Mystery Chain Stitch slide/cover Plate

Front of the Needle sewing plate. Notice the indetion at the center section between the feed dog slits.

This is the backside - no markings or parts numbers on this whatsoever.

Notice the indention at the curved portion of the plate. It appears this "crescent" holds down the plate while the full circle holes stablize it from shifting latterally. The placement of the holes is identical to the Brother machines I know about, except for the orientation of the feed dog slits to the straight side.

Frontal shot of the bobbin mechanism. Notice the "12 o'clock" placement of the stem.

Back side of the bobbin case. It's hollow between the black plastic back and the metal front.

Side view of the bobbin case

Side view again of the bobbin.

Can anyone identify the machine make and model for this chain stitch attachment I found? It doesn't fit any of my machines, but perhaps I could locate one to match it if I knew what machine it belonged to...

Hello. My name is Carol and I'm a Machine-a-holic.

There are groups for people like me - yes? Oh, yeah, I've already joined them! Let's see - the worst enablers are those Vintage Sewing Machine Folks over at Ravelry! Here's another example of their excellent work.

Shown with all the accessories/feet and the original manual. The previous owner even left a name tag in one of the drawers.

What a great cabinet - it alone was worth the $20 cash.

Look at all that space - at least 6'-0" of horizontal layout/sewing real estate! Love it!

Let's see... 6' X 1.5' = 9.0 sq. ft. divided into $20 total price = $2.22 per sq. ft.!!!

Full frontal shot - after a baby wipe bath and a fresh oiling. A Brother Select-O-Matic. The English version of the machine manual has a copyright date of 1956. (There was also the Japanese edition of the manual.) The paint job looks more like a 1960's automobile.

I was sucked into buying another machine at my local thrift store just for the cabinet. Not for the machine, mind you...I'm in complete denial here - it wasn't my fault.... there was a threat to take it to the landfill! Sacrilege!!! I bought this one just for the cabinet for$20. You see, I was told the machine didn't work properly. Reportedly, it would run continuously when plugged in and I couldn't turn one of the knobs. So, just for kicks, I plugged it in at my house - pushed the knee lever , and the sew light clicked on. On. Off. On. Off. Hmm. "I wonder what will happen if I just switch the plugs into the controller?" That is just what I did - switched the plugs and...Voila! The machine works beautifully, and the knob I couldn't turn manually started turning itself! It was a result of the stitch settings. 4 knob settings are required to create all the stitches. Very Cool.

In case you can't tell from the background in the picture, I also have a vintage bicycle problem. I haven't joined that group, ... yet.

P. S. BTW, can anyone tell me what you use this foot for?

An Orphan Rescued

Here are photos of the lovely little sewing machine I acquired from the auction house. I didn't bid on it, but the buyer who did orphaned it for a long enough time that the auctioneer said - "Take It!" So, the little freebie in the solid wood cabinet is mine. I need to lemon oil it, yet, but I did get it cleaned using wood cleaner. For the sewing machine, I just used baby wipes for now. Need's to be oiled before plugging it in. Even the wiring is quite good - something I look at closely now that I've had to re-wire a vintage machine. - another story altogether.

According to the serial number, It's a Singer 66.

Anybody Need a Trumpet?

A beautiful Trumpet for sale at this address. Take a look at this wonderful instrument. Hope I can find it a great new home.

What "Thrifty" Can Look Like

I just wanted to post some photos of some thrifty finds and uses of stuff I was given from family.

A few years ago, my husband's aunt and uncle remodeled their kitchen. Their old cabinets were taken down, and given to us to use! It transformed our home. Finally, the living room, the room we spend all our time in, is usable!

Doesn't this look better than the first photo? I love that all that "stuff" is hidden behind these great cabinets. The small above-refrigerator-cabinet completes the computer desk alcove AND makes a neat place to display some decorative sail boats the kids have made. These boats even fit within the nautical theme of the room.

By thinking outside the box, we were able to add lots of storage from recycled items. To have built this new would have cost us $Thousand$ of dollars! Our cash outlay was $50 for a new piece of maple plywood that serves as the top of the lower cabinets. I already had the polyurethane to finish it and Voila! We cut it to size, laid it over the cabinets, and started moving the stuff in!

The first photo shows just what we are able to store in these solid maple beauties! We've got all the cookbooks, children's books, Cd's, and kitchen overflow items in the upper cabinets with the computer desktop, printer, and further computer paraphernalia in the lower cabinet, that at one time served as a sink cabinet. My husband's aunt and uncle didn't even recognize them!

Even the desk and chairs are thrift finds. The desk was given to us by my husband's workplace when they moved offices. The office chair was a $10 find at an auction. The lamp? One of a pair at a thrift store.

So, what do you think? I think thrifty is good.

Final Aeolian Shawl

Blocking is completed and I’m thrilled with the outcome. All along the knitting, I have been concerned about the color being too bright. The blocking has “paled the color” since it stretched all the stitches. I Love This. I haven’t been able to get a decent photo of the beading and the subtle “frosting” effect it has on the knitted garmet, but is really pretty.

Thrilled the yarn had enough yardage in one hank to finish. I had leftovers, even though I added a second point to the center of the shawl by mistake.

The construction of the shawl was a mystery to me at first, even after studying and sweating over the 8 pages of instructions, but it was very clever. The stitches begin at the top of the long (hypoteneuse) side of the triangle, and the increases in the center make the point happen at the other two sides.

Now, on to more mindless knitting for a day or two. Then, who knows? I might need to start a sweater or something!

It ain't knitting, but it's workin'!

Although I've been able to get some knitting done this summer, my pride and joy has been in organizing my yarn stash! I've even posted photos on Ravelry of all the different yarns I've got hanging out in the basement just waiting for me to use in the next creative endeavor. Check them out!

Re-organizing the stash was worthwhile. I sorted the yarn into two piles - snob yarn and lesser yarns - and then further sorted each group into piles according to their guage (i.e. worsted, fingering, dk, or bulky and chunky). Any yarn that was purchased with a project in mind was grouped together so as not to use up a portion of it accidentally in something else.

As a reminder of my scarf making days, I have a lovely pile of novelty yarn that includes the fuzzy and other not-so-easy-to categorize yarn.

So far, I’ve stashed 110 different yarns, and I haven’t even begun to tackle the icky Acrylics. There is enough of that to fill a large rubbermaid tub, a 1 cu.ft. rolling bin, and another smaller office file storage box. I even found a couple of "wips" (works-in-progress, that is )that need some attention!

The icky yarns are mostly acrylic worsted, but some are blends. These were a bulk purchase in ‘06 from a thrift store for $20 and they filled the back of my husband’s trunk. However, in the group, there were 6 or 7 skeins of Brown Sheep Kaleidoscope and several other skeins and partials I’m considering to make a Crayon Box Jacket.

My frustration has been this - the good snob yarn is not enough to really make the patterns I want and the large pile of acrylic worsted is not something I would ever use to make a the patterns I want. I am learning to be more selective in my pattern search, keeping in mind that having leftovers is undesireable.

The best part? Well I can see the top of my craft area again. It just sits there mocking me as I ponder my next messy project! It knows, it knows!