Monthly Archives: July 2013

The Designing Day

Americana: The 39-star Flag that Never Was

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History Trivia – Do you know why there never really was a 39-star US flag? Read on about why it never became official …

At the same time as I was designing Mini Lace and Beaded Flag way back in 2001, I had charted a larger-scale version with half-embroidered stars. I went ahead and published Mini Lace and Beaded Flag (the 50-star beaded mini version) in 1991, with the intent of completing the design of the 2nd version shortly afterwards. As many other things in my life, that project got set aside for many years. 12 whole years in fact!

So here it is 2013, and I stumbled across that 12-year old chart I had made. Excited to get back to working on this, I arranged with Crystal Palace to use their Cuddles yarn for the sample model.

The knitting went along quickly with no problems. Glad I was so smart 12 years ago and had charted all the details perfectly so that I could just enjoy making the project without having to re-figure anything. Love the Cuddles yarn, too. No bleeding — an important factor when putting red and blue yarn right next to white.

I was in the process of completing the embroidery on the “stars” before I realized I had 39 stars rather than 50. Duh! I am sure I knew about this 12 years ago. But I had forgotten. It is a design constraint within which I was working so that the feather-and-fan stitch pattern for the wavy red and white stripes would align properly with the blue union. No problem — this isn’t a real flag, of course.

But it did get me to thinking about whether there ever had been an actual 39-star flag. Excerpted from http://flagspot.net/flags/us-39.html —

” Q: When did the U.S. flag have 39 stars?
There never was an “official” 39 star U.S. flag. However, flag manufacturers betting on early sales misjudged in 1889 by believing the two Dakotas would be admitted as one state and the others would be delayed until after the 4th of July. Both Dakotas, Montana and Washington were made into states in November, 1889 and Idaho was admitted July 3, 1890! … “

Thus the next official U.S. flag had 43 stars, not 39 (or even 42, since it surprised everyone that Idaho was admitted just under the wire of the July 4th cut-off).

There are pictures of a couple of 39-star flags that manufacturers had designed in anticipation of the entry of the Dakotas as one state in 1889. Neither is anywhere close to the arrangement of stars I happened to come up with for my Americana pattern. I wonder if there is a little bit of Betsy Ross in me? hee hee

Americana

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Now a word about bunnies

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Republished from Issue #112 of HeartStrings Knitterly News. Read on about this local children’s literacy program.

I am pleased to have Tracey Graham as the guest writer for this month’s feature article. She shares about her local “Read to Your Bunny” literacy program. I think you will like it, and might even be inspired to do something similar in your area. So without further ado, let’s hear from her.

My friends and I have knitted up dozens of your gorgeous little bunnies for our local Read To Your Bunny literacy program. The program provides a book by Rosemary Wells, entitled Read To Your Bunny, {http://rosemarywells.com/?page_id=141} information about the importance of reading to children while they are very young, a library card application, a coupon for our local independent bookstore, and a handcrafted, lovable squeezable bunny for each new baby born in our local hospital.

In the almost three years since two wonderful teachers (Janice Romeiser and Eleanor Browning) started this program in our little city of Emporia, KS (population ~28K), more than 1300 little babies and theitr parents have gone home with the RTYB package.

Most of the bunnies are made of washable cotton fabrics, lovingly cut out and stitched by the local quilt guild, stuffed and clipped by a bunch of volunteers who meet for monthly “Bunny Bees”, then get their eyes added in permamnent, nontoxic fabric paint on by co-Bunny-Queen Eleanor. That’s _most_ of them. But in the mix have been approximately 50 or so bunnies made by me and my knitter friends using your wonderful pattern. Every swatch I make becomes a bunny eventually, and most have gone on to a good home.

Earlier this month, on Worldwide Knit in Public Day, we had a knit-in at our farmers market and held a drawing for a GIANT bunny that I made from a ~20″ square. The drawing proceeds ($27.50) went to the RTYB program to help pay for the books, stuffing and copying materials. I have all made up a series of five bunnies in different stages of completion – just the square, head added, front feet stitched, back feet stitched, and ears added to show people the magic that happens when we follow your ingenious pattern each step of the way.

I guess what I’m trying to say here is THANK YOU for posting your ever so clever pattern online where I could find it three years ago when I wanted a quick and easy knitted bunny to add to the variety available for the RTYB program! This pattern has been so much fun for all of us!

While I do sell some of my knitting (scarves, hats, mittens, sweaters, etc.) at craft shows and art fairs, and I do keep some bunnies on my table for display (my business name is BoyzenBunny Fiber Arts – named for a stuffed rabbit I received as a gift more than 20 years ago – I’ve been a rabbit collector for years and years), I do not sell any of the bunnies knitted from your pattern. I have won a little bit of prize money at our local county fair with a particularly spectacular knitted bunny, but in keeping with the generosity of your free pattern, I do not sell bunnies. All the ones I’ve ever made have been either donated to a cause, or given away as gifts.

Thanks again for the great pattern. It’s so much fun to see what one can do with different yarns of different textures and gauges!

Tracey Graham

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