I like making things: Google saves the day!

Friday, September 2, 2011

Google saves the day!

After seeing Alex's tuck stitch swatch I decided to knit my next garment in tuck. He kindly put up the link to the punch card pattern he used and I printed it out last night.

Today I decided to mark up a blank and punch it out. As you can see it has a lot of holes to punch and I decided to make it the full length of the blank card rather than the shortened one.

I was doing great until my husband came into the room and started chatting. At that point I should have laid it down....but no, I was feeling over confident and carried on punching away. I punched a wrong hole. aarrgghh!!!!!

It took a long time to mark and punch and I didn't want to start all over again. I thought about using sellotape but it would cover up some of the holes I'd already punched and then it wouldn't have a little hole in it for me to use to re-punch them.

'Google it' my husband said.......so i did and found this very useful tip which I expect you all know but thought I would post about it in case anyone didn't. It was actually in part of the description of a puncher for sale.

Punch Card Punch - This punch card puncher is used for 24 stitch punch cards. Transfer your punch card design to the blank punch card. There is a little point on the cutter in the punch card puncher that you position in the tiny hole of the card. Squeeze the trigger and the hole is punched. If you make a mistake and punch out the wrong hole, take one of the round pieces that collect in the non-breakable reservoir on the puncher. Position it in the incorrect hole. You might want to take a toothpick to hold it there for the next step. Take some red colored nail polish and dab on a tiny bit to glue the center back into the hole. Use red nail polish (or something similar) so you can see where you made the repair. When you go to use the card, check the red spots incase the hole came away from the card. This doesn't usually happen, but it's a great way to make sure.

The amazing thing is that I had nail polish. I don't usually wear it but I knew that at some time in the distant past I had bought some so I rummaged through my bathroom cabinet and found a bottle which was amazingly still usable. It wasn't red though!

2 comments:

AlexSeptember 2, 2011 at 7:07 PM
I am glad you got it pucnched out maureen, by the way If, like this punhcard it has most of the holes punched out that is an indication that it is for tuck stitch and also could be slip stitch too.
I didn't know that tip about the nail varnish, I usually use sellotape on both sides of the incorrectly puched hole and the holes the sellotape covers up I poke a dressmakers pin threw so I can re punch it with the puncher. after it is sorted out I coulour it in with a permenante marker pen.
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AnonymousSeptember 3, 2011 at 1:23 AM
That is a great tip for fixing your punchcard mistakes. I usually do what Alex does but next time I'm going to try the nail varnish.
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As in the words of Thumper: If you can't say 'nuffin nice don't say 'nuffin at all.

Glad you stopped by

I started this blog in 2011: Ever since my Mum taught me to knit at the age of about six or seven I have made things. Back then it was doll clothes. I was also inspired by Mrs Levitt an elderly lady who had a sewing room in a conservatory type room on the back of her house. I would sit and watch her in awe as she sewed.

When I was a child living in England the school system was such that you started at 5 years, did two years in Infant School, then four years in Primary School then five to seven years in Secondary School, depending on whether you chose to stay on after fifth form to get qualifications to go to University. I can't remember much of the Infant school other than making the standard square doily thingy from fabric that had holes in it so you could embroider patterns into it. A bit like the modern day cross stitch fabric but with bigger holes and spaces to make it easy for small hands to use. I also remember with great joy getting a toy sewing machine one Christmas which sewed only chain stitch but I did make doll clothes on it and that was before I started Primary school. I do have very vivid recollections of Primary school and having sewing and knitting lessons. In Primary school I knitted gloves and made a dress from scratch hand sewing it all.

Secondary school continued on with sewing by which time I had progressed to using full sized sewing machines and was making more intricate skirts and dresses. My parents bought me a proper sewing machine when I was thirteen. I used that same machine right up until I emigrated to Canada at age forty six years.

I have always had a fascination for sewing machines and knitting machines. I bought my first knitting machine at around age twenty one from an ad in a newspaper for twelve pounds. I had absolutely no idea what one was just that I wanted one. I trundled on the bus to the address in the advert and handed over my twelve pounds having absolutely no idea what I had really bought. Fortunately it came with a manual. It was an aged Knitmaster, very basic and I loved it. I wore it out. Next was a Brother push button one which I didn't keep because it was at a time in my life when things were difficult. Later on in my life, around forty, when things were better I bought a brand new Brother punchard machine with a ribber attachment. I loved it and made many things. Life took a different turn, I moved countries twice and along the way, regrettably I sold it.

Now, through the universe's blessing I now have another machine. It is a vintage one because they stopped making them early 90's but works perfectly and I love it. So I decided to make this blog to document my knitting progress and include sewing projects.

In 2013: we embarked on a new hobby, leather-work. My husband got started with it and it drew me in. It is something we can do together. We have a workshop so have plenty of room to work. We added another workbench for me to work on in 2013. We already had one but we were tripping over each other both trying to work at it. We only make things we want to make. It is strictly a hobby. We made some things for our good neighbours who help us out a lot. I am also working on Christmas presents. So this blog now incorporates the leather-work. Knitting and sewing will always be my first love though.

Fast forward to 2023 and now age almost 75 years. I have seven sewing machines, four knitting machines, several ribber attachments and a garter carriage for one of the machines. I am blessed beyond words, but I know that I have more than enough machines to keep me going in my lifetime so I don’t think I will be adding to my collection any time soon……….unless a nice embroidery machine manifests itself very cheaply.

I am a Brit living in the USA, sometimes I spell like a Brit and sometimes like an American. Sometimes I use slang and even make grammatical errors. I blog for the pleasure of it and to record my endeavours in the event that my memory fades, as I am sure it will with more age. I will be able to look back and remind myself of the things I have made along the way. So please forgive my mistakes when reading about my life making things here in the hinterlands and I hope you get as much enjoyment from my blog as I do from reading the blogs I follow.

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Friday, September 2, 2011

Google saves the day!

2 comments: