Feels Like the First Time?

In the Land of OUT, here's what left my house this week:
My Bond Ultimate Sweater Machine, acquired secondhand in the dead of the winter doldrums this past February, has gone to a better place. A place where nobody will swear at it, or pound it, threatening it's needles within an inch of their little 3-inch-long lives. Following yet another failed attempt at a quick project, Double-Oh-Seven (the Bond) has found a new home, and has officially been banned from mine!

Ravelry Message to a friend who owns a similar knitting machine:

Well, I sat down at my Bond USM again yesterday, and you know what? It was just like the first time. Now, sometimes it’s good when something familiar “feels like the first time” again, but I have decided that is NOT the case with machine knitting…and lately every time feels like the first time, so I think I am going to officially throw in the towel…I just don’t have time for a hobby that makes me think in “F-” words…sigh! Do you want another Knitting Machine?

Signed, Pretty ;-) who is starting to realize that she simply does not have time to master EVERY SINGLE HOBBY in the universe, although she would like to.

Her answer:

OMG! Really?! I would love it! I had connected mine with an old Bond from Ebay, and used it a lot that way, but the old one has broken segments and we fell out of love. But if I connected it with one that’s still in workable condition, I think we could fire up our romance again :>)

Although think this through. Are you sure you’re not just having a rough patch and you’ll be regretting if you pass it on?

My "Final Answer":

I have thought it through. House too small. Minutes too few. Patience too middle-aged. I even made a small place to keep the thing set up, but I could not put it behind a door, so had to "barricade" it from cats (I can not EVER, for the stupid cats, leave a project out in mid-knit), and I find myself walking by, wistfully sighing my regrets. . .sigh!

Then, I do get an evening when I think I have the time to go start-to-finish on a project, and it feels like the first time all over again - UGH!

So, I think the stars have lined up for you, my friend, and I hope the two of you will be very happy together!

And, judging by the smile on her face, and the stars in her eyes, when I handed the silly thing over, I think they will be. I wish them many happy years of knitting together. :)

In Knitting Knews, there has been much progress on a baby sweater in cotton (new project for freshly hatched little guy at church), and also on the Wickerware Socks in Serenity Sock Yarn (with Deborah Norville on the label). Christmas Project #2 is also well underway, and Project #1 is almost finished, but of course I can't show you those!

I hope that your knitting (by hand and/or machine) is going well this weekend, and that you are loving what you're doing!

Knit in Good Health!

Rainy Saturday! Yay?

This is what it looked like outside most of this past week, while I was inside this building at my work-a-day job. . .nothin' but blue skies and sunshine and temps way above normal, near the 70s (F) even on Thursday and Friday!:
When I woke up this morning, not having to work today, this is what it looked like. . .drizzle and dark clouds and around 40 degrees (F), no sun in sight. . .for the whole day! lol:

Do Rainy Days and Mondays always get you down? Not me, usually. . .and here is why:

You know that College Girl is home on Spring Break, and today is the first day of the whole week that we have all mostly been home together! Yay!

The other reason is, of course, that rainy mornings are good for watching classic movies and knitting on sweaters. . .no new photos of Salsa, sorry!. . .but the lace is coming along. . .slowly. . .and it was fun to work while watching Dorothy's adventure!:

And rainy afternoons are a good time to cast on all 100 needles of the knitting machine to knit up a super-quick, carry-along blanket for a new baby boy! Just a simple stockinette in gray, with a finished-by-hand, narrow, seed-stitch border in blue and the baby's initial duplicate stitched in a corner. 3 hours, start to finish, and most of that was the hand-knitting!:

Hmmmm, rainy afternoons are also good for practicing spinning! I got these new, resin spindles from Dragoncraft's Etsy shop! I am afraid that I have not really done them justice in this photograph, but they are all kinds of gorgeous! I have even spun a little fiber on the pink one! Happy, happy! Joy, joy!

So, what was the weather like in your neighborhood today? Whatever it was, I sure hope that it didn't get you down! I hope that you got some knitting done, and that you got to spend a little time relaxing and unwinding. . .

Knit in Good Health!

Still Snowing. . .

And again. . .because I live in this neighborhood today:
And because the drifts were this high when I woke up (Thank You, Honey!, for digging us out!):

I decided to work on some of this last night and this morning:

Chunky Monkey Scarfie for College Girl in Lion Brand Homespun USA (above), and

Mosey Into February legwarmers for College Girl in Red Heart Super Saver (below). By the way, there is nothing better on a cold and snowy Saturday that a kitty on your lap and a cup of hot coffee or tea! sigh!

Then, because I was able to purchase a $100 knitting "machine" second-hand for $25 last week (Thank you Ravelry, and Mary1968!), I decided that I would set it up and do some manic knitting! Because, you know, it's a machine...it will be easier (and faster!) than knitting by hand, right? So I set it up on the dining room table, which I could not clamp the machine to, but I figured the clamps probably weren't crucial, right?

So, I set it up, and I made a couple of passes with the carriage. . .

And this happened (and I could not fix it without taking it apart):

So, I unravelled, and I re-set, and I tried (and tried) again. . .and this happened:

And I started to question myself and the machine, and the need for the clamps. So, I planned a new set up, and Honey adjusted the holes so that the clamps that came with the machine originally would actually fit. . .and then I had a nice set-up, under a bright window, with the machine clamped to a sturdy table:

And still I managed to goof things up enough that the knitting actually fell off the machine!

I was so frustrated! So I stopped and went with Honey to the church where he cleared some snow and I played with a couple of little darlings whose dad was also clearing snow, and I introduced them to some Classic Sesame Street music! (They thought I was a little old to be listening to Sesame Street Music, but I assured them that I was not!)

When I got home, I gave the machine another go...and look! Knitting!

I produced a swatch! 25sts x 25rows! Yay! I CAN do it! There is hope for the machine yet!

And then we baked a frozen pizza (which was pretty yummy), and I remembered that I still had not blogged! Soooo, here I am! Eventually, I hope to use the machine for quick baby sweaters, and other projects with a lot of stockinette. . .and to knit up yarn into "blanks" for dyeing. That's the plan, and I am sure that I will let you know how it goes until it gets there! In the meantime, I hope that you and I will all. . .

Knit in Good Health!