meet shira

Shira is my Model 221 Singer Featherweight. Right now she’s in a corner for time-out as I cannot get the top tension right. But it also shows what E and I did today. We finally fixed the bobbin casing and now she sings pretty well, except for tension. When I picked her up rescued her from mum five years ago the bobbin was all funky and would wrap around instead of doing what it should. E and I took her apart before we got married and never totally got her back together right. Until today. She was a gift to mum from my grandma. Mum tends to have bad luck with sewing machines so I thought I’d give Shira a good home. In any case, I don’t have very much from grandma so she means a lot to me. I’m a little frustrated at the moment because while I love her, the light gets VERY hot (I just spoke to E and he said he’d help me wire an LED in there instead.. she won’t get hot and that makes me happy, I have a nasty burn on my index finger). I’m also miffed at the tension. I would expect that old springs would be LOOSER instead of tighter. I’ll be googling later and will figure out the rest. I have a pile of fabric that I really want to sew up. If Shira doesn’t start behaving I’ll have to buy a sister for her (or maybe that’s why she’s misbehaving). I’m eying some of the newer Singers.. the Inspirations look nice but I haven’t yet seen any of them in person. E wasn’t biting for my request to visit either Joann’s or Sears today.

Oh, you came for knitting? Photos here, details following. :)

Let’s see… I finished Monkey last week and while they need some elastic at the top I am very happy to have another completed pair of socks. I don’t know WHY I believed I should just follow cookie’s amazing pattern as my sock needs are different than many others. I started with 2.75mm’s on the cuff and first repeat, went down to 2.25mm for the rest of the leg and the short row heel, and I finished off with 2mm through the toe. There isn’t as much stitch definition with the 2mm needles but the foot fits perfectly. I’ve decided that I like short-row heels for two reasons, they’re much faster than a flap and they fit me much better. The pattern was quite fun to knit.

I’m almost done with the heel of my FIL’s sock. I have to review the halacha for three weeks to see if I can give them to him. We probably could pull medical need (his feet are always cold) so as long as I finish them this week I should be ok. I’m in discussion with my MIL as to what she wants for her birthday socks. After I finish FIL’s I need to finish the blue ankle socks with leftovers from Monkey and also my beautiful baby cable socks with my LavenderSheep fiber goodness. I’ve been working with Yvonne on a form so soon custom orders will be much easier to request. Once I get my act in gear it’ll be even better, but I want to get a form out to the world first. :)

Baby knits are chugging along. I have to sew on buttons better for the bootees and then I’ll put up photos. I started a pair of Cargo’s for my friend M’s son, C. But.. uhm.. E doesn’t like the colour, he says it’s too stripey, so I swatched with some cotton-ease (in Taupe) this morning and I’ll be back to the store tomorrow afternoon to see if I can grab another ball in the same dye lot (hah hah hah). Then I’ll frog and cast-on again. sigh I wish he had commented before I had finished 3 inches…

I’m almost done with chart B, first clue, of the mystery stole 3. I have no good reason at all why I signed up for this when I have 3 other lace projects on the needles and lots of other knitting to do this summer, not to mention a large pile of other work. I’m using clear seed beads leftover from fixing up my wedding dress (which I borrowed, fixed up a bunch of the beautiful beadwork on, and returned in hopefully nicer condition (not that it was bad, but through use some of the beads weren’t sewed on well anymore. It was a beautiful dress…)). Speaking of lace, I did complete another repeat for mum’s shawl and a bit of work was done on the two seraphims I’m working on.

• Category: handmade
• Tag: knit, sew