Eighties Sweaters Are Back: 1.3. Scandinavian

In sections 1 and 2 of this series we discussed Eighties sweaters inspired by traditional ganseys and Fair Isle patterns. Further north on the map lay another closely related knitting tradition that's voluminous enough to deserve a separate article.

3. Scandinavian 

It should be noted that despite the 1980s' fashion focus on sweaters, Scandinavian knitters knitted everything that can possibly be knitted. Some classic Eighties sweater patterns of Scandinavian origin were designed around patterns designers copied from early socks, mittens, slippers, pillows, and underwear. 

Searching for patterns for classic Norwegian sweaters shows that this general style of knitting was spread all over the Scandinavian countries and well beyond. It undoubtedly influenced the Fair Isle tradition, and museum pieces show that its influence spread as far south as France. Specific patterns were identified with specific places especially in Norway and Sweden. 

What makes a sweater Scandinavian?

Very simple sweaters, made of lightweight wool with patches or bands in two different primary colors, are most often thought of as Scandinavian, although not all of the sweaters traditionally knitted in the Scandinavian countries contained these Hometown Pride two-color motifs. Knitters experimented with shapes as well as stitch patterns, and sometimes they did produce one-color garments with textured motifs instead of two-color patterns. In the twentieth century, as sweaters became fashionable, Swedish and Norwegian traditional styles were copied around the world. The earliest museum pieces contained stars, snowflakes, flowers, diamonds, and leaves. More elaborate picture motifs, like reindeer, became popular in the twentieth century.

One type of textured stitch pattern, called tvaandstickning, seems to have been found only in Sweden before the 1980s. "Two-end stitching" was worked with two ends of yarn from one skein for a uniform color; the two yarns were twisted around each other between stitches to form patterns with scallops of yarn "floating" over the front of the...usually it was the edge of a sock or mitten. 

Another interesting, though time-consuming, stitch pattern was entrelac, which can be worked in two colors, in many colors, or in one color. Entrelac sweaters were found in Denmark in the nineteenth century and spread to Britain in the early twentieth. The fabric is divided into diamond shapes, edged with triangle shapes. Each diamond is knitted at right angles to those around it, producing a fabric that looks as if it were knitted of strips woven together on diagonal lines. The illusion is often enhanced by knitting alternating diamonds in colors and even two-color patterns that continue the diagonal strips effect. 

London designer Christian de Falbe created several Eighties sweaters made of large entrelac diamonds; this sweater (sold long ago) was a variation on one of his designs. 

Then there was the Bohus Cooperative, which specialized in new, unprecedented combinations of color and texture patterns that made unique fashion garments for women in the early twentieth century. Bohus patterns were copyrighted rather than traditional. This did not prevent knitters trying to copy patterns from any Bohus garments they found. 

Although Wendy Keele's collection of Bohus patterns (containing copies of some patterns preserved by the company) wasn't printed until 1995, several authentic Eighties sweaters were designed from Bohus patterns adapted to Eighties yarns and printed, by ones, in books and magazines. 

Three other Scandinavian innovations have remained less popular, without being forgotten: 

(1) Use of ragg (heathered, tweeded) yarn (alone, or mixed with other yarns). 

(2) The "slouch" style of sock tops knitted in horizontal bands. Sturdy calves with bulging muscles were admired, for women as well as men, at the turn of the twentieth century, but slouch-top socks seem to have been intended to stay up out of shoes more than to look stylish.

(3) The cropped top. Sweaters were regarded as long underwear. In Sweden, historians report, women's sweaters developed two parallel forms. Long-waisted sweaters (as worn today) were favored by older women who cared more about warmth than about style. Cropped sweaters were worn by younger women who wanted their layered winter looks not to hide their trim waistlines.

Nevertheless, when we think of Scandinavian sweaters we think of simple two-color designs, either worked as borders or medallions on the upper part of the garment, or worked all over the garment. Many Swedish, Danish, and Norwegian knitters have collected specimens of the most popular of these designs, often still identified with a place; when educated knitters (a.k.a. pattern hoarders) hear the phrase "Bjarbo sweater" we immediately visualize a different type of motif than the phrase "Delsbo sweater" brings to mind--even though the patterns we visualize are likely to be recent English or American designs, rather than Swedish museum pieces. 

Early sweaters were knitted in a hurry, often by professionals sometimes called "sweater hags" who peddled their work to people who had more profitable work to do. The wool was not particularly soft but, though museum pieces probably show some shrinkage, knitters tried to use the finest possible yarn and knit the maximum number of tiny stitches into a square inch of fabric. While modern U.S. knitters tend to grow impatient with knitting at 7 stitches per inch, early Scandinavian pieces contain 10 stitches or more to the inch. 

Early sweaters show many attempts to economize. Knitted fabric was often cut, not only at an intentionally knitted "steek," but just as if it were woven fabric. Sometimes knitted and woven fabrics were sewn together, more often with knitted sleeves on a woven waist than the other way round. In many old sweaters the waist, which was likely to be tucked into trousers or skirts, was left white while patterns in black, red, or blue were reserved for the top of the sweater. Often bands of two-color patterns followed the neck or shoulder line on an otherwise plain sweater. Sometimes the sweater was knitted in natural white wool with a natural or dyed black pattern at the top, and then the whole thing was overdyed red, blue, or forest green. Most Scandinavian sweaters do not show the shading of several different colors on different rows of a pattern that define the Fair Isle tradition, although a few of the larger traditional motifs were knitted with bands of different colors on a white or black background.

Colors available were usually natural white, natural or dyed black, bright red, indigo blue, dark forest green, and dark brown. Wider selections of colors became available in the 1920s. Bohus sweaters were often elaborate mixes of fashionable shades. 

