Fiber Musings

I bit the bullet today and stopped by Eddie’s Quilting Bee and bought this little baby. I have to say, she hums! I expect that this sewing machine will outlast me. And with