Getting Past the Tantrum

I am sorry for my tantrum post last time. You could probably guess that I was very frustrated with the circumstances of my crafting life. Things are better now. For one thing, my sewing machine is fixed! I brought it to a local sewing machine repairman named Jim, who was incredibly friendly and oh so quick. I dropped the machine off on Friday afternoon and he called Tuesday morning to tell me it was done! I thought it was going to be a big deal. It turned out I was wrong. The whole thing was only $59-he was able to fix it by giving it a standard servicing. I am thrilled!

I also got some knitting done. I ordered yarn so I can finish my Odessa hat. While I wait for it to get here, I knit a hat for my aunt's birthday gift.

I found a pattern on Ravelry that I absolutely love, and then Dana helped me pick out yarn for it. It's Malabrigo, which has quite the fan club in the knitting world, and now I know why. It is lovely to work with and the colors are amazing. We picked a warm red called Sealing Wax and are keeping our fingers crossed that it matches something in my aunt's winter wardrobe. Nora helped select the buttons, though she was disappointed I wouldn't spring for rhinestones.

I also got a bit of mending done. Nothing too crazy, but I did get to test out my repaired sewing machine. See, for a while our dryer was acting completely nuts. It was leaving weird marks on things that I initally thought were burns but eventually realized was gunk of some sort. I did a major online search and finally figured out what was wrong: this piece of felt between the frame and the drum was worn out. This meant that pieces of clothing would get caught in the gap. Sometimes they would get stains, sometimes they would tear and, on special days, they would get stains and tears. I found a fantastic website explaining how to fix it. I ordered up the required parts and Kevin spent an hour or two taking out the old and installing the new. And now it works! No rips, no stains, no weirdness.

This skirt was a victim. I really love this skirt, as it is super soft and super simple. I am not a shorts kind of girl, so I spend the summer in skirts and dresses. This skirt was lucky enough to get the dryer double whammy of stain/rip. While Nora and I were selecting buttons for the aforementioned hat, I found a bunch of patches for sale. When I saw this owl, I knew it was meant to be.

I didn't think to take a "before" picture, but the owl covered everything but one spot. I was most concerned with covering the multitude of little holes, and I did accomplish that. It isn't a perfect match, but I think it is pretty cute.

I am also working on a spring hat for Dana, but it is not ready for photographing yet. Hopefully later this week! I am not in a huge rush to finish it since it is currently 27 degrees and is clearly not spring hat weather yet.