Pattern books to look for: 

* Lind, Vibeke. Knitting in the Nordic Tradition. This mid-Eighties title (recently reprinted by Dover, and available for Kindle) is meant to be an attractive sampler of the variety of knitting patterns that can be called Scandinavian. Lots of descriptions of museum pieces, ancient to recent, and just a few complete designs to follow. The complete designs are meant to be accessible to modern knitters; they're not as elaborate or as time-consuming as the original designs would have been. 

* McGregor, Sheila. Traditional Scandinavian Knitting. This is an authentic Eighties pattern book, recently reprinted by Dover, that I don't own so I can't say much about it except that it was well reviewed and widely used in the Eighties. 

* Bohn, Annichen Sibbern. Norwegian Knitting Designs. As you can see, what Amazon has for sale, in English, today, is a new edition--not only translated but enhanced with new patterns for garments to help beginners use the patterns Bohn presented for knowledgeable knitters to use. Designer Wenche Roald promises that the new book includes all of the patterns that designers used from the 1920s into the 1990s. In the Eighties only the charts were available.

* Upitis, Lizbeth. Latvian Mittens. Latvia is not a Scandinavian country but, historically, it was part of the Scandinavian knitting tradition. Lizbeth Upitis was one of the best known (and loved) knitters leading the Eighties' reclamation of the craft. Latvian mitten knitting had developed into quite a cultural tradition, Upitis recalled, with a whole collection of traditional songs, many of which developed the theme that the progress of the mittens a young woman was knitting for a young man reflected the progress of the relationship. Mittens were small enough that people like Upitis not only knitted them at 10 stitches per inch, but then embroidered extra colors and motifs onto them afterward, though some of these mittens are knitted with more than two colors on a row. (Mittens were knitted on a handful of four or five tiny double-pointed needles; sections could be worked back and forth on two of these needles, then reintegrated with the rest.) 

* Gibson-Roberts, Priscilla. Knitting in the Old Way. Though this book tried to present at least one traditional pattern from each of the folk traditions the author had studied, with about a dozen Scandinavian patterns included, its usefulness is that--for knitters who have learned the craft well enough to follow the author's thought--it explains how to design your own sweaters around any traditional pattern you fancied. Prior to the Eighties most knitting patterns were preserved as dots on little square charts, or at best written sequences like "Multiple of 3 st plus 2: Row 1. K 3, p 2..." and so on. Instructions for incorporating these patterns into garments were sometimes printed in magazines or on skein bands, but knitters did much of their own garment designing. 

* Dale Yarns. Knit Your Own Norwegian Sweaters. This 1975 collection, like most knitting pattern books prior to the 1980s, was published by a yarn manufacturer and directed knitters to use only specific yarns produced by that manufacturer. The emphasis was on corporate profit, definitely not on female empowerment or cultural heritage or any such New Age ideas. Anyway, because these more and less traditional designs (some very traditional, some very trendy) were solid designs, this book was used in the 1980s and reprinted in the 1990s. And the almost anonymous designers were real Norwegians. 

* Starmore, Alice. Scandinavian Knitwear. This one's become a real collector's item--check out those prices! These were original, fashionable designs by a British knitter, some created in the Seventies, most knitted through the Eighties and thenceforward. Notes on the design process are included; some sweater designs are taken from mittens in museums, some from socks, and so on.

* And we have a Ringer: Kolstad, Lise, and Tone Takle. Sweaters; More Sweaters; Small Sweaters. These books were printed (in English) in the 1990s, but since they use traditional Norwegian patterns and shapes, only a careful student of knitting history will know they're not real Eighties sweaters. If your idea of Eighties knitting is that "it's all about the excess," these sweaters definitely qualify; the authors proudly proclaimed that they're "a riot of color and technique." 

What about Icelandic knitting? Icelandic knitting is a hybrid of two design traditions plus the island's unique ecology. While one of the design traditions that might be called its "parents" is definitely Scandinavian knitting, Icelandic knitting deserves a separate article. 

Bad Poetry: Sychar

(Pre-scheduled to pop up on Saturday afternoon.)

Why is "Bad Poetry" this web site's tag for verse writing that is (a) deliberately bad, or (b) memorable (after the author's lifetime) as outstandingly bad, or (c) my own? I don't think my poetry is all that bad. I doubt any future readers like the Petras will include my verses in anthologies of the very worst poetry written in English. I have, however, seen better. For a simple nonverbal explanation of why this school exercise is Bad Poetry, compare it with a piece of Good Poetry inspired by the same Bible passage, the third of four prizewinning poems on this page: https://www.newyorkencounter.org/2020-poetry-contest . The better poem has no verse form to speak of. It's one of those things I believe might better be called short essays rather than poetry. But it's better prose than the sestina below is poetry.

At the time (early eighties) I felt that this exercise in form was Timely. What I really didn't like, that was going on in many churches at this period, was that groupiness and "politicking" had displaced the spirit in which the New Testament was written, such that (a) women were demanding recognition as church leaders, and (b) men were hesitating to concede it to them. I lost some respect for both sides, but more, of course, for the greedy guys. 

