A Bluestocking Knits

A Mini BBBB

Messing around with some 1:12 knitting.  This pattern may be obvious to folks who were knitting a few years back -- it's a miniature version of Lisa Shobhana Mason's "Big Bad Baby Blanket" from the first Stitch 'n Bitch book (2004).  It's in Caron's Impressions wool/silk thread, in the "Abalone" color, wh. is very pretty.  My border probably could have been a stitch smaller all around to better match the original, but it didn't come out too badly for a first attempt, and the thread blocks very well, so I'm happy.  This was worked on 3/0 needles (1.5mm), I think -- the only needle gauge I have that is small enough is from Hong Kong, so it says 17, which I am assuming is correct!

In other news, I found a frame shop on Etsy that had something quite perfect for my "Zoé Elie" -- this framer makes new frames out of old-stock molding, and so they have that antique look while being a custom size should one need it.

"This Needlework of Mine"

Progress as of today.  The colors seem very vivid to me, after a string of "faded" samplers!  The little blue splodge behind Young Mr. Wisdom's head is the beginnings of a bird, but I think I might change the colors to browns, as with the two blue birds right there at the sides that is a lot of blue birds in a row, it seems to me.

Just finished re-reading Coot Club,

the fifth book in the "Swallows and Amazons" series.  Wonderful comfort reading!  The picture is I guess a publicity photo from the 1984 film, which actually isn't bad -- that sounds a bit snarky, but one never knows with films of favorite books.  The children aren't quite what I'd pictured in my mind, especially Dorothea and Tom, and I don't think that either of the films I've seen (this and the 2016 "Swallows and Amazons") really capture the intelligence and sensibility of the children*, but I'm impressed that they found actual twins for Port and Starboard!  And at least this one didn't feel the need to invent silly subplots involving Russian spies (for heaven's sake).

*Poor Susan!  I can never think without shuddering of how the 2016 version of "Swallows and Amazons" both let Susan get whacked on the head by the boom when John takes "Swallow" about and turned her into a squealing sissy when faced with the prospect of gutting a fish. 

I've just started reading C.K. Chau's modern re-telling of Pride and Prejudice,

now titled Good Fortune and set in New York's Chinatown.  There was a very good review of it in the Los Angeles Times not long ago, and then only a week or so later there was an article by Chau on LitHub about setting and society in Austen's novel.  It was heartening to read Chau's thoughts, which make it obvious that she thoroughly respects the original novel, so that I felt it much more likely that she wouldn't change characters' motivations or personalities so much that they conflict with Austen's plot (cough -- 2022 "Persuasion"! -- cough).

Knitting!!

Yes, it deserves two exclamation marks.  It's been a while!

These are the 1909 Ladies' Mitts I spoke of a few weeks ago, in the same yarn as the model -- Cascade Heritage Silk -- but in a different color, this one being 5730 Heather Rose.  I started the mitts once before, but even with the same yarn as the model, they were far too big, so I've frogged and started again with two less repeats.  We'll see how it goes now that I've got to the hand -- but I should look sharp, before it gets too hot ...

(Rather unbelievably, I took this photo with my camera using the manual focus.  I can rarely trust my very-poor eyesight well enough to tell if a subject is in focus, but I don't have my contacts in this morning, so was double-checking the display with it about an inch away from my eyes, and didn't do too badly!  The photo below is one of the few I managed to rescue from my phone, and the close-ups further down are from the camera.  But, yes, the auto-focus is shot.)

I finished the "Zoé Elie" -- the free chart from Reflets de Soie -- and had a go at aging it, to look more like the original d'un certain âge.  This is with coffee, Folger's Singles to be exact, which come in bags, and I used both the strongly-brewed coffee and the bags, the latter plopped down at the edge to get a liquid-stain look.  It didn't come out quite the way I was hoping, but it was all a bit of an experiment anyway, and I do like the way it looks -- plus it's a charming little piece in itself.

Någonstans i Sverige = Somewhere in Sweden

I found a puzzle yesterday at the swap meet.  I picked up this charming family group photograph, and turned it over to find this:

which is in Swedish.  An antique family photograph with all of the names written on it!  That's unusual enough in itself, but of course I also do Swedish genealogy, and so my interest was piqued for that.  And one way that I "pay it forward" for all of the help I've received over the years is to attach identified family photos to their records in FamilySearch.  And so I bought the photo.

The writing says: "Från vänster [from the left]: [back] Gustaf Olsson o. Sven, Erland Gustafsson o. Inga-Maj; [middle] Axel Ericksson, Elsa o. Anna, mormor o. morfar, Tyra o. Svante; [front] Viola, Gärda, Elsa, Åke, Gösta".  "O." is just short for och, "and".  I can tell that it's Swedish from vänster (spelled venstre in Danish and Norwegian), and also because of some of the names: "Gärda" is a Swedish spelling for "Gerda", "Gösta" and "Åke" and especially "Svante" are much more common in Sweden that in the other Nordic countires.  So, definitely Swedish, and from the house in the background, almost definitely in Sweden.

But I've spent a couple of hours now, on two different days, searching through the various databases for an Erland Gustafsson with a daughter named Inga-Maj, or a Gustaf Olsson with a son Sven (needle in a haystack), or an Axel Olsson with a wife Elsa and/or a daughter Anna, and I haven't found any yet who look at all likely, let alone with family members that line up with the other names.  (I can hardly complain, after someone took the trouble to write the names on the back, that they didn't give the grandparents' names, but gee, that would have helped enormously!)

From Tyra's dress, this looks like early 1930s or maybe late 1920s.  The mid-1920s, depending on the various Swedish parishes and the dates of their respective registers, is generally the cutoff date of when the registers are restricted for privacy, and so I suspect I'm being hampered a bit by that.  I think I can presume that the babies being held by their mothers belong with them, so Elsa and baby Anna go together, and Tyra and baby Svante.  But there is one too many "dads" in the photo -- probably Axel Ericksson goes with Elsa (and therefore Anna as well), and probably Erland Gustafsson (and baby Inga-Mai?) with Tyra (and therefore Svante as well?).  But what about Gustaf Olsson and baby Sven?  And whose mormor and morfar are the older couple?  I think I can see family resemblances in the faces, especially some of the mothers and daughters -- and by their matching sailor suits, the two little boys are brothers -- but I don't want to read too much into that, as they are probably all closely related, siblings and cousins, most likely first cousins.  Since the photo has ended up in a Southern California swap meet, it's probably safe to assume that a few, if not a number of them ended up in America -- or did the family who stayed in Sweden send the photo to yet-another sibling in America? or were some of the little ones in the photo actually born in America and the photo records a visit back to Sweden to see the grandparents?!