I like making things: January 2021

Tuesday, January 26, 2021

Trying to make a positive out of the negative of Covid

Because of Covid we are not getting out much. I am missing some person to person interaction. Online chat is nice but it's not quite the same. Grateful for it though in these times.

As we won't be moving anytime soon, I have been able to work on my sewing room and get out my knitting machines again. I have been busy sorting through my knitting machine stuff and organising it better. Oh, and I might have, sort of, possibly, well actually did......buy another one! It was on FB Marketplace and it came with a garter carriage. It was a risky buy because the seller didn't know much about it, they had purchased the machine and garter carriage with the intent of using them but never did. So it was untested but really cheap so worth the risk.

It works, I had to give it a good cleaning and oiling and have ordered a new sponge bar for it. I tried it with an old sponge bar I had and it does knit OK but it needs a better one for sure. The garter carriage moves along the rails. It is operated by electricity. Haven't knitted with it yet because it didn't have a needle, have ordered that too.

They must have not been used for quite a while but they work so all is good.

Looking forward to using the garter carriage, I have never had one before. You can knit both plain and purl on the same row with it so can do rib and patterning with it and do not need a ribber.

Will update with pictures when the parts arrive and I give it a try.

Stay safe everyone.

Thursday, January 14, 2021

photos for the previous post

Here is the big guy set up on the desk and the table ready to set up the standard knitting machine and ribber.

Here is one of the fixes I had to do to the big guy as the right corner got broke off in transit and the needle bed was not attached to the base. A nest of washers did the trick.

This is the carriage for the big guy, it is huge, hence the nickname!

Here are the plastic drawers I got from Walmart for my fabric, they are ridiculously cheap and oh so useful

The bootees I knitted

and finally the woven squares being sewn together

I have done 20 out of 80 so far.

Off to pick up grocery order shortly, decided to get it tonight as there is some nasty weather headed in.

Tuesday, January 12, 2021

Back into knitting machine mode

This is going to be a long and boring post so that I have things written down for future reference.

In my last post I said I didn't know why I had not been doing much of making things. When I thought about the last couple of years, I realised why. Spring 2019 we put the house up for sale, I packed my knitting machines up so the room looked neater and they would be ready for when we moved. House didn't sell until September 2019, when it did I did even more packing away of things, House sale fell through in October and we were kind of in limbo so I left everything packed up.

Christmas 2019 came and went, I did manage a fair bit of hand knitting up until Christmas. (Nativity scene).

2020 and the pain in my knee became unbearable and my movement was very limited. Finally decided to get the total knee replacement surgery in May 2020. Covid had by this time reared it's ugly head and we decided we were probably better staying where we were as we are very isolated. Several months of recovery and a really hot summer prevented me doing much so I left things packed up.

Then when I was feeling better and it cooled down a bit, later last year, I sprang into action with the sewing room and re-organised it and bought a couple of old sewing machines to fix up.

Now 2021 is here, I am done with restoring sewing machines and I started thinking about getting the knitting machines out again. I bought some cheap plastic drawers from Walmart and got some stuff out of totes into them. This made my room even more organised.

My husband spotted a ribber on ebay that we thought would fit my chunky knitting machine, affectionately known as 'the big guy.' We put in a bid, it was accepted then promptly had to cancel because it was not the correct one. BUT! it got me going again with knitting machines.

I set up, 'the big guy'. (Long story about it. Bought it on ebay in 2015, it got badly damaged in transit. Claimed on the insurance and got a full refund and kept the machine. Managed to get it so it knits OK but he does look a little beat up and the cover is broken and badly dented. It is a chunky 9mm knitting machine and it would be nice to get a ribber to go with it).

Found a ribber on another auction site but it was going for too much. However, it also had a ribber for my standard machine listed. I already have two ribbers for it, one that works great and one that I just couldn't get adjusted quite right for my machine. (User error, the ribber is actually in excellent condition).

Any way, the one on the auction site was a later model and looks almost brand new and has all the bits and pieces and I got it for a steal.

Now I can sell one of my other ones and will set aside the money for when a ribber for 'the big guy' shows up.

Now for the really exciting news!!!!! I am going to be a great grandma. Yay me!

So while 'the big guy' is out I will knit a baby blanket on it, that doesn't require a ribber.

I will set set up the standard machine with the new ribber and make baby cardigans and sweaters. Oh joy.

I have to make some adjustments in my room so I can have both knitting machines set up. I have to move my husband's computer (which I did agree he could have in my room) over to where the organ is sitting. Then my desk will be free to set up the 'big guy' on and I can put the standard machine and ribber on the white work table.

Now where to put the organ?????

I hand knitted some bootees this past week. First time using the pattern, not sure about how practical they will be but they sure look cute.

Also, I have 80 woven squares that I did on a pin loom some time ago. There are 40 in a pink variegated baby yarn and 40 in a blue variegated baby yarn. I am slowly sewing them together to make another baby blanket. I loved making the squares, it was something I could sit and do at night watching TV but not so keen on the sewing them together, I will persevere though as I don't want them to go to waste.

My husband is a VA patient and has many different health issues. He is eligible for the Covid vaccine so tomorrow we travel for him to get it. It is a day long deal as it is over three hours travelling each way. I have not been contacted yet but hopefully soon I will be.

That's all for now folks!

Will post updates on the re-organisation and photos in a few days.

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.