Family traditions

Every family has "that dish" that always seems to be requested for one reason or another. Ours is a Jello salad called Pink Paradise.  My understanding is that it was my great-gramma Sue's favorite thing to make.  At least we always associate it with her & it's popular enough (or we have enough people) that I always make a double batch.  I omit the nuts. It was a matter of preference, but we have enough family members with nut issues that leaving them out is a good idea.  The recipe "came from the 50’s" - a #2 can is the ”normal" can that's about the same size as a Progresso soup can & I use an 8-oz package of cream cheese per batch (the recipe calls for two 3-oz packages).

Is There Such a Thing as Too Many Sewing Needles?

I hate not having the sewing needle that I need (and it usually involves breaking a needle in the middle of a project).  I've also developed a bad habit of stocking up on needles when JoAnn's has a sale on the notions wall (like I saw in the recent flyer).  My grammas would probably laugh - I don't remember either of them having terribly many needles on hand at any given time.  I also have something that they didn't have - access to groups that buy needles in bulk (that's how I have all of the Organ needles) and co-op them out. Thank You, Internet!

Because of this stash,  I needed to get a bit organized.  Yes, I misplace things.  Badly.  The below image is my current box.  It's a Plano fishing tackle box that I bought from www.tacklewarehouse.com.  The price with shipping was less than what my local Cabellas charges & it's a better selection than what I was able to get at Bi-Mart.  I think that this box is the Plano 3780 - It's deeper than most boxes.  I used to have a "normal" depth box with the movable dividers, but the 10-pack of Schmetz needles were just a hair too big & were pushing up on the lid.  Now I have *tons* of room to organize by type and size!

Speaking of Schmetz needles - don't toss those cases! Singer needles and Organ needles aren't in these nice cases. The Organ needles are packed in a little foil-lined paper packet in packs of ten. A little tape or piece of post-it note are enough to relabel a Schmetz case with the right needle information & makes it easy to see how many needles are left.

Weavies

I bought a Weave-it style loom from Hazel Rose Looms while I was at the Black Sheep Gathering this summer. This is the 4" "multi square" loom (on the same page as the bookmark loom). It's a fun little change of pace. About the only thing that I need to try out is using a crochet hook to help pass the needle through the warp a little easier.

The rainbow color is leftover Red Heart yarn from my DD's beanie & the purple is Lion Brand "Vanna's Choice" leftover from afghan squares.

Crocheting Socks

My hand hurts, but I'm crocheting socks.  Fortunately, the way that I hurt my hand isn't having an impact on crocheting, but it does make pulling clothes out of the washer a little bit interesting.

They're Paton's Twisting Lace Socks (or try here, but you'll have to log in to see the pattern).  I'm much happier trying the toe-up method than I was with a cuff-down pattern that I recently frogged.

Summer! Now on to projects!

I finally have a break from classes! YES!  I love my program, but this last year of the tug-of-war between school, family, house, and everything else was really getting to me.

Seriously, I nearly came unglued on someone who said the *wrong* thing about my child care situation.  The college won't allow children into the art studios (and there are studios where safety is a big issue), so I can't take Cakes into school with me anymore (I would take her into the print studio with me since none of the presses were motorized and would have her do "her" art projects at a table while I did my work).  No job = no money for babysitter (not to mention that it's about 45 min drive to campus).  My time management isn't great (I get an amazing amount of housework and repairs done while trying to avoid a deadline), but when I say that I have a family emergency, respect it for what it is. Ok, rant over.

Now on to the happiness:

No, this isn't my pattern, but it's what I managed to make for the Cakes during finals week (she picked out the yarn and my finals were critiques, so my hands were -yay- free).

This pattern can be found on Ravelry or on Hand Crafting With Love website.

This is one of the few hats that I found that will fit my head (hairbands and stocking caps always seem to wiggle off & my DD has the same head-shape).  The griddle stitch (a checker-board of SC & DC stitches) gives the hat quite a bit of elasticity.  It's not really visible in the photo, but the bottom "cuff" is alternating front post and back post crochet which makes the hat feel really secure on my head.

It's a really simple pattern (SC, DC..), but the increases really trip me up (I have a bad habit of reading the wrong line).  What I ended up doing with the pattern was copying and pasting it into Word and reformatting it.  I do much better with charts than written instructions, so I put the paragraph-formatted instructions into short little lists.

from this:
Ch 1, turn. [sc in next dc, 2 dc in next sc, sc in next dc, dc in next sc] 3 times. sc in next dc, dc in next sc. Repeat from [ to ] 4 more times. sc in next dc, dc in next sc. sl st in first sc to join. (39 stitches)

 to this:
Ch 1, turn
[sc in next dc, 2 dc in next sc, sc in next dc, dc in next sc] 3 times
sc in next dc, dc in next sc.
[sc in next dc, 2 dc in next sc, sc in next dc, dc in next sc] 4 times
sc in next dc, dc in next sc
sl st in first sc to join. (39 stitches)

It just works better for my brain and it made it easier to mark my spot with a small post-it.  I have to say, this is the one thing that I really like about electronic format patterns - I can make adjustments to them for my own readability and annotate them as needed.  I have a bad habit of marking up printed instructions and sketching out charts when the text really reads funny to me.

Going to the (feed) Dogs

I swear, there's feed dogs in this picture.  The Singer 778 that I found at St V's has rubber "soft touch" feed dogs. I honestly had never seen anything but metal dogs before - and I learned on a couple different Singers from the same era.

The rubber was breaking down anyway, so I ordered metal feed dogs as a replacement. I did find a caveat onlinevthat the metal feed dogs aren't an exact fit, so "modifications" would be necessary.  No kidding.  It took me several sessions with a cheap needle file (harbor freight) to shorten the dogs and narrow their width to operate without popping the needle plate out of position.

They look innocent enough, but there were hours of fussing trying to get the right amount of metal removed from all three areas that had to poke through the needle plate.  I did think about pulling out the dremel, but was afraid that I'd pull too much metal off any one area (and the space between the long, skinny feed dogs and the short, fat one is rather limited).

I *think* that I have the feed dogs properly adjusted, but it'll take a little bit of use before I put my file away.

I found quite a bit of good information at this Singer repair parts site.

"New" Singer Goldie

Lookie at what jumped into my arms at St V's (just ignore the rest of the mess).
I learned how to sew on a similar model and I'm pretty sure that one of my grammas or great-grammas had a 758.  The one that I learned on had a lever (and a push button??) below the stitch length selector.  I do remember trying to (and breaking) the bulls-eye lever on what may have been the 758.  No one had a free-arm machine though ;-)

It's a Touch & Sew 778 - the free-arm sister to the 758. It's also the first machine that I've seen with rubber feed dogs (metal ones are currently on order).

 

Of course, it didn't come with a zig-zag stitch cam and I had to search for this one. (Thank you, Etsy. I found one from someone in a nearby town)

It did, however, come with a jammed bobbin winding mechanism (jammed, but not broken).

This is what the mechanism looks like with the lower cover removed.  The plastic piece on the left is the bottom half of the "bullseye" lever by the bobbin.  The round metal piece topped with a gear is below the bobbin.  What jammed was the little metal rod above the plastic piece (it's connected to the L-shaped metal piece). Well, a little insanity - tapping on the metal bar to push the rod up and gently prying it back down with a screwdriver blade - loosened the mechanism up enough to pump some machine oil into the hole with the rod. We're in business now!