In Islam there's a longstanding undisputed tradition that a woman teacher can be an imama but can't serve as imam in a mixed group, anyway, because if she were standing in front of men during prayer, the sight of her body moving in ritual prayer would distract the men. In some Christian churches that rule had been established, too, as a reason why women weren't invited to preach from the pulpit, although preaching from the pulpit did not involve ritual body movement and the pulpit hides most of the body. But in other churches women were invited to preach from the pulpit. Women were employed as "teachers" and "ministers" of all sorts. Sometimes their more active ministries of teaching and counselling involved more actual work than the official pastor's ministry of officiating at a few specific ceremonies. Sometimes, though not often, they preached as many sermons as the official pastor did too. Yet these women were, as a matter of church policy, paid substantially less than the official pastor because they were women. And in these churches we still occasionally heard the whine about how women ought to want to stay out of the pulpit because they might distract the men.

Were we to conclude that male preachers never distracted women? Or didn't it matter if they did? A quick survey told me that male preachers at the campus church weren't doing a lot of distracting; the women students and recent graduates I knew found men in the congregation much more distracting, such that few if any of us ever noticed the preachers, a lot of old married men. But those preachers' being old and married subtracted from their "physical resemblance to Christ." He was neither. 

So...in order to have been divorced five times, the Woman at the Well outside the town of Sychar must not have been very young. Probably she was older than Jesus was. Probably she was not in the habit of considering men in a purely spiritual way. In the Roman Empire older women were notorious for their raunchy conversation. So I wrote about her.

(Why "John the priest"? Then as now, "John" was the name most often given to men. No allusion to any other Bible character is intended.)

With my pailful of grievances I used

To trudge the dusty path to springs of water,

The villagers at dinner, I alone,

Free from their ravens' tongues and owl-round eyes.

I'd dabble my parched hands in lukewarm heaven.

So had I come, the day I heard his voice.

I tell you there's no thunder in that voice,

No more was that face one a painter'd use

To sketch the gods and sainted folk of Heaven.

Like any common man he asked for water.

My fancy painted leers in those deep eyes,

Where no leer was. Because we were alone.

Yet I was safe with him as if alone.

I gave him what he asked for; but his voice

Seemed merry; there were sparkles in his eyes.

He said, if I had guessed to what high use

That pail was put, I'd have asked him for water,

And he'd give me the water well'd in Heaven.

I chaffed, "I ask not water well'd in Heaven

So much as home-sprung water, so, alone

At home, I'd have, and need not carry, water."

A priest crept into that thin drifter's voice:

"Such bargains with strange housewives aren't my use.

How would the deal look to your husband's eyes?"

Then I saw all my sins mirror'd in his eyes

And knew him for a prophet sent from Heaven,

My camouflage of persiflage no use.

I felt like some caught thief who stands alone

Against judge, law, and townsfolk. But the voice

Bade me tell my companion, take my water--

All this he knew, yet he took thought of water.

I pounded home, in despite of the eyes

That had seen me trudge out, and the cold voice

Of John the priest who'd set me against Heaven

As opposite. I came back, not alone.

I think he might have said I'd been of use.

His living water's not taken the thirst for water

From Sychar, yet. And still I see those eyes

Each time I dip my pail, and hear that voice...

Petfinder Post: Cats in Teams

I keep saying that social cats are special and wonderful, so readers may be wondering how they can possibly find specialness and wonderfulness at an animal shelter.

Well, it's not easy. I once had a nightmarish experience of looking for a cat in a shelter where they all seemed to be hanging out together. In one big room, set up to look like a very large front room in someone's house, about forty cats of all sorts and sizes were lolling around on cushions and couches. The cats all seemed friendly. Too friendly. Too mellow. Not like real cats. And I realized they'd all achieved this mellowness by being doped out of their minds, so who knows what kind of pets any of them could ever be, but probably very weird ones. When the word gets around that people are looking for a particular kind of animal, horrible things can happen to animals who aren't really that kind.

Social cats aren't dogs; they don't bond with just every other animal. Some social cats, like our Founding Queen Black Magic, at least offer friendliness to everyone they meet. Some form tight, jealous bonds and make themselves disagreeable to others who come between them. Some cats are capable of teamwork with a mate, or in a sibling or parent/kitten relationship, but may not be capable of teamwork with any other cats. 

However, these tabby cats have been selected for their documented bonding with at least one other cat. 

1. Zipcode 10101, New York: Ryan and Bella 

The big male--a gray tabby verging on "torbie," like our Mackerel--"adopted" the smaller tortie when she came to the shelter. They act like a couple but the shelter staff assure us that they won't have kittens. To meet them, click or paste https://www.petfinder.com/cat/ryan-24759595/ny/bronx/animals-saved-by-grace-ny652/ .

2. Zipcode 20202, Washington: Jimmy and Francine 

Reportedly rescued from a hoarder, these cats are neither wild nor pets. They bonded at a shelter that encourages "pair adoptions" with discounts on reasonable veterinary fees. What might give Washingtonians pause for thought is that they're all the way up in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. A long drive...but a scenic one. Click or paste here: https://www.petfinder.com/cat/jimmy-and-francine-45144240/pa/gettysburg/forever-love-rescue-inc-pa886/.

3. Zipcode 30303, Atlanta: Nala and Simba 

Brother and sister are available for adoption at a reasonable fee that covers the veterinary care they've had. According to the shelter staff, it's the interaction between bouncy brother and snuggly sister that makes them irresistible. Click or paste: https://www.petfinder.com/cat/nala-and-simba-48211105/ga/atlanta/snap-2-it-ga644/.

There ought to be an update on the Blountville shelter situation, but it's late and I've had a head cold, which makes looking at screens very tiring, all day. More about Blountville later...

Shadowban This

Here's what I just tweeted that I expect will start the left-wingnuts hitting the flag button to activate the automatic shadowbans on Twitter: 

@StevenWisdom13 (who had already tweeted "If you don't want to help people who have lost jobs..."): "People will feel better about resuming normal activity once a virus is administered to a sizable % of the population." 

