Knit by Nora

Compulsive ~ a strong, irresistible impulse to act (i.e., to knit) and Obsessive ~ to occupy the mind excessively (thus this blog)

Wednesday, July 02, 2003

Happy 4th of July

The first American flag was the British flag, which flew over the colonies before the revolution. As Americans grew more independent, however, they began developing symbols—and flags—of their own. Some of the first flags used pine trees (symbols of strength) or rattlesnakes (symbols of fierceness).

A more moderate solution was to keep the British flag, but combine it with thirteen stripes, representing the thirteen colonies. This would become the basis of the first official flag of the United States of America. On June 14, 1777, Congress passed the first law describing how the flag should look. They said it should contain thirteen starts and thirteen stripes—but they didn’t specify how the stars and stripes should be arranged. For the next forty years or so, the flag had a number of different looks, until 1818, when Congress passed a new, more detailed Flag Act. This law also described how the flag would look in the future—that the number of stripes would forever stay at thirteen to honor the original thirteen colonies, but that a new star would be added every time a state entered the Union.

And that’s why, when you look at the flag today, it has thirteen stripes and fifty stars. (Source of flag information: http://www.historychannel.com) I decided to swatch the original US flag with 13 stars and 13 stripes for Becky. I like the colors in the flag and have a library/living area done in red (sofa), white (walls) and blue (chairs/braided rug). Even my petunias pick up these colors.

Today’s Knitting News
Not much progress, just 8 rows on Tuscany cardie-shrug and will probably try to finish the right front flap of Milano at lunch or tonight. After that, there is just armhold and neckline trim and wa-la. I will be out of the office Thursday and Friday for a long weekend. See you on Monday with all my weekend accomplishments! I wish my fellow knitters & bloggers and my readership a Happy 4th of July.

posted by Nora | 9:46 AM

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