sew long ago

As a wee girl, my Mum had a Singer sewing machine. It was not a featherweight. It was white, electric, and it folded down into a table that was really cool. When you weren't using it, the machine faced the floor suspended under the table-top (which folded out and became wings when it was open). I learned to sew on that machine. When I got to grade 8 and had to make a pair of bermuda shorts from a pattern, I whipped them up in no time flat and spent the rest of the unit helping other people. I can't remember everything I sewed at home, but there was a poplin dress a la 1980-something, a grade 12 grad dress in taffeta, and then a wedding dress in satin or pretend-satin.

Now let's go back to 1979 and imagine my wee Nan looking forward to a new sewing machine. She was probably completely stoked because she was looking at the first programmable sewing machine EVER. It memorized stitch patterns like flowers, dogs, etc. and strung them all together into a repeated thing. You could flip them over too. So if you wanted flowers this way, that way, this way, that way, you could totally do that.

She must've been giddy.

It was a Janome Memory 7, which also went under the name of the New Home model 5001. Janome apparently bought the New Home company and I know my machine and its hard cover said Janome, but I've seen some on the internet that still said New Home.

And that's what it looked like. The left side of the dark part to the right of the throat was a cover over the control buttons for the memory functions. It flipped open to the right. The top flipped open as well, and all the feet were stored up there. The whole thing was made of the heaviest metal possible and it probably weighed 50 pounds. I might be exaggerating, but I doubt it.

When it started making REALLY loud noises in 2013, I took it in to see if it was worth servicing or selling. The shop didn't think so. It's not old enough to be a collectible item, and I couldn't see spending a lot to fix it up when I could get a basic new machine for $400. So I retired it.

Two years later, I outgrew the basic new machine. Truth be told, I would have outgrown the Janome as well with the crazy stuff I'm into now. I was going to have to upgrade regardless. All is not lost, though, because the basic new machine can be my daughter's ... if she ever decides that sewing is something she wants to do.

So (sew) that's the history of my sewing life.

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a couple notes about blogging

I didn't realize, until I adopted feedly as my all-in-one-place-and-don't-need-to-remember-or-fave-the-urls blog reader, that my very own blog was one of those annoying ones that doesn't display all of a post in the RSS reader.

I'm sorry for the truncation.

I've stopped the short form and gone full version. If you're using a thing like feedly, you won't have to click the button to go to the site to see the full post anymore.

And also, I know that blogger sometimes has a hard time with images. When I am writing a post, it all looks good. When I post it, something happens and worlds collide and babies cry and pictures break. I try to then fix them within as short a timeframe as possible. It's not like I'm a narcissist who has to go read her own blog for personal satisfaction - I'm checking it.

I'm sorry if you're a quick reader who had the annoying experience (ever) of reading a post with busted-ass pictures. It sucks.

ps - have you noticed your spell-checker correcting anymore to any more? I'm finding it annoying. I know some stuff about words and when I want to say that I don't look at the short feeds anymore because I don't want any more of them ... that's what I'll say. And you'll never catch me typing alright. It's just not a word that I can get behind. All right then.

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sew much stuff going on

So, let's start with the knitting so it doesn't feel left out. I'm using up odds and ends of sock yarn in a pair of crazy socks. I realized once I'd cast on that my choice of slightly bigger needles and the accidental repeated stitch count of my last pair meant that I would have socks that wouldn't fit me.

Enter random friend. She thinks I'm knitting socks for her. I tried to explain the subtle difference between knitting something for someone and knitting something that will later be given to someone, but the subtlety was lost on her. She's still happily believing that I'm knitting socks for her. I'm not. I'm knitting socks because I want to and because it's fun to use up scraps, and she'll happen to get them in the end. It's different.

I'm doing an afterthought heel, so while they look like they may be close to done, they are a little less close.

The cherries there are what I made my knitting project bag out of quite a while ago. LOVE IT.

Now then, on we go to the specimen below. I struggled to quilt this little gem for my sorta-cousin's younger son, and it came out goodish. Ish. I think he'll like it, regardless.