(I assume he meant a vaccine. Virus self-administer, and coronavirus has already administered itself to a sizable percent of the population.)

@5PriscillaKing: "I DO want to help those who've lost their jobs, but in this case,

1. Herd immunity to #coronavirus will probably precede effective vaccine. It'd be nice if safe effective vaccine is developed, but virus mutation & herd thinning are likely to happen first.

And 2. I want to help ppl who lost jobs thru no fault of their own. I've been there. Frugality helps. Gigs help. Cutting red tape *really* helps. Handouts are inadequate, have strings attached, & are unsustainable at existing national levels.

It's always nice when the well-off choose to emulate Mansa Musa ("Here, have this gold, Sir") but, historically, even that sometimes did more harm than good. Trust me as a low-income person, a writer: we want wages not handouts.

We may have low incomes but we still prefer to be seen as human beings of WORTH rather than bundles of "needs." If leftists are going to pull the shadowban string on me, let'em do it on that."

1. Herd immunity to #coronavirus will probably precede effective vaccine. It'd be nice if safe effective vaccine is developed, but virus mutation & herd thinning are likely to happen first. If you don't want to help people who lost their jobs through no fault of your own, then I don't know what else I can tell you.

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Bad Poetry: Mystical Love Sonnet

It's an exercise in verse form, but it wasn't an assignment; it popped into my mind one morning when I woke up full of adolescent rapturous joy, age eighteen or nineteen. I still wake up cheerful, most days, but have generally outgrown poems like this one.

"Thee" is, of course, God, and choosing between "-s" and "-eth" verb endings to fit the line was typical of the minor Renaissance poets I'd been reading.

O are there words to sing my love of Thee?

I covet Thee as flowers covet rain,

Which day by day their living doth sustain;

Or as they covet sun, so I do Thee,

Which calleth them to bloom by its warm light.

I cherish Thee as rrees may do that wind

Which only freeth them form roots that bind.

I wait Thee as the owl awaits the night,

Its dark-lit eyes being blind to common day.

I rise to seek Thee ere the day's begun,

And follow Thee throughout till it is done.

I love Thee as the traveller loves the way.

I need Thee as the robins need to sing.

I wait Thee as the land awaits the spring.

Bad Poetry: Prisoner's Song

This is one of those things that belong in a personal blog, or some other form of archive, for the amusement of family and close friends only...the very first "poem," or song lyric, I ever translated from French. (An older form of French, at that; the kind you study in college, not the kind you make a polite effort to speak in Montreal, at least until people feel sorry for you and speak English.) I'd translated about a half dozen from Spanish, and sung some of them in public, before college.

In college, I happened to find a recorded reconstruction of what scholars think might have been the song Richard the Lion-Hearted sang as a prisoner of war, being held for ransom. 

I wanted a few hundred extra dollars to take a summer course at a different school. 

I translated "Ja Nun Hons Pris" into English and sang it at a few potential sources of financial aid.

I got the money and took the summer course.

The original song had the following great asset: it's short:

Ja nun hons pris puet faire chanson

Adroitement se dolamente non

Mais par effort puet il faire chanson

Mout ai amis, mais povre sont li don

Honte i avront si por ma reancon

Suis ca deus yvers pris.

The translation does at least preserve the greatest asset of the original song:

A prisoner can sing no more

Unless he makes his songs both sad and sore.

If he made one, it might creak along so:

"I've many rich friends, but their gifts are poor.

How sad 'twould be if, because they gave no more,

I had to stay here this winter also." 

A slightly different version, with an extra verse, is available free on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0kiZ7ZwD-c . 

Petfinder Links: Poodles, Etc.

This week's Petfinder theme is poodles. Though silhouettes of elaborately groomed poodles were a popular decorative motif in the mid-twentieth century, curly-haired dogs aren't born elaborately groomed. When found in alleys, surrendered in shelters, etc., their coats are often long, shaggy, and messy. Grooming them to get little puffs of fur on some parts of the dog and smooth, crew-cut coats on other parts is the fun of keeping them for some humans. Luckily, the dogs can survive without fancy haircuts; they just don't have the look of something that would have been appliqued onto a skirt in the 1950s.

Poodles are a fairly functional breed, but hair in their eyes can be as much of a problem for dogs as it would be for humans. The Petfinder poodle pages show a high incidence of dogs who are blind on one side or both. Dogs with two healthy brown eyes obviously win the cute-picture contest so, if you like these dog pictures, please consider adopting a poodle and keeping the hair clipped away from its eyes.

1. Zipcode 10101, New York: Goldfinch from Brooklyn 

Calling this grey dog "Goldfinch" was somebody's idea of a joke. She's said to be healthy and up-to-date on vaccinations. She's a fairly old dog so, if you want her not to have to spend her last days in a downtown shelter, paste or click: https://www.petfinder.com/dog/goldfinch-49843240/ny/brooklyn/hearts-bones-rescue-ny-ny1463/

2. Zipcode 20202, Washington: Nay Nay from Richmond 

Poodles have been bred to different size ranges. Weighing in at just eight pounds, little Nay Nay is smaller than some cats and, though thought to be at least ten years old already, she might live another five years or more. She has outlived her human and is described as shy and quiet. And the poor little thing is stuck in a shelter that demands that people fill out online application forms just to meet her, so there's a real possibility that she'll spend all of her remaining years there. If you're determined to rescue Nay Nay, click or paste: https://www.petfinder.com/dog/nay-nay-49538901/va/richmond/for-the-love-of-poodles-rescue-richmond-va-va706/ .

