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Happy 4th of July

In order to honor the 4th I thought I'd try to find something appropriately big related to knitting.  How about this:


An Exhibition by David Cole
This knitted U.S. flag designed in 2005 took time to prepare as the designer, David Cole, stood in a cherry picker knitting one stitch over one another with a fishing gaff until he had a flag over 20 feet wide.  It was located at MASS MoCA (Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art)  The needles are two aluminum telephone poles.  Should you wish to see more of his work check out his gallery.  He creates remarkable works, most quite large.  Further details of how the project was prepared can be found here.


Just as for Canada Day I think I'll post the words for the Star-Spangled Banner all 4 verses.  (I didn't know there were 4 verses for this anthem either.  Luckily I attempt to do a bit of writing otherwise I'd still be uninformed.)

O say, can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen thro’ the mist of the deep,
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream
’Tis the star-spangled banner. Oh! long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footstep’s pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave,
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war’s desolation,
Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the Heav’n-rescued land
Praise the Pow’r that hath made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto—“In God is our trust.”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

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