The bit that looks purple is actually gray. Thank you, artificial light. And thank you for real, my accommodating teenager. The quilt is a creeper from the pixely game Minecraft and was the lad's choice. He doesn't realize that he's getting it this month, though. Muhuhuhahahaha!!!

In my usual way, I didn't really plan for the back very well. So when it wasn't wide enough, I had to get creative. I didn't like the idea of a stripe; I needed to break the pixel mould.

Shhhh! Don't tell him!

In other news, I've had enough of my sewing machine skipping stitches when I quilt, when I go fast, when I use Heat n Bond Lite, when I use spray baste..... It's wimpy and fussy. I needed to upgrade.

Cynthia. We will blame Cynthia. We can also blame a really good sale, and the fact that my Nan started me on my first only-mine machine and it was a Janome and I loved it. Who wouldn't love on-board feet?

I've only wound a bobbin and sewn two seams, but I'm in love. Just the size of the armpit (throat) is enough to make me squeal. OMG. And the features are amazeballs. This is like a Caddy compared to a Lada.

I'll be knitting tonight because it's too hot to use the iron, but you can bet that I'll be itching all day tomorrow to get home from work and get sewing ... Oh, and I'll be itching because of this 4-day-old tattoo, but that's another story for another post.

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Pi in 4.5 months

That pi shawl was a lot of round-and-round. It was great TV knitting and for a while was small enough to be travel knitting. Then, once bound off and blocked, I finally got to measure it and it's 4 feet in diameter. None of us realized it was going to be that big, and I'm glad. It's awesome getting a size surprise like that when you're knitting something that doesn't have to fit like a garment does.

Husband takes one look at it laid out on the bed and says, "Holy crap. How are you gonna wear that thing? Is it a cape? Can I be a superhero? Knitting Man. Haha!" Droll. He doesn't knit.

I've had SOOOOOO many people ask me how I'm going to wear a big circle. It's not a table doily. It's a shawl. I will bundle up in this shawl and be the warmest person ever, right there in the dead of winter. I will fold it in half and then wrap it around like you would any scarf. It'll be awesome. I'll post a picture to prove it in the winter. There's no way I'm trying it out this summer. Just knitting on it was almost too much for this heat. Almost.

I hope it's dry by the time I go to bed.

Now, for those of you who are wondering why it's called a pi shawl, here's the lowdown:  using pi and its relationship with circle radius as a guide, Elizabeth Zimmerman published this pattern in the Knitter's Almanac. It's a matter of doubling your stitch count after 6, 12, 24 and 48 rounds. Then you just keep knitting until you don't want to any more, throw a border on if you wish (yeah, just throw it on while your stitch count is 576 - such a breeze!), and bind off. And Andy's your uncle. Or maybe Bob is, but not for me.

I can see knitting another of these in the future, but with more patterning throughout.

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on the topic of knitting

Yes, I still do that. Knitting.

I've just bound off these socks:

They're a fairly basic eyelet pattern by Wendy Johnson. You can find it on ravelry.com if you're so inclined.

I did two at once, as usual, using the magic loop method. When one is done, the other is done within minutes. No second-sock-itis for me.

I cast on at the toes because I don't like to guess whether I'll have enough yarn. I do Judy's Magic Cast-on. You don't have to know who Judy is. I've never met her. Just Google it.

I did afterthought heels. They're my go-to heel now because I don't knit enough socks to remember all the steps to increasing, gusset and flap without referring to a pattern. Plus, if I want, I can do the heel in a different colour using the afterthought method. Rad.

I'm nearing the end of the Pi shawl. I have 576 stitches on the needle (yes, I counted) and I'm working Pattern 1 from the Knitter's Almanac, which is also where the shawl formula is. I won't say pattern because it's really not like any pattern you'd purchase from such a famous person today. It's like how my Nan gave me her recipe for curried shrimp - there's no way I could make it the same as she does (which is what I want) without really explicit measurements and instructions.

Anyway, here's a photo just 'cause:

It has been a little hot for turning the iron on lately, so quilt progress is pretty slow. More on that later.

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