3. Zipcode 30303, Atlanta: Snickerdoodle 

No. I cannot, in good conscience, recommend that anybody go through the rigmarole demanded by the HSUS control freaks currently clutching this cute dog. However, there are not a lot of adoptable poodles in the zipcode 30303, and Snickerdoodle does look desperate. So what I recommend is, you click or paste this: https://www.petfinder.com/dog/snicker-doodle-49881821/ga/mcdonough/henry-county-humane-society-ga08/ . Copy the raving-and-frothing below the dog's picture, especially the part about "an excellent verifiable vet history." Show it to your elected officials. Demand legislation about this kind of abomination. If you're HSUS and you're going to gas the dog unless it's adopted, even after all the expensive veterinary care they claim Snickerdoodle has received, the maximum adoption fee is $10, and anyone asking a prospective adopter's name  should be required to fill out a form listing every place where person has ever spent the night, plus the names of six neighbors who may have opinions about what person was up to. The nerve of anyone pretending to demand the absolutely perfect home so that nobody can rescue an animal they plan to kill!

Bonus: Roscoe from Blountville, Tennessee 

Obviously he's not a poodle. He's a Black & Tan Hound, one of the smartest, toughest, and healthiest kinds of dog on Earth--at least, he's more that than anything else. His coat may need flea-combing but will never need clipping. He is here serving as the spokesmutt for a whole shelter full of dogs who've been thrown into danger. Somewhere in Sullivan County a private Dog Sanctuary of some size got out of the owner's control, and the owner turned over three or four dozen sickly dogs, all at once, to the county shelter. Roscoe's good luck--so far--is that those dogs are still in quarantine and he's not about to be put down so that a new arrival can have his cell. If you are in Tennessee, drive out to Blountville and adopt some of those dogs, please. Sullivan County is (temporarily) a place where a lot of dogs really are homeless and in need of shelter, so I'll be greatly surprised if anyone reports any nonsense about online background investigations or three-figure "adoption fees." Not, at least, for Roscoe. 

Bad Poetry: Ballad of an Unjust Judge

This song, which I wrote many years ago, needs some explaining...I grew up in the bad old days before school choice became the law. Almost all children were required to attend public schools, most of which were bad schools and some of which were physically dangerous places. 

After David Peters had survived a year of abuse, including physical abuse, by an increasingly incompetent tenured teacher, his parents felt that his situation was bad enough to justify desperate measures. They had been thinking about moving to various remote places where the family's prospects weren't good, when they connected with Paul Lindstrom, who was operating a correspondence school program out of his church in Prospect Heights, Illinois. (To be fair, Lindstrom had hired real teachers who were in the process of building a worthwhile curriculum for homeschoolers, but they hadn't built one yet.) Lindstrom falsely claimed that the employment of certified teachers made his program legal for homeschooling in all States. It's important to note that, if they had not trusted the word of a Christian minister on this point, they would not have started homeschooling that year. And on this point Paul Lindstrom's word was an outright lie. He said his course was legal "in all fifty States." In fact it was neither legal nor up to standards even in Illinois. 

While Bonnie and George Peters avoided publicity as long as they could, a family in a similar situation in Martinsville publicized their use of Lindstrom's correspondence course in homeschooling in 1980. In 1981, the two families were summoned to court to face challenges to their fitness to homeschool their children. It is possible that other families, also homeschooling, were not prosecuted because these two families were particularly good examples of how well homeschooling could work. David Peters was a particularly bright, articulate, and charismatic teenager; middle school teachers had noted that, when video recording technology was made available at school, he showed real talent for public speaking and had a telegenic face. His homeschooling and tutoring activity was also a good example of homeschool students' social life. 

Though the homeschooling families were being prosecuted by the state bureaucracy, Virginia's legislature was in fact working to change the school attendance laws. Homeschooling was legalized in Virginia during the 1982 legislative session.

Meanwhile, in December 1981, Scott County had a rogue judge who was unsympathetic to homeschooling, and David was released on probation for truancy, barred from simply going back to public school, and sentenced to an indefinite term in reform school at the sole discretion of a court-appointed tutor. His parents were also put on probation for prison terms. Concern that a nice little lady like (not yet "Grandma") Bonnie Peters would be sent to prison ran high enough that, between Holy Innocents Day and the reopening of the schools in January, supporters had arranged for David and his mother to take an underground tour of the Deep South--of non-contiguous States that had no extradition agreements with Virginia. George Peters remained in Virginia to face the physical danger of proceeding with the case. Upon filing an appeal he was assured that Judge Richard Smith's order for his arrest would not be carried out. 

A few weeks later Judge Smith resigned from his position. His official reason was recorded as "back trouble." Much speculation and chortling went on about who might have exacted physical revenge for an unjustifiably harsh sentence, though for all anyone knew his back pain might have been caused by an accident, or a sagging mattress. Or stimulant drugs; Prozac wasn't available in 1982, but cocaine was.

David Peters died by accident in June 1982 and was buried in Mississippi. All charges were dropped, the family's names were cleared, and in 1984 the Peters family opened the Gate City Christian School in a local church's basement. (Throughout the case, an extended family dispute had been noticeable; the principal at the public school was also a Peters.) 

I was a teenager. I was a singer. I'd studied the history of satirical broadside ballads about public events. (They were regarded as comedy, not history; they anonymized people and blurred stories.) So I wrote one:

There was a Judge called Richard who dwelt in a certain town.

They called him Judge, but judgment with him was never found.

He smiled upon the liars and he sent away the thieves,

Having filled the jails with honest men who should have been sent home free.

One morning this Judge Richard was opening up his Bar,

And there he saw three young men who before him did appear,

And by the labels in their coats he knew what he'd decide,

But, for the sake of appearances, he ordered they be tried.

