I got a shiny new (old) toy!

What’s in the battered brown box?

A lovely, lovely 60’s Jones sewing machine!

Isn’t it pretty? I saw it in a charity shop and it was way above my flinch point (£35, more money than I had on me and the shop didn’t take cards, luckily I was with family who were willing to scour their pockets!) I haven’t had a chance to play with it properly yet, but really at the moment I’m happy just looking at it. Is that weird?

It came with the manual and loads of feet and attachments that I don’t have on my newer machine.

Including this:

I’ve googled til it hurts but I can’t find a foot that looks like this anywhere on the web so I’m turning to you guys – any ideas? Why does it have that little loop on the front? What is it for?!

Our fashion department thought it might be a freehand buttonhole foot but they weren’t sure. It’s a Singer foot if that helps?

It’s a mystery to me!

Beccy

Snow!

Anyone who knows me will tell you I get ridiculously excited about snow. Even the prospect of snow makes me bang my palms together like a giddy toddler at a circus.

Well, we’ve been very spoilt the last two years with about a foot of snow from November until January. This year though has been a bit of a white Christmas washout.

Until today!

Woo! Ok, so there wasn’t much and it kept melting between showers. But we had enough for a snowman…

…albeit a Raymond-Briggs-end-of-The-Snowman snowman.

Even Billy came out for a brisk walk (we didn’t dump him in the snow because we thought it would be cute, honest)

He didn’t stay out long though!

All this will melt but more is due at the end of the week. Did I mention I love snow? Because I really love snow.

Beccy

A flower, a chicken and a deformed goat…

Today I finally had a few minutes free to play with my shiny Christmas present!

Heee! It’s a springy little embroidery/darning foot. I haven’t had chance to really play yet (especially since it took ages to get the tension right), but this is what I’ve done so far.

A flower, a chicken and a deformed goat. I’m secretly very pleased with the flower! Ok, not so secretly but it’s my first go and regardless of the results it’s pretty fun to do. It looks nothing like hand embroidery (although I’ve seen some amazing stuff online where people really know what they’re doing and you can’t tell the difference) but I love how much it looks like a line drawing.

I have plans to use some with my ceramics, perhaps some sewn writing? I haven’t worked it out yet but I think it’s about time I mixed up my ceramics with the textiley things I like to do, rather than keeping them separate. I need a lot of practice but I like how it’s going!

Beccy

Little knitted bows

Last night I got bored with the jumper I’m knitting so I grabbed some 4ply scraps (I knew there was a reason I keep those oddments!) and made a couple of little bows. They are about 1 1/2 inches, so they really are little.

You probably don’t need a pattern (and this isn’t much of a pattern) but here’s how I made them.

Using 4ply, cast 8 stitches onto 2 1/4mm needles.

1: knit

2: purl

repeat 22 times

cast off leaving a long tail and knit another one, if you like.

The strips will curl but that’s good.

Sew them together at the ends so you have two little rings.

Make sure the rings are purl side out and wrap the tail around the middle of the strip and secure with a knot. You can now sew your little bows to anything – I made little hair clips but I thought dress clips in a spangly yarn might be cute. Or shoe clips, or sewn on a scarf, hat, little girl’s something?

You could crochet around the edge before you finish them for a bit of contrast. Using thicker wool and a lace pattern would be pretty awesome and would make bigger bows. If you go bigger it might be worth knitting a tiny strip to go around the middle though.

The world is your bow-shaped oyster!

Just one question – is 32 too old for teensy bow hairclips?

Beccy