More car troubles / fun with CSMs

Happy New Year!

TDLR - ongoing car issues, skip to the next paragraph!

Well, the car saga continues. Further to my post on the 27th, it appears that the immobiliser we had installed on the car in the first week in December was a bit too good - it was like having a table lamp connected to the car all the time. No wonder the battery went flat - literally immobilising the car for everyone except the recovery company. I've seen the mess the "wiring" was in - badly done AND unsafe - so I'm only surprised our vehicle didn't set itself alight in a gust of wind! Now of course the immobiliser company are accusing the garage of staging the photos... It cost a smidge under £200 to test the car overnight, identify the fault, get the car made electrically safe. I've got more expense next week getting the immobiliser company to fix their bodge job (oh yes, there's also a tracker with a monthly subscription fee that no longer tracks) because I am insisting that it's done at my garage and then the garage does another battery drain test (not free!), because I can't trust the immobiliser company as far as I can throw them. Judging by the photo, even I could have wired it better, and that's after 2 week's apprentice training that I took in 1988. We have been using the garage since before 2009 and they've been going since 1907 (and I'd never even heard of the immobiliser company until November) so I think I know where the truth lies... Sorry for ranting on, but it's been very unsettling - the last thing I needed on top of the SAD - and it thoroughly spoilt our Christmas break, as it was hanging over us from the 23rd onwards. I'd post this in my personal blog, but I haven't posted to that in so long I (a) can't remember the email address I used with it and (b) cannot access it anymore. Ugh. Fingers crossed the car issues will all be resolved by this time next week (no idea if I can get my extra money back alas). 

Anyway, onto more fun things! You may recall I bought this CSM on a whim last summer. Being a bit of an idiot, I went charging in, trying to use the smallest cylinder without even really getting to know the machine first. After a frantic few weekends of it taking up half of the dining table, I did manage to knit myself a pair of bed socks in just plain stocking stitch on the 60 cylinder. Yes, I did knit a pair in the end, though the second sock ended up being finished in another completely different yarn just to get the thing off the machine. I had no joy with the ribber at the time and have destroyed more than ten ribber needles trying to get the circular or slip cast on (as is done in flat bed machine knitting) to work on the CSM. 

Fast forward to this weekend, and I convinced the Cog to have a bit of a clear out. That's one good thing about January - the weather's rubbish and the bank accounts all look a little empty, so one finds things to do around the house. He managed to clear out one box of paperwork junk and I managed to get his "not working from home" desk cleared - it's at the other end of the tiny box room I use as my WFH office. So the Dean and Bean machine is now back up  - the only downside is, if I get quiet at work I might be tempted to knit a sneaky sock in one of the more boring meetings.

I've learned quite a lot this week after just two sessions. 

1. Don't assume because you can use a metal CSM that the same techniques will work on a 3d printed one - they may or may not! That probably goes for any knitting machine, not just a CSM.
2. The slip/circular cast on does NOT work on my CSM - as soon as the ribber needles are disengaged, the ribber dial starts to climb and ribber needles start to rotate 90 degrees in their slots, which is how they get munched (and I'm not even using much force). There is a small line printed on the ribber dial as to when the switch should be moved, but I've given up on it, it does not appear to be functional on my version of this machine. The design may have improved since this one, I don't know. 
3. The ribber dial slots are a little loosey-goosey when compared to my Imperia - this might be down to the possible tolerances available in 3d printing, I do not know.
4. All that being said, the Juana selvedge works very well for ribbing - I knit three quarters of one round of ribbing over EON (Every Other Needle), and then loaded the ribber needles up and picked up the bar. Both rounds were done with the heel weight engaged
5. Trying to use a ravel cord between the cast on bonnet and the waste yarn / main yarn didn't go so well.
6. I pegged the yarns together and the peg is now toast. Whoops! I need to source some smaller weights methinks
7. I used the cast on bonnet and soft weight to get started, but as soon as it's long enough I release the soft weight and use my buckle and weight hanger from my Imperia - it's a lot easier to adjust the weight upwards.
8. Always check your ribber needle position before you start removing main cylinder needles, and expect to do a test run first. My first attempt ended in a needle chomping because the ribber and main needles clashed, even though they initially looked ok. Also, alignment with no knitting in place is one thing, but you do have to allow for the thickness of the knitting. I've tweaked my ribber stop out by one, hopefully that is better. 
9. For heels and toes, the 1 up / 1 up (automatic wrap) decrease is just fine. For decreasing, I found 1 up / 2 down was the most successful. 
10. Because both cylinder and ribber slots are a little looser than on my metal CSM, cranking with no yarn loaded must be done cautiously. If cylinder needles are empty and in hold, cranking should be done with extreme caution - when these needles are fully up, they rotate in their slots and can get jammed in the yarn carrier area.
11. Above all, crank the first bit of the sock slowly and check each stitch meticulously. The machine cannot be cranked as fast as a metal one anyway, being plastic. 