"I am a little schoolboy," the first young man did say,

"Though I've not seen a schoolroom in full many a lengthy day.

I stole a child's bicycle and broke into a store.

That's all; I have not had the time to have done any more."

"Go back to school," said Richard the Judge, "and free you'll surely be."

This youth went out and kicked a child whose age was only three,

Stomped into school, cursed teacher well, and stomped back out again

While Richard the Judge was questioning the next of the three young men.

He said, "Last Saturday night, down in the village with my peers,

I suffered a misfortune known as one too many beers.

I quarrelled with my brother, shoved him through the windowpane,

And ran a farm truck off the road, in the cold and dark and rain."

"You'll have to pay the glazier's bill," so Richard the Judge decreed,

"And pay some money to me, for I helped you in your need.

As for the truck, who cares?" he said. "Go; see my face no more,"

And he slapped the rascal on the back while showing him the door.

"No criminal I," the third youth said, "nor am I any fool.

The only reason I am here is that I don't go to school.

I read the Bible, and I write as good a hand as your own,

As my old father teaches me, in our cabin all alone."

"Your cabin is too draughty for to do your lessons in!

Though you live there, to read a book there is a fearful sin!

Your father to the jail, and you likewise, will surely go,

Unless you are in school each day, beginning this day morrow!"

The youth went to his cabin, then, and opened up the Book,

And never a word saying to obey Judge Richard from it took,

But only read, "An unjust judge is worse than a common liar,

And they shall surely have a place in a lake that burns with fire."

Then his old father took the Bible, and therein he read,

"Give due respect unto the law; let no one shame his head."

But different lands have different laws, and each may find his own.

So the son and father packed their bags, and next day they were gone.

When Richard the Judge heard word of this, he ranted and did cry,

For since he was a child, no one dared ever him defy.

He railed and pounded on the bench, and hammered with his hand,

And shouted, "Find these two men, for in prison they must stand."

Now come all you good people who just live and let folks live,

And mark the judgment on this judge the hand of God did give;

For when he pounded on the bench and hammered with his hand,

Judge Richard felt a beating on his back he could not stand.

Then slowly, slowly he went home, and all the people looked

And saw that in his body, as in spirit, he was crooked.

And he went to a far country where none might ever find him,

And great was the rejoicing his dishonor left behind him.

Gallery: Knits You Can Still Buy from This Web Site

This is such a cheap, cheesy way to do a shopping post, but it's been known to work in real life, so here comes...The Mostly Bad Photos of Hand Knitting Still For Sale Through This Site. (This will be cross-posted to Ko-fi.) I believe Blogspot is automatically linking each sweater to its own post. If not, you may use the mail or e-mail address at the bottom of the screen for inquiries about price, availability, etc.

Yes, it's Kaffe Fassett's "Turkish Carnation" design. I actually have two versions--a big blousy jacket, as shown, and the snug-waisted Zoe Hunt cardigan shape shown in Glorious Knitting. Both feature red and pink flowers on a blue background. I'm not sure what caused the flowers near the top to show white in the picture--it wasn't even my cell phone camera, which did an even worse job. The colors you see on the sleeves and waist of this sweater are fairly true.

Years ago somebody (it was my goofball elder Oogesti, if you must know) bought me a lot of yellow-and-white yarn just to see what I'd make of it. I made various whimsical things. This cardigan is the one that's left. Believe it or not, another cardigan and a blanket actually sold.

This pullover, with the cables around the upper arms and wrists as well as down the front, was inspired by a pattern printed in the late Seventies but is definitely in the category of Eighties Sweaters. In real life the color is more yellow than cream. 

A classic Eighties Sweater design by Sue Bradley. One size fits most men or women in approved Eighties oversized fashion. (This was actually ordered for a man, who then bought something else.)

Large size cardigan. 

Small (adult's) cardigan. 

In real life the sleeves are the same (reasonable) length and size. 

In real life this vest was knitted all in one piece, and the fronts and back are the same length. (This batch of photos was snapped by a friend's college-age kid who became impatient with the job.) It's a long vest, meant not to ride up and admit a draft when you bend over.

In real life the collar turns down like a shirt collar. 

This is not a pullover but a tabard--an open-sided shaped covering to pull over for warmth and lift off easily when you feel like lifting it off. Basically a shaped blanket. Though big, it's lightweight with lots of mohair yarn.

Medium woman's size jacket.

Detail of a cotton pullover with full-length raglan sleeves. 

Wool blend sweater, sized to fit teenagers or small adults.

Medium to small woman's cardigan. In real life the color is bright Christmas green, not teal, and no, I don't have any more of those buttons. 

In real life this baggy brushed acrylic vest has a reasonably long back waist and those figure-flattering (to some) points down the front. The armholes are roomy but the back and fronts are basically the same length.

This lightweight, long-line, medium-size pullover was a variation on a Cynthia Helene pattern printed in Vogue Knitting. She called the main stitch pattern "Ponga" (a kind of fern) and described all the other fresh stitch patterns as original tributes to New Zealand. What you see is not a precise copy, but close enough to call for attribution. It's a wool blend--should be machine washable, but be careful.

This extra-large mohair patchwork sweater was designed in and of the present century. It's a variation on a design Nancie Wiseman published in a book that was marketed as something new for people who'd learned to knit in the Eighties. One size has been a roomy fit for almost all women who've tried it on. Real wool and mohair will shrink to the size you prefer if you pin it to that size and let it air-dry flat.

Well, the Eighties sweater is still for sale anyway. That individual cap is not, but I always have a selection of simple little caps similar to it.

