Author: Marie Haigh

I started knitting 15 years ago right around the time of my marriage and the birth of my niece.

Free. Works.

Marie Haigh9 Comments

On Thursday afternoon, I was driving back from Midas with Jake (since he makes the walk down to Midas much more pleasant than going alone) when I saw a young couple place a cabinet on the sidewalk in front of their house. Hopeful that the cabinet was what I thought it was, I rushed Jake into the house. I don’t think I even wasted the few seconds it would have taken to lock the door.

I was right.

It was a sewing machine.

I folded it up nice and neat in its cabinet, stuffed the foot pedal in my jacket pocket and lugged it back home.

It is a Sears Kenmore model 158.14100, probably built in the 70’s. It is all metal, which I surmised during my walk back home with it. It was heavy!

It took me over an hour to take it all apart and clean the grime, dust, dirt and massive amounts of lint out of it. It has the occasional nick and scratch on it. Plus, it’s missing all of the spare parts (extra feet, extra bobbins, etc). Otherwise, it appears to be in great shape. I threaded the machine this morning and gave it a test drive. Either I have one of the dials set incorrectly, which is very likely since I’m not sure what they all mean, or the stitch length mechanism needs to be tuned by a professional. I’ve ordered the manual just in case it’s a user-error. Hopefully, it will arrive soon. My goal is to make this ole girl my full-time quilting machine. Right now if I want to do any quilting, I have to rethread my 10-year-old Sears Kenmore machine, (funny coincidence, isn’t it?), shuffle my work area around, and put my current sewing projects on hold.

When I wasn’t fiddling with my new toy this weekend, I made a few more cards from a kid-sized puzzle.

Card Binge

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With St. Patrick’s Day and Easter fast approaching and no appropriate cards in my stash, I went on a card-making frenzy this past weekend.

26 cards!
I had the materials to make twice as many, but I started to feel like I was on an assembly line. Unlike Lucy’s episode, there was no chocolate on hand. Perhaps I would have stayed the course if there had been. Next time, I’ll plan better.

The heart cards were made from cake-sized paper plates.

The St. Patrick Day cards were made from a Mardi-gras-style necklace, a lei-style necklace, old cards, and a shamrock cookie cutter. I had so much fun making these.

These 4 Easter cards were made from paper napkins, ribbon, cardstock (the basket) and twine (the basket handle). I found the paper napkins much easier to work with than cotton fabric.

The animal and flower Easter cards (or Spring cards) were made from the same paper napkins used above, cookie cutters, card stock and ribbon.

Some people sell the cards they make. I don’t think I could ever make enough of a surplus to do that. I enjoy sending cards via snail mail too much. The entire stack of St. Patrick’s Day cards was posted in this morning’s mail after forcing Dan to sign them while he was eating his breakfast.

One BSJ down; One to Go

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The specs:
Pattern: Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Baby Surprise Jacket
Yarn: Yarn Love’s Marianne Dashwood in color Maiden
Jacket ate approximately 295 yards, not including the yardage used to check gauge
Tools: Size 2 needles
Adjustments made to the pattern: Added 6 ridges (12 rows) in length to the back, a collar and cuffs.

According to my math, that leaves me with 35 yards to knit an accessory, but only after I rip out my swatch. So, my dreams of knitting a bonnet, hood, or shorts are squashed. Oddly, I feel very comforted by that fact. Deep down I didn’t want to knit anything else. I just don’t think I like knitting clothes for babies. The practical side of me was ranting on and on about how the baby was just going to grow like a weed, kicking the too-small-jacket out of the way. If I’m lucky, it might get worn twice before that happens.

Of course, I ignored oh-practical-one and ordered another skein of superwash merino to make a similar, but not matching, BSJ for twin #2. I just loved knitting this jacket! EZ’s reputation for ingenious and common-sense directions is well-earned.

Snow Day and T-Shirt Fitting

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Yesterday, I spent the afternoon reconstructing my Phillies t-shirt that I blogged about on Friday. I forgot to take a before picture of the Phillies t-shirt on Maria, my dressform. Allow me to describe the problem. It’s due to the fact that Maria, who is set to my exact measurements, is pear-shaped. The t-shirt fit wonderfully in her bust and waist area and less-than-flattering in her hip area. More bluntly, it wouldn’t stay down over her hips area no matter how much I tugged. Several of the Phillies boys couldn’t be seen. Top among them were Stairs, a hero in Philly thanks to him coming up with a homerun against the Dodgers when we needed it most, and J.C. Romero, whom I affectionately call Romeo. Something had to be done so that Maria & I could wear the t-shirt, proudly displaying all the Philly champs.

First, I cut off the bottom 4 inches of the shirt. It was too long anyway.
Then, I opened up the sides of the shirt with a 1-inch slit.

Next, I staystitched around the slit and then folded the edges inwards.

