Monsters and Mice play with the Sewing Machine

My monster for the 'Mouse or Monster' swap on Swapbot.
Thanks for everyone who asked after Spot - he is doing just fine, not acting any different than his usual BOUNCE-y self. He comes in the house, does a few laps in the air conditioning then wants back outside to chase around some more.

OH! And.. I'm not the only pregnant female around here. One of the Great Dane girls, Dee-Dee, is going to have puppies next month. Wow - that should be quite a time!

Actually, we're pretty surprised by it. We weren't even sure she could become pregnant. She's two years old and last year she didn't 'take.'

We found out she has 'abnormal' anatomy, all of her female parts and a bit that was trying to develop into male, but didn't finish. Since it isn't readily visible, we didn't even know she was any different than her sister Blaze. We don't think her abnormality will get in the way of the puppies being delivered. A lady from Cornell University actually was studying this, and wanted to see her last year, but we couldn't make the trip.

I took yesterday to relax, and played a bit more with the sewing machine. I made a few more burp cloths and then, out of the last bit of the fabric remnant, made a little whatsit toy.


Mouse or Bear?

Mousebear taking his place in Bazooka's caddy.
Early this morning around 3 am the sky was so clear here, I took a little walk up our driveway to see the stars. The Milky Way was bright and detailed. I could also see the Pleiades, and caught one shooting star out of the meteor shower.

I have a Python program to go altercate with... hope it will cooperate ;)

New Sewing Machine

Singer Advance machine

We went and got this yesterday and it is working wonderfully!
It can help make quite a few things for the baby and speed up toys for the shop.

Burp cloths made from old shirting and new flannel, and a little prototype horse / giraffe.



We picked up more flannel to make a big stack of burp cloths for Bazooka. With the sewing machine they whip up in five minutes or less! Even the little horse wasn't too hard on the machine.

I've had a bit of a headache since Sunday - watching that closely. Tomorrow we go into the doctor for a checkup.

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Blue Rabbit Tile
It's Done!
custom-made by Tasha Mack, on Etsy
who does wonderful pottery work

Softie Adoptions

Click Here to See my Softie toy shop!
I have a proposal to make. If you would like to swap for any of the little creatures below, please post a comment here. Also say which creature you would like to trade for. These softies need to be adopted to good homes before I embark on a much more complicated project...


From L to R: Blue Bear, Red Rabbit, All-Pink Rabbit, Brown Rabbit, Pink Birdie Rabbit, Pink kitty, Yellow Bear

From L to R: Set of three knit rabbits, bird pincushion, white rabbit.

I've finally decided to get a sewing machine, although it might take a month or so to actually happen. I've been mostly against using sewing machines on softies. I'm very quick and detailed with a hand-sewing needle. It seems like the toys have more personality when handsewn, more care and detail put into them. Also sewing on a machine is more difficult because many of my projects are 6 inches or smaller. However, the new projects are going to be larger, and more complicated. I think it's about time to dive in and get a sewing machine that can do long straight stretches.

So, tell your other knitblog friends (if you'd like), that these stuffed animals are looking for good homes. Possible swap materials would be a bit of an interesting fabric, some felt, ribbons, buttons, a skein or two of cheap wool or cotton yarn etc...

Some of these animals are still for sale at my Etsy shop and have been reduced in price. If you don't want to swap the price on them would help towards the sewing machine. Once I arrange a swap I'll remove them from the shop.

Here comes the weekend...

Taking it 'easy' this weekend -- hope the weather warms up for some garden work, though! It was nice and sunshiney out yesterday, but the wind was too cold to do much outside. Puck came through her surgery just fine -- she curled up in a ball on the couch for most of the day yesterday. She did scare us a little by going outside and disappearing for an hour after dark -- but one of the other dogs went out and retrieved her.

Kim at Knitten-kittens, I can't comment on your blog anymore :o( The number verification fails every time :o( Still reading though.


'Counsel from Fox' 03/15/2007 12 noon


I am making some progress on this wool 'shawl.'
It will be a gift for someone in November.

Mark took some more close-up pictures of the Singer that turned out wonderful. We were looking at how it actually worked. He also figured out the bobbin winder! The little kit of odds and ends the seller gave us had two different kinds of bobbins in it -- I was trying to use the winder with the wrong type.


The bobbin loop coming up.


The bobbin in its 'bullet-like' case.

Keeping busy with the Ebay store, knitting rabbits, working on my dream bag weaving... there is a lot going on here. My best friend from high school called last night and we had a good talk, also wished her a belated happy birthday from last week.

Flea Market finds (and some knitting does occurr)

We found a steal at the flea market - an antique Singer sewing machine for such a small price, we had to scoop it up. It seems to work, too! The one thing we are having difficulty with is winding a new bobbin -- the instructions are wadded up and falling apart -- and this bobbin winder seems different than many of the ones we are looking at on the Internet. It is a 27-4 Singer according to the manual. We looked up the serial number (beginning with 'B') on the Singer website and it says this particular machine was made in 1904. However, since it has been refurbished, it might contain parts of several different models -- we're just not sure.


I play with the bobbin winder some.

A close-up of the winder in question.


There were also very good-smelling strawberries at the flea market!


Some knitting does still occurr here...
A *secret mystery project* (No guessing!) started out of fine white wool.

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