Tor-iiii...In real life the back and fronts are the same length, and that little tag of contrasting color is a skein band with care instructions for the main yarn. And the sleeves are designed for turning back. And if you ever get it wet you'll be turning the cuffs back more than once...but don't you love those autumn leaf colors of a vintage Eighties yarn that was given the classic Eighties name "Diana."  

In real life one of the two Cherry Tree Hill yarns in this jacket show more acid green than the blue-green I'm seeing on the computer screen. The jacket really does consist of two coordinating hand-painted yarns with little flecks of blue, purple, and green, one wool and the other mohair. Natural wool and mohair move very slowly in local markets. Online shoppers who love natural wools, here's your chance.

I knitted this one, using some acrylic yarn that was on sale, to the precise size specifications from a pattern a magazine called extra-small. Then I stepped back and said, "Why, I could wear that!" Yes. Eighties sweaters were oversized. The magazine editors were responding to a request to offer patterns for "a true petite" who'd described herself as 4'10" and a size 2. I'm 5'4" and a size 8. In real life the color is a little more blue and green than lavender, but the colored yarn is spun together with light grey, so from a distance it reads as a grey sweater with subtle stripes of color.

Detail of a blue and white cotton patchwork pullover. The design is meant to suggest a quilt and has a bunchy "quilted" look that some people may love but local shoppers apparently hate. It fits a 36" bust.

This round-necked, beige-and-pastels, all acrylic cardigan uses stitch patterns from a boat-necked natural-fibres-colored Eighties sweater designed by Helene Rush. 

In the late Eighties or early Nineties Knitter's magazine printed a design for a lace-collared, lace-fronted pullover to knit with silk yarn. I used the lace patterns to make this sweater with 100% cotton. Very wearable. Machine washable. Fits an average woman.

In real life this lightweight wool pullover looks black and white, though it probably will fade to grey after a few seasons' wearing. Very much a part of the Eighties' ethnic tradition school of sweater design.

Apart from being knitted in the 1990s of acrylic yarn available in the United States, this could have been one of Patricia Roberts' Eighties designs. 

Meg Swansen published the yoke design on this cotton pullover in the present century, but she and her mother were knitting variations on traditional stitch patterns like this in the Eighties. In real life it's dark green with light green "aspen leaves" around the shoulders.

And in real life these long-wristed mittens are lavender. If they'd been pale grey they would probably have sold faster.

In real life this short adult's or well-grown teen's jacket is more green than gray, but it's a mix of grayish greens. All acrylic, machine washable. 

Detail of an oversized jacket made from an early Eighties design. The motivation was to use up some chunky textured yarns; in real life they're lavender, blue, and grey. Sleeves are designed to be rolled.

Black and neon colors were a late Eighties look, though the neon-colored yarn used here was sold in the early Nineties. The stitch pattern was published in the early Eighties. In real life this is a largish unisex sweater, black wool (not 100% shrinkproof) with neon-colored acrylic around the shoulders. That's why I've had it in stock so long. You can wash it, even machine dry it if you want the waist and sleeves to fit a typical woman, but at some point you'll need to start pinning it to shape and drying it flat.

Spectacularly badly photographed detail of a lacy little sweater. In real life the color is pale aqua, the yarn is acrylic boucle, and the cardigan fits medium to small women.

Misleadingly photographed detail of a late Eighties design that was republished around the turn of the millennium as a "classic." (Michele Rose designed it as a pullover. Of her designs, Michele Rose was the one who publicly stated that she'd had trouble getting her Indonesian hand knitters to follow the shaping instructions, as they couldn't believe anybody really wanted their sleeves that long. Well...I used enough real wool and mohair that those who don't want a "one size fits up to 6'6" tall" look should be able to shrink the sleeves to the length they prefer.) In real life, though there are some blue and lavender tones, the colors in this heavy winter jacket are brown and gray--a mix of dyed and undyed sheep's coats. If you're willing to pin it to shape and dry it flat, this jacket will turn snow.

In real life this dainty little lightweight pullover is pale pink.

In real life this big, bold, unisex (if guys dare) jacket is called "Does Beige Really Go With Everything?" and it's a mix of beige yarn with scraps of everything left over at the bottom of the bin. It is machine washable and won't shrink. 

In real life this small woman's sweater (average length, but narrow armholes give away that it was designed for slim bodies) is royal blue with Eighties-style pictorial patterns, pine trees on the wearer's left and a sailboat on her right. 

Detail of an Eighties batwing shape from Fashion Knitting. 

Detail of a woman's chunky slipover vest that's not quite Eighties, because it was knitted during the Gulf War. The original pattern also featured long fringe, which this vest does not have.

This striped sweater (light browns, light greens, and light grays) was actually knitted from a "fashion" pattern printed in 2010. There's nothing of the Eighties about it but, because it does flaunt being hand-knitted, it could be mistaken for an Eighties sweater. 

The hat to match the sweater above.

 

This snapshot of the sweater in the bin is bunchy (in real life the fronts match) but shows the colors much closer to the way they really look. Little knots were a feature of the way some of those yarns were spun. 

Very thick and fluffy, this soft mohair-and-brushed-acrylic sweater in Spring colors has an Eighties look, especially if you can find a vertically striped straight-cut skirt to wear with it. In real life it really does feature acid green, periwinkle blue, lavender, pale yellow and white. It's one of those things that stay on the display for a while before someone comes along and says "It's me." 

This woman's sweater is seriously for small sizes (it'll stretch to cover a 34" bust, but it looks better on a 30 or 32). Wool blend, but enough acrylic to be machine washable. 

