Church where is lettered, white on black, that the Swedish Service will be Sunday and feature Kykoherde Wellhagen - the pastor's lettered name is Carl Rydell, who was still minister in the 1950's. The page is on a bulletin board at First Lutheran Church in December 2007. This treatment of material is allowable within the context of an educational purpose and with contained use. Distribution is piracy. According to the public library, public domain begins after about seventy-five years.

My perspective on controlled use includes my observation that if control was complete, no creative work would ever be viewed people.

Cozy Knits - joyeux noël

The month is décembre, chilly air......For

joyeux noël

a cozy knit French Poodle Bath Salts Bottle Cover

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chanukah

With the sky just becoming pink and it really still dark, there is still one light left to light on the Chanukah Menorah next to the downtown tree. Then after a wait in the post office lobby, a walk along the Bridge of Glass and the waterway where one or two boats had lights. Sunday the cold brought along a few flakes and I took the bus ride to Olympia as snow filled the evergreen trees along the highway. Olympia was so holiday white with wet thick flakes falling that I had to turn around, leave my bike on the bus and not take my bike ride to my holiday party. There are more great holiday outdoor things to do, lights on houses as one bikes back from the store.

Harder for The Mother Cat

This is from Husmodern Jul 1937. The mother wears a nice dress and high heeled pumps as she knits near the Christmas tree. She and her children are inset into panels that show the mother cat, with eyeglasses and an apron, and her ten kittens. In the middle panel, one kitten has the skein on its paws while another rolls it into a ball, but in the bottom panel all the kittens and the yarn are unraveled while the kittens roll around with an upset look on their faces. Do these kittens look a little like the Katzenjammer Kids?

VÄRRE FÖR KATTMAMMAN

HARDER FOR THE MOTHER CAT

Mamma berättar: Ja, nog kan det vara svårt hålla reda på er utan att tappa alla maskorna. Men det är forstås värre för till exempel en kattmamma...Om hon nu har tio små ungar i nästan samma ålder och vill lära dem sticka, så kan det till slut bli ett enda nystan ava alltihop och en fyrtio stycken klösande klor - ja tänk er bara det!

Mother says: Yes, it can be hard to keep it all in order without losing the mesh. But it is, you understand, harder for, for example, a mother cat...If she has ten small young ones in the nest of the same age and wants to teach them to knit, so that can end up a single ball for all of them and a forty-piece scratching of claws - just think of that!

Made in Finland

This glove was probably made in Finland. The gloves were with things that belonged to my mother. Her mother and grandparents came from Finland. It is for a hand the size of a woman's and has a long gauntlet.

Yarn Named for Louisa May Alcott

A yard named for Louisa May Alcott.

Dickens

Among city neighborhoods throughout the United States and England is Stadium nearby - from last year's Dickens Fest I have this of the carriage and horses.

I Do Not and Cannot Knit

The fact that I do not and cannot knit leads into my Louisa May Alcott knitting reference, which is not about knitting. Maybe it is because I sprained my ankle in first grade and remember my mother wrapping my ankle in an Ace Bandage, and I remember holding the skein of yarn for my mother while she wound the ball of yarn that whenever I remembered this Alcott passage I replaced the bandage with a ball of yarn.

In Eight Cousins Rose has pined after losing her parents, and finds a new home with two aunts and nearby relatives who provide boy cousins only. Her fears are relieved as she meets a housemaid who befriends her and finds her cousins to be interesting and friendly. This passage is from a chapter in Eight Cousins called "Ear-Rings":

"Well, I happen to have a little story with a moral to it in my mind, and I will tell it, though it is intended for younger children than you,"...

...once upon a time, a little girl went to see a young lady who was very fond of her. Now, the young lady happened to be lame, and had to have her foot bandaged up every day; so she kept a basketful of bandages, all nicely rolled and ready. The little girl liked to play with this basket, and one day, when she thought no one saw her, she took one of the rolls without asking leave, and put it in her pocket."

Here Pokey, who had been peering lovingly down at the five warm nuts that lay at the bottom of her tiny pocket, suddenly looked up and said, "Oh!" in a startled tone, as if the moral tale had become intensely interesting all at once...

"But an eye did see this naughty little girl, and whose eye do you think it was?"

"Eye of Dod," murmured conscience-sticken Pokey, spreading two chubby little hands before the round face, which they were not half big enough to hide.

Rose was rather taken aback by this reply, but, feeling that she was producing a good effect, she added, seriously, -

"Yes, God saw her, and so did the young lady, but she did not say any thing; she waited to see what the little girl would do about it. She had been very happy before she took the bandage, but when it was in her pocket she seemed troubled, and pretty soon stopped playing and sat down in a corner, looking very sober. She thought a few minutes, and went and put back the roll very softly, and her face cleared up, and she was a happy child again. The young lady was glad to see that, and wondered what made the little girl put it back."

"Tonscience p'icked her," murmured a contrite voice from behind the small hands pressed tightly over Pokey's red face.

"And why did she take it, do you suppose?" asked Rose, in a school-marmish tone, feeling that all the listeners were interested in her tale and its unexpected application.

"It was so nice a wound, and she wanted it deffly," answered the little voice.

"Well, I'm glad she hadsuch a good conscience. The moral is that people who steal don't enjoy what they take, and are not happy till they put it back. What makes that little girl hide her face?" asked Rose, as she concluded.

"Me's so 'shamed of Pokey," sobbed the small culprit, quite overcome by remorse and confusion at this awful disclosure...

"Come Rose, it's too bad to tell her little tricks before every one, and preach at her in that way; you wouldn't like it yourself," began Dr. Alec, taking the weeper on his knee and administering consolation in the shape of kisses and nuts.

Before Rose could express her regret, Jamie, who had been reddening and ruffling like a little turkey-cock for several minutes, burst out indignanatly, bent on avenging the wound given to his beloved dolly, -

"I know something bad that you did, and I'm going to tell right out.

You thought we didn't see you, but we did, and you said uncle wouldn't like it, and the boys would tease, and you made Annabel promise not to tell, and she punched holes in your ears to put ear-rings in. So now! and that's much badder than to take an old piece of rag; and I hate you for making my Pokey cry."

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Christmas Won't Be Christmas Without Any Presents

This is how Little Women by Louisa May Alcott begins. During this discussion, the four March girls were knitting. Knitting enters the Alcott books again and again. Knitting Christmas Stamps would not be Knitting Christmas Stamps without any Alcott.

talktacoma

This week there are community discussions called Talktacoma planned. Probably I will attend one.