Overlocking

Having had a bit of a play with the overlocker this weekend, I remembered it was doing a slightly funny stitch, in that one of the loopers was only occasionally making the full depth of the 4 thread safety stitch. My overlocker is a Singer Ultralock U234, an older model I bought second-hand some years ago. I did a smashing two-day course with Erica Thomson at Metropolitan (deffo worth taking that course if you suffer from overlock fright!) and I seem to remember on day two it started playing up and I ended up unthreading one of its two needles just so I could continue to take part. I can't remember now, of course, exactly what the fault was - it's been a while (8 years, in fact)!

Anyroad, checking back on the blog, it looks like I thought I'd fixed it in 2009, but clearly I hadn't. So last night I bit the bullet - unthreaded the lot and cleaned all the fluff out. According to the Simplicity book I'm currently reading, which has a section on overlockers, I should really clean it out every time I use it. Oops. I got it threaded, and did a test sew using the manual's settings. Tweaked one of the loopers and - hey presto! A perfectly overlocked edge, with the loops perfectly intersecting on the edge. No more fraying fuzzy edges for me. As luck would have it, it was a scrap of the plaid fabric too so now I know it's correctly adjusted for the next attempt at that skirt. Mine seems to work best at 4-3-3-2 in case anyone else has this model. I'd say the fabric is a medium-weight.

Last night I also made a start on a stashbusting T-top with some leftover James C Brett Marble DK - have made a note of the tensions used on Ravelry in case I forget before I get to knit the other two pieces. Also managed a nordic walk in Flecknoe and dinner, so feeling very accomplished!

My only minor current annoyance (asides from the RSI and continued forced abstinence from all things knit, crochet etc) is that the diary's pretty full for the next week or so and I'm not sure when I can get back to my crafting. Ah well! Such is life! :)

Current mood:  energetic