Before the first leaf falls...

...autumn knitting begins. First finished project of the new season -- Cross-over Rib Top by Sally Melville. Knit in Koigu PPPM and PM. Pattern available from www.Patternfish.com (I've linked before -- check previous post if you're interested in this pattern).

There was one small error in the pattern (a missing decrease), which hopefully has been corrected by now. I had emailed Sally about it, and apparently it was supposed to have been corrected some time ago, but had slipped through the editing cracks. Apparently Patternfish claims that they will notify purchasers of any patterns they sell about future errata -- this was not my experience, but perhaps others have been more fortunate.

And, as promised, a quick look at the latest vintage machine!




It's a Necchi BU Mira -- from around the middle 1950's -- straight stitch and zig zag, but none of the fancy stitches of the WonderWheel models. I'm toying with the idea of removing the motor and setting it into a treadle, but for now it's still tailed (electrical). There are some who dislike the green color, but luckily j'adore! At this point, there isn't that much room left for new acquisitions, so I'm thinking this is it as far as numbers go. (That hysterical laughter in the background - surely you can hear it? - is Mr. MinglingYarn. For some strange reason he isn't buying that last statement!)

Edited to add -- I received an email on 7 September from Julia Grunau at Patternfish apologizing for any inconvenience and explaining the (small) problem with the pattern. Thank you; I appreciate the communication. So that others will be aware of how the pattern updating works, I have copied a portion of her email below. I'll be returning to the site in future, and I hope others will check it out also. Karen

"Whenever an updated pattern is issued, the buyer will see a notice in their pattern stash saying that a new version is available, and the user just has to click to download it. We are very sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused, but as far as we know, all is now well."

Eventually she hopes...

...it will all come together in perfect harmony. Until then, here's a photo of the random pieces of Sally Melville's Cross-Over-Rib top.

You'll notice that the original is done in all one color of Koigu -- my version, however, is not. I'd like to say it was a deliberate design decision, but in truth, that's what I had. I've collected quite a few random skeins of Koigu over the years, probably with an eye to making socks -- or knitting something modular, but somehow they just never got knit. So, we shall see. It's an awful lot of knitting if it doesn't work out!

The back has a third color introduced, (a darker shade of olive), with the two yarns of the fronts blended at the bottom. This was done to tie together the colors of the front, and, more importantly, to ensure that there would be enough yarn to knit the back. Here's hoping!

Here's a closeup of the back -- (clicking makes bigger)

It will take a lot more knitting until it's finished (34 stitches x 40 rows per 4" goes slowly around here!), but I'm powering through, because I have some absolutely lovely Color-Changing Cotton from Wolle that I can't wait to get started on.

And who knows? Maybe there will be a photo of a sleek Italian vintage sewing machine to feast your eyes on soon!

Sew it goes...

A new shirt -- Stats: PATTERN - New Look 6407
FABRIC - woven, non-stretch 100% cotton
ALTERATIONS to pattern - lengthened torso, narrowed shoulders (but maybe not enough - sigh)
BUTTONS - vintage (maybe 1940's?) medical uniform buttons - think high-necked Ben Casey type shirts (oooh, just dated myself with that cultural reference!)

There was supposed to be a cute cotton skirt to go with it. Hah! I was attempting a side-wrapped straight skirt from an OOP Stretch & Sew pattern. It was easy to sew, fit well, looked good...until I tried to walk in it, and then it made a silly little 'tent' with each step - not a good look! Ah well, sew it goes...

Meanwhile, take a look at these cute little zippers from Japan - (click makes bigger)




Hopefully there's enough detail for you to make out the cute little zipper pulls on the outer zips (that's scissors and a vintage sewing machine) and how the center zip has lacy edges (not as easy to see, sorry!). Found them while reading another blog - they're from an Etsy seller in Japan. Leave a comment if you're interested in knowing who/where and I may be kind enough to look it up for you. I don't have a clue what I'll use them for, but I couldn't resist!

Look Ma -- Crochet!

See, I do still work with yarn -- and very lovely yarn it is too!

Stats: Color Changing Cotton 4-ply from Wolle. Colorway: Sunburst 2 Amount: 2 50 g. balls Pattern: a scarf from Ondori Crochet Lace, a Japanese crochet pattern book. Hook used: 4 mm - F

Of course you know there has been some sewing done -- but that's a post for another day.