All that being said, so far it's the most successful of all the 3D printed machines I've seen. The reason I'm testing it now is because I'm due to take it to the annual event at Kegworth, and if it doesn't earn its place in my "stable" of equipment, I'm afraid it will be sold. 

Pictures to follow in the next post - himself is moving around upstairs and will be demanding breakfast imminently!

Current mood: bitchy

Of Facebook, and Ravelry, and cabbages, and kings

...with apologies to Lewis Carroll!

After Wednesday's little FB snit, I guess I shouldn't have been surprised I got kicked out of a knitting group (!) - the woman with the tenuous grasp of file security is also the owner/moderator of the group. The thread also got deleted which I will take as an admission of guilt. I won't hold my breath for an apology, I'll suffocate! :D So if you do happen to get a link when you buy patterns, don't assume it's for public use. The owner might just be very, very careless. Ha!

Another group suddenly got archived yesterday - not one I regularly frequented, but a lot of useful information, some of which was uploaded by a Passaper who has since passed away. Seems on FB you are at the mercy of the mood of the admin/mod. Because of the first situation I went hunting for a Facebook Moderator "Code of Practice" - and drew a blank. Yup, FB is the wild west saloon of the internet as far as I can tell. Thank goodness for Ravelry - they have proper, sensible guidelines (you'll have to be a member to access that, sorry!). One of the roles of a moderator is to quell disputes and calm drama - not start more!

It's far easier to find stuff on Rav anyhoo - I've spent about half an hour looking for a sewing pattern number I'm positive was shared on FB (because I fancied buying it myself) and no luck so far...

Made a skirt from the leftover "tossed alphabet" fabric, but managed to cut two tiny nicks near the hem. Think some crafty interfacing might be in order. Oops, and damn my sharp cutting scissors! Serves me right for rushing it... There's still enough fabric for a vest or something. Definitely a matching scrunchie too, natch!

Current mood: sad

Time

Probably one of my fave Prince songs, it seemed appropriate for this blog post.

People often ask me how come I get as much stuff done as I do. I work full time, so I'm only free after 5pm in the week. Wednesday nights I'm usually at the Coventry Knit Wits and every 3rd Thursday I'm in Leicester at the Manor House MK club. At least once a week I try and get a nordic walk in; Monday nights is housework night, and Mondays/Thursdays/Fridays are often gym nights too. So my schedule is pretty packed! Online I moderate a big Rav group, I maintain the Manor House website plus my own needlesofsteel website. So, how do I do it all? Well, sometimes I'm not entirely sure myself! My theory is that all of us are on a "tourist pass" in this life, so I fully intend to do and see and learn as much as I can, whilst I'm on the earth.

Last night was fairly easy - G had made spag bol on Friday, so I just had to cook some pasta and reheat the leftovers (he's getting leftover barbecue chicken tonight, I reckon that trumps bolognaise as long as he doesn't give himself salmonella!). I get home, feed the cat, fix myself some dinner, eat whilst surfing the 'net on the tablet. Then I baked a batch of fairy cakes - this is unusual but it's for a MacMillan coffee morning we're having at work on Thursday. Whilst the cakes were baking, I started the ironing, and then finished that whilst they were cooling down. Then I iced the cakes - nothing fancy as I had nothing fancy in - just plain white icing, got changed for the gym and went and did a work out. Came home and read for a bit before bed. I clock-watch a lot - do I have time for that/this - and if it's important enough (like the baking) it goes in my smartphone calendar so that it happens. If I've an hour, I think, what can I fit into that hour? Knit a swatch? Clean something (bah!)? Sew something? I've been working on some xmas gifts and am just doing little bits as and when I get time. I need to embroider one more design and then finish up the items and they're done, bar the wrapping. I do tend to prioritise craft stuff over boring stuff (hello dishwasher!) but most household chores can be squeezed in somewhere along the line.

