LYNNWOOD – Donna Holladay of Everett was showing another woman how to wrap thread around a long needle used for natting, a distinctively Norwegian style of embroidery.
“This is a lot easier than the other way,” said a student, Sandra Henneman of Palo Alto, Calif., using a shuttle, a plastic spool-like device used in natting.
Holladay has been doing natting for only about a year, she said. In teaching, however, she’s helping carry on a Norwegian tradition. And that’s a major goal for the Daughters of Norway, said Inger Saltonstall of Woodway.
A native Norwegian, Saltonstall helped to organize the Daughters of Norway convention that began Thursday at the Embassy Suites in Lynnwood. The three-day event, held every two years, is drawing 200 women from five Western states.
“It’s not about lefse and lutefisk,” Saltonstall said.
Well, not entirely. Lefse, a flatbread made from potatoes and flour, was served in the hospitality room, she admitted.
The convention includes classes in crafts, cooking and genealogy; a re-creation of a traditional wedding and a horse-and-buggy ride today in Conway in southwest Skagit County; a traditional outdoor dinner today east of Conway at Lake McMurray; and meetings, merchandise and speakers.
On display were memorabilia from Valkyrien Lodge No. 1 of Seattle, the first Daughters of Norway chapter organized in the United States. The organization had its 100th anniversary last year, and much of the memorabilia – including a 1907 painting of the organization’s coat of arms – is from the early part of the century.
Chapters now exist in Oregon, California, Nevada and Montana. Snohomish County chapters are located in Everett and Stanwood. Sons of Norway, the corresponding organization for men, has chapters nationwide.
The organization’s gatherings were the only social life for newcomers from the old country in the early 1900s, said Karin Scovill, 79, of Edmonds. Her parents brought her to the United States from Norway in 1928, when she was a year old.
“Now I think people get to a stage where they want to learn about their background more,” Scovill said. She and Saltonstall belong to the Seattle lodge.
Saltonstall, whose maiden name was Moerkeseth, left Norway 40 years ago. Now 66, she remembers her family hiding a radio from Nazi soldiers during Germany’s occupation of Norway during World War II. The family used the radio, a forbidden item under the occupation, to listen to British news broadcasts.
She also remembers the day the Germans left and the country was free again – “music and flags,” she said.
Daughters of Norway members formerly had to be Norwegian or direct descendants of Norwegians, Saltonstall said. Now, it’s enough to have Norwegian heritage or be married to someone with Norwegian affiliation, she said.
“In recent years it has opened much wider,” Saltonstall said.
Reporter Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439 or sheets@heraldnet.com.
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