Noticing that some raw edges were still visible, I covered all ends with a white bias strip (so as not to draw attention to the hip area).

Lastly, I hemmed the bottom of the shirt.

I’m not entirely pleased with the outcome. Though this does mean I can wear the shirt the way it was intended, I don’t find the design appealing. Next time, I may try inserting a pleat instead.

After dreaming of baseball games and warmer weather, I woke up to find snow on the ground and more falling from the sky.

I couldn’t think of a better way to start an imposed Snow Day than with pancakes and bacon. mmmm.

Is it Spring Yet?

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It feels so close

and yet so far away with the temperature at a chilly 35F. At least it is no longer below freezing.

I can’t wait to start tidying up the garden, trimming the hedges, and deciding what to plant in my veggie garden. I am less enthusiastic about raking up all the seed pods the two Sweet Gum trees have dropped over the winter.

Jake is my cheerleader when it comes to that task. He loves to pick up all the dead sticks that I rake up with the seed pods.

BSJ Progress

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I am at the point in the BSJ (Baby Surprise Jacket by Elizabeth Zimmerman, Ravelry link and non-Ravelry link) where it stops looking like a half knitted cardigan and starts looking like a yarn blob.

If the designer was anybody but the renowned and respected EZ, I might have my doubts. As it is, I am knitting merrily along.

The closer I get to finishing the jacket, the more sure I am that I will have yarn left over. So, I’ve been brainstorming about what small accessory I could knit out of the extra yarn. I’m leaning towards a garter stitch bonnet. I thought of a scarf, but then thought it might be obnoxious for both the baby (confining) and the mother (easy to lose). Or I could add a hood to the jacket. Any thoughts?

Wedding Anniversary Present

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It’s exactly what I wanted: a new floor!

 

On our anniversary (two days before Valentine’s Day), Dan was away on business in Virginia while I stayed home and supervised the installation of our new floor. YES, Dan and I did celebrate our anniversary the proper way with a night out on the town. He even offered to make the long drive back home Thursday night so we could be together on our anniversary. Practical Me told him to not bother. He loves me; that is good enough.

Before I tell you about the long and arduous installation process, I first want to thank everyone who offered their opinion on which floor I should choose for our bathroom. It helped us make the decision. Even Dan read your comments and found the information helpful. Thanks to your warnings, we eliminated the white floor tile immediately. It was difficult deciding between the vinyl fake hardwood and the ceramic tile. We eventually landed on the vinyl for a number of reasons: less of a gap between the bathroom floor and the bathroom floor, softer underfoot (my heel periodically causes me pain when I stand on hard surfaces for any length of time), warmer, counterbalances the cool blue tiles, no worry of cracking or breaking, and I loved the fact that it would blend with the rest of the house.

But, can I tell you about the installation process? What I thought was going to take 4 hours, took all day. This is what the floor looked like at the beginning of the day.

First, the old, rotten plywood was removed with a crowbar.

Then, a thin piece of plywood was placed over the patch in the floor so that everything would be of the same height. Afterwords, he feathered in a compound to smooth the transition between the old linoleum floor and the new plywood.

At 1pm, Gary the installer announced that the installation of the new floor could begin. Mind you that he showed up at 9 am. The next two hours were dedicated to piecing the plywood over top the entire bathroom floor.

The process involved an air compressor to power the staple gun and the nail gun. Jake quickly decided that he did NOT like the noisy contraption. He tried to hide between the couch and the coffee table at first.

After ten minutes, he ascertained that his nook was too close to the machine and moved to the farthest corner of the house he could find.

Poor Jake. He was so happy when the installation was complete and the noisy man left.

While Dan’s Away

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Jake and Marie will play.

“Play” = knitting in Marie’s book.

“Play” = bark at any little noise and find
sticks in Jake’s book.

I’d love to show you pictures of the knitting
I have accomplished, but Dan took the car
and the fancy new laptop to Virginia. Hal, my
11-year-old-computer, won’t talk to my
new camera or our new monitor.

(The car has nothing to do with the reason
why I cannot show you the pictures.
I just wanted to get Dan in trouble with his
mother. It brings me such joy. [evil grin])

The BSJ is coming along quite nicely. I have
recently begun the many increases.
Every time I pick up the jacket, I fall in love
with the yarn color all over again.

The big news is that by tomorrow this time
I’ll have a new bathroom floor. It hasn’t come
by easily. I’ll give you the full story along with
the pictures next week.

Have a great weekend!

And Survey Says…

Marie Haigh3 Comments

Indie Publishers want to know!

Please won’t you take a minute and fill out this survey regarding the purchase of indie patterns. Thank you!

 

On the way home from our walk today, Jake reminded me that I hadn’t posted the pictures of our latest snow storm.

Can you spot Jake?
He is laying down in the snow after finally rooting out his prized stick that Mother Nature had buried.

You can barely see it, but Jake’s nose has flakes of snow on it. I thought it was so cute.