Don't have time? If it's important enough to you, you'll make time. Use your diary. Book things eg classes. Book "me-time". Plan how you can efficiently make a start on a project. Plan to group similar tasks together eg pinning stuff ready to sew up, ironing in batches etc.

But make sure you have a cut-off - mine is 10pm. After 10pm it's quiet time for me - reading in bed or something. Otherwise I swear I'd be hoovering gone midnight and I'd run myself ragged.

So there ya go. My theory on time management. It's not much of a theory, but it's mine, and I'm sticking with it!

PS the craft room is almost done, now it's just deciding where to put everything and how best to organise it. The best part I think! :)

PPS I tried and failed to get a decent sample of the Passap E6000's version of card 3 at the weekend - patt 1004, tech 133. Kept hanging on the colour changer end, awful mess. Will try again at the weekend. Need to knit a hat for a competition and it's the only machine currently up apart from the CSM.

Current mood: determined

Sewing - not!

Yep, it's happened again. I was really looking forward to starting Saturday morning sewing classes in Coventry - only to come home to a returned cheque last night. Not enough people. I don't get this - Abakhan was packed out all weekend, in fact there was a queue waiting to get in. The Big Sewing Weekender sold out before I even knew about it (although I may have been double-booked that weekend anyway). So clearly there's demand. But you know what? I give up!

When I first did my OCNCE in machine knitting, it ran concurrently with a two-year sewing class run by the Butts technical college, run above what was a butcher's in Coventry Arcade. Had the course not folded when I completed my machine knitting - in fact, I had to pay £600 for the "pleasure" of not attending the second year of the MK course and had to take precious days off just to hand in courseworks - I would have enrolled on the sewing machine course toute suite. Of course, it had run for years for very little and I knew not of its existence, being, at that time, not inclined / too hard up to take advantage.

In 1998, I took a few lessons with Mum. No offence to her, but she had a tendency to take the work off me and do it herself - I seem to recall the only part of the skirt I did do was insert a zip. Then my sister announced her impending nuptials, and lessons were off the table whilst Mum made two bridesmaids dresses and a wedding gown - and the lessons were never resumed. She's more recently admitted she preferred making children's clothes anyway and had never heard of a full bust adjustment nor pre-shrinking the fabric.

There were the massive classes run in Coventry at the "new" college in Hillfields circa 2008 - which ended up moving to Coundon Court school, on a Wednesday night, the one night I can't commit to (what with running the Coventry Knit Wits). Good class but so big I could easily wait an hour for the teacher's attention. There was a suggestion I move to the Asian Sewing class instead, but I didn't really want to learn Asian sewing, whatever that might be!

Then there was the disastrous two terms with Warwickshire College in 2009-10 ish (I lose track of dates, it's down all in the blog somewhere), at Radford Semele. Only thing I learnt there was to bite my tongue every week, as I found the teacher unhelpful, rude and disorganised. There were a list of subjects, but it turned out she had no intention of teaching us anything unless it was piecemeal fashion. Alas, she's nowhere near retirement age (I think she was probably younger than me), so I assume she's still running her little sewing club (because that's all it amounts to - some of them had been going for YEARS) throughout my county. Complete waste of my time and money.

There's a class in Rugby, but it's full, and anyway I'm now too late to enrol (and again, it's a Wednesday night. What IS it with Wednesdays?!). There were two other classes in the Rugby area but both have closed. Of course, this news came AFTER I went online and bought two sewing bags, one for the overlocker and one for the sewing machine. I'm wondering if I can return or sell on the latter, I don't really need a sewing machine case as mine has a hard case, it would just be better for car transportation.

What do I want? A structured class where each week I learn something eg piping, or a lapped zip - and then we can all get on with our sewing projects. A course that runs any night except Weds, or at the weekend. If I could quit the job for two years and take such a class at uni, I would do.

Apparently, that's too much to ask of karma. Karma hates me.

Craftsy it is, then... Sigh... I'd much rather have a live, interactive person! One cannot ask a video questions, clear as it may be!

I was SO annoyed last night I went straight upstairs, put my painting t-shirt on (I no longer own painting trousers and anyway it was too hot for clothes really!) and painted the front bedroom. Then after a quick dinner, himself did the cutting in whilst I amused myself doing some more machine embroidery for a secret project. This morning I am still finding yellow emulsion everywhere, I look like I have a weird rash.

Current mood: annoyed

Better together...

I don't use this blog for political stuff usually, because it's got an international readership. However, I feel very strongly about this!



Enough said.