I like making things: May 2017

Saturday, May 20, 2017

I made a poncho!

I have made a crochet poncho for our little grand daughter, I have never made one before so thought I would give it a try. I had started on a little knitted top after finishing the little cardigan but I could see it was going to come out too big so I unravelled it and started on the poncho.

The aim was to use yarn from my stash which I started off doing but I couldn't find any similar sport weight yarn to go with it. I have plenty of double knit but the pink I started with was thinner so didn't want to go to thicker yarn. Well, darn! I had to buy some more. Just one skein, but a mighty big one! pretty pastel colours.

It is difficult to know how big to make things when you don't see the children all the time so I edged it with loops rather than a fringe and that way I can add to it easily if necessary when we see them next month.

Last Sunday was Mother's day here in the US so we went out for lunch on Saturday for a treat and to avoid the Sunday crowds. We passed by a swap meet going so on the way back we stopped and I got out for a browse.

I only spent $3 and got quite a bargain. A sewing box with some bits and pieces in all of which are useful.

Thread, bobbins, long tweezers (for picking out fluff and cotton around the bobbin area), some sewing feet and an attachment so that you can change the sewing feet easily. These are great, I have them on my other machines so this one can go on the treadle. There was also some embroidery transfers. I have been hankering to do some embroidery, don't know why as there is nothing really I want to embroider but I just want to do some. Putting it down to old age eccentricity! I have lots of embroidery hoops and embroidery skeins so may as well put them to use. There is also a roll and a half of iron on hem bonding tape and one of those spiky wheel things. I have one of those already and for the life of me I have no idea what it is for. Anyone know?????

The box and contents

Bobbins will fit my Singer Sewmate and the sewing feet will fit all my machines. The blue thing has a spiky wheel and I have no idea what it is used for.

Plenty of embroidery transfers

The sewing feet and some sewing machine oil and a screw to attach sewing machine to table, (will keep as a spare)

A full roll and a half roll of hem tape

I was well pleased with my bargain.

I also had to work a little more on my treadle cabinet as the machine started getting stuck down in the cabinet again. It was catching again on the metal slide. Also I needed to adjust the mechanism that raises the machine as it wasn't going up completely so wasn't sitting flush. When I eventually found the right spanner I was able to adjust the height it came up so it is now more or less flush. For now I am leaving it up and covering the whole machine and cabinet with a sheet when not in use. I will have to find a way I can fix the metal slide in place better but that is a job for another day.

Last week we went to the VA hospital for my husband to have cardioversion which is where they shock the heart to try and get it back into normal rhythm. It worked after the second shock but now they are monitoring him for congestive heart failure. They sent him a machine and a set of scales and a blood pressure cup that plug into it that he has to use once a day at the same time each day to take his blood pressure/heart rate and his weight. Then it transmits that info to the hospital, it is called Telehealth. Pretty nifty. It can also have other attachments too to monitor more things but that is all he has for now thankfully. It does it through the cell phone signal as we do not have a land line anymore as we went to satellite VOIP phones. I am impressed, just hope someone at the other end is reading it!

Tuesday, May 9, 2017

A little more productive this past week

It stopped raining and I have been able to get out and mow quite a bit. We mow about 5 or more acres all together so I split it up into sections. The rain had certainly been good for the grass as it is quite lush and was very long.

Yesterday was not such a good day though, I got the mower stuck in some mud. This is the second time this year but it was in a different place where we could get the van close to tow it out. Well, that backfired because we got that stuck too!

Ring, ring, "Er hello Cynthia, I know this probably isn't a good time as you are going in to the hospital for knee replacement surgery tomorrow but do you think you could ask your son if he could come with his pick up truck and tow us out the mud again please?"

"He will be right down" she replied laughing.

Have I ever mentioned we have the best neighbours ever?

Well he came on down and towed out the van and then the mower. Needless to say I was done mowing for the day. I did get out this morning and got some done, though giving wide berth to that particular area!

My favourite iris bloomed. It is obviously not in a good place soil wise as it doesn't produce many blooms a year but the colour is very delicate.

Our light purple ones also bloomed in abundance this year as did the yellow in a bed further up the lane.

But aside from the mowing and all the usual household chores I finished the little shrug cardigan I was making for our grand daughter.

I didn't follow the pattern exactly as when I did the front bands as per the pattern it seemed way too bulky so I undid them and improvised by crocheting the front bands instead. Also, I decided to put buttons all the way down the front rather than just one at the top. I had found some lovely multi coloured glass buttons when sorting out some of my sewing stuff, they must have been from my MIL's things as they are quite old. The packaging was very dated and I don't recall buying them. They are delightful. It looks a bit squat but it is only meant to be a short bolero style cardigan for a 2-3 year old.

I have started on another little knitted summer top while I am in the knitting frame of mind.

On a different note, this coming Friday we have to go to the VA in Columbia for my husband to have cardioversion, where they knock him out and shock his heart in a bid to get it into normal rhythm, he has been in persistent atrial fib since February and it is taking it's toll on him. I thought he was going to peg out on me yesterday when we were trying to get the mower out of the mud. Hoping for a big improvement after this procedure. Fingers crossed!

Monday, May 1, 2017

What a lotta rain!

We have had a lot of rain here this few days, more than usual for this time of year but needed to fill up the aquifers so no complaints. It did put the kibosh on the mowing and it is really quite muddy outside. The dogs, no matter how many times I tell them, do NOT wipe their paws when they come in lol. So, an ongoing battle with dirty paw prints but what the heck, I love my dogs.

Maggie, doesn't much like the heavy rain, it is a job to get her off the front porch to go do her business. She holds it in rather than get wet but eventually, when she can't wait any longer, she finds the driest way through the bushes to the grass then hi-tails it right back back in. Boris doesn't care, he doesn't mind the rain at all.

We got a few hours of no rain yesterday so I took them for their walk. For a doggie who doesn't like the rain she doesn't care how wet she gets running through the wet grass and came back soaked through!

I had a chance last week to spend a few hours on the treadle machine, getting used to using the treadle and trying different sewing feet from an old machine. Some worked and some didn't. The walking foot actually does work on it so I really have no excuse not to start on the quilt. The rolled hem foot worked great too but the gathering foot didn't. That may have been user error though. I have to look up a youtube video to make sure I was doing it right.

I have also picked up the knitting needles again and am making a little bolero jacket for our youngest grand baby who turns 2 tomorrow. We will see them at the end of June so will save it for then. The back and fronts are knitted in one and I have done up the the splitting for the sleeves and one side so far.

I am trying use up some of my stash of wool rather than buy more. I also found a pattern for a crochet poncho so I might make that too from the stash. I can do that at night when watching TV.

A couple of simple projects which suits me perfectly these days.

I found the patterns on this blog:-

https://mariannaslazydaisydays.blogspot.com/

This lady has a lot of patterns, mainly for babies but some toddler patterns too.

This is the poncho pattern:-

poncho pattern

and the bolero (she calls it a shrug) pattern:-

bolero (shrug) pattern

Addendum

Yep!, user error for sure on the gathering foot. Watched the video, I was putting the fabric through the foot instead of under. The slot in the foot is for when you want to attach another piece of fabric on top when gathering the bottom piece. Will give it another try.......

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.