Up and Running! (Or, does she even work with yarn anymore?)

It is most definitely not pretty, but it's done!

Here's a closeup of the urethane belting I'm using instead of the traditional leather treadle belt --




Now the question becomes -- do I let Mr. Minglingyarn attempt a cutout of this top (so the machine will sit more conveniently flush with the table), or do we leave well enough alone? Understand, our woodworking skills are nil -- still,it would be more convenient. Of course,if I follow through on my attempt to get a serger up and treadling I would need (yet another) solid top for that. Decisions, decisions! At any rate, kudos to Mr. Minglingyarn -- it really must be love for someone with 10 thumbs to even attempt this -- love you babe!

You would think that perhaps I was done with sewing machine clean ups/fix ups, but no. There's a little matter of a Singer 500a (nicknamed The Rocketeer by collectors) that needs a bit of attention. That tricky enabler Margaret was responsible for this one -- she really wants to make sure I can never tease her again about her herd of spinning wheels!





It doesn't appear to be in very bad shape -- although Margaret mentioned that the previous owner had said that there may be a part missing. It will probably be a display piece -- at least for a little while longer. Too many actual sewing projects lined up at this point!

Lean, green sewing machine

BEFORE --

Stats: Singer 185K, straight stitch only machine, three-quarter sized, formerly electrical - now with motor removed and operated by a (repro.) hand crank. Machine is circa 1958, and is mounted in its own wee table. This one is also from Kilbowie, Scotland, so I guess I have the makings of a clan.

As any long-time visitors will doubtless already know, I seem to have a bit of a problem when it comes to vintage sewing machines -- as in, I just can't seem to resist them! But really, take a look at her all cleaned up and tell me she isn't a cutie --

Took a bit of elbow grease to get her looking decent (inside and out) but she's well on her way. While I love the idea of hand cranking her, I'm not too keen on the (not so cute) look of the black crank with Chinese lettering, but there you go -- you do what you need to do. The original green hand wheel was swapped out for a spoked hand wheel from one of my other machines. There are instructions on line for drilling out a space for the hand crank 'finger' so that the original hand wheel can be used, but sadly my tool skills are not up to that (at least right now).

She was quite stiff and sluggish when I first got her home, but cleaning made a big difference. I removed a huge wad of felted lint from around the bobbin case, and now stitch quality is quite nice. Also while cleaning I discovered an old red label that stated "repossessed machine" -- how sad is that? I always like to learn a little of the machine's history, but the person I bought her from wasn't her original owner. In fact, although she sews, she bought this machine several years ago in order to use the cabinet as a table -- never even threaded her up. Ah well, different strokes...

Now, what shall her first project (with me) be?

A New Project

My merry band of vintage machines has been growing, and we've reached a critical point -- I really need another treadle. I'd like to get the zig zag machine set up, and I have a mechanical serger (overlocker) that I'd like to try as a treadle too.

I've been searching around locally for something suitable (you do NOT want to pay shipping for a cast iron treadle!), but haven't been having much luck. These things seem to come up in cycles -- either there are many available, or there are none. Luckily for me, fiber pal Margaret has come to my rescue! She has generously given me a treadle stand from her mom's estate -- isn't that nice? It's been outside for a while, but is in pretty good shape for all that. A little online research leads me to believe it's from a Singer model 12 cabinet -- which would date it from some point in the late 1800s -- maybe the 1880s? At any rate, it's older than all of us, so wish me luck getting it all nicely cleaned up and running! I'll need to come up with a table top of some sort, which may be challenging for a gal with no woodworking skills, but we'll cross that bridge later.

There's been some knitting, and a little crocheting, but sadly no photos of that. So how about a little sewing photo?





McCall's 6122 sewn up in a silk dupioni. The fabric was machine washed and dried prior to cutting out, and it seems to have held up just fine. I'm not a big fan of having to dry clean blouses, so hopefully this will allow me to give it a gentle machine wash and hang to dry. The fit was pretty good right out of the envelope -- I think narrowing the shoulder seam was the only tweak I did. The hidden button placket falls a bit low for my taste, but a snap should solve that minor quibble.