Another wonderful Sue Bradley design from the Eighties, though knitted later, with its date of manufacture knitted around one sleeve.

In real life this light, drapey shawl is more aqua than grey. 

This plaid jacket comes from a pattern that was printed in Elle in the Eighties, reprinted in a book I bought in the Nineties. The acrylic yarn really is pale jade green with blue and yellow contrasts. 

In real life this large child's or small adult's cardigan is light grey, not green.

The pattern of these big, thick mittens was "unvented" by Elizabeth Zimmermann in the Eighties. 

Detail of a natural gray-and-cream wool-and-mohair jacket I particularly like, designed by Meg Swansen in the Eighties. The fairisle stitch pattern is of Turkish origins and forms figure-flattering V lines across the front and back. Medium to tall adult.

At the top of the bin you see a gansey-style sweater knitted from a pattern by Madeline Weston. In real life the color is a soft watermelon red; it shows up as bright orange-red on some browsers. It's spread out on top of some of the other sweaters mentioned above, as they were folded in the bin.

The Sestina Afghan, an original design, is still on the display--probably because it's big. It's displayed here on a twin bed, but it'll cover a king-sized one. 

Here's a sample of the "topless hats" I started playing with before knitting real COVID cowls. This particular design is too lacy to be an effective face mask; it's for hair control and ear coziness only. The COVID cowls often feature a lace pattern folded over a plain or multicolor pattern. They're all similar in size and shape. In real life they're nice even bands of fabric, though the cell phone tends to make the end that was on my left look bigger. 

Detail of the brown twin-bed-or-couch-size blanket on the display. In real life it's dark reddish brown, beige, Christmas red, and blue-to-white, with sections of plain brown, textured, and colored patterns. The patterns I used are online at Naomi Parkhurst's blog, gannetdesigns.com, if you search back far enough.

Now a few new additions...

Google wants them to appear sidewise. Fine. Here, with the cell phone camera reflecting light and my hand casting a shadow on one of them, are two hats knitted from Gannet Designs stitch patterns.

Dolls dressed to match books.

Some dolls that were dressed to match books, but became separated from their books in storage. 

Large slipper socks. Some people are alarmed by the traditional Turkish slipper style, with heels pointed to match toes. Actually, when you pull these soft slippers on, they take the shape of your foot, so the heels don't look as unusual in wear as they do on a display. However, these socks fit a woman's shoe size 10 to 12, not the usual 6 to 8. 

On the display, this wool-blend hat (actually navy blue) looks like a small hat with a big, floppy turned-back brim. On your head, the hat stretches to match the brim and they fit snugly around a medium to large head.  

Here is the conventional hat to match the "topless hat" above. In real life both are a dark reddish brown, a warmer color than they appear to be on the screen. 

Another hat. In real life this one is made of "baby rainbow" cotton, white with flecks of pastel pink, yellow, green, and blue. 

This lightweight, extra soft and snuggly woman's cardigan originally accompanied a set of baby's things. I still have the matching bootees. In real life the colors are white, blue, and green, with none of the pink and grey I'm seeing on the screen. 

Hat to match the child's jacket below.

Here's a real Eighties "witty knit"--a Purple Cow sweater. The cow motif comes from Mary Ann Erickson's Knitting by Design. I changed the design slightly and added the sleeve stripes and matching hat. The set should fit an average child at ages two to three. Washable, of course, and made of rugged Red Heart yarn for handing down after the child outgrows it.

This scrappy denim-mix vest is held together by one strand of durable lightweight acrylic sock yarn, filled out with odds and ends from my leftovers ball. It's a classic V-necked pointed-front vest, a little more fitted than the gray vest shown above, as worn in the Eighties.

Detail of one of the Rainbow Round Your Shoulders Shawls set. The story about these shawls is that once, long ago, I arranged all my odd balls of yarn in a rainbow sequence and knitted a blanket that shaded through pink, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple, back to red again. That blanket was damaged in storage so I took some plain white acrylic yarn and knitted a blanket with the rainbow shades plied together with white, forming an interesting design. Though more durable than the first blanket, the second one was once again damaged in storage, so I took the usable yarn and re-knitted it into a set of blanket-weight shawls. The red and blue tones, mixed with white, each form an L-shaped shawl, similar to my own big blanket shawl and, like it, suitable for wearing at temperatures between the zero points on the Fahrenheit and Celsius scales. The green and yellow tones form a smaller triangular shawl. 

Detail of a Magical Mandalas square jacket. The square design, though not the mandalas, come from a pattern Ann Bourgeois printed in Knitter's in the 1990s. (Her mandalas were repeated in each square; mine are different in each square.) Once again the idea was to use up scraps of yarn, in this case blue scraps against a creamy white background. The finished jacket will turn snow and fits a medium to large/tall adult. (If you're not tall, fold the cuffs back.)

Two caps knitted with yarns a client supplied. The yarn is super-thick so the snowproof hats look as if they'd be extremely large. They're not, actually. They're big, soft hats that will stay on an average head. 

A client supplied the variegated cotton in this cap, too.

This blue and white yarn also appears in the brown blanket above. Here it's knitted all by itself as a blue anti-bullying hat.

Detail of one of the squares in a thick, warm patch afghan. The base yarn was cream-colored cotton, and the contrasts include several colors and materials--the black and gray mix in this square was not extended to the other squares.

If you look closely you'll see that these are two separate objects, a pair of slippers shaped from a pattern that recently appeared in Knitty.com. In real life they're a warmer shade of pale brown with a black fleck, rather than pale gray as shown. They fit a woman's size 6 to 8 quite comfortably, and have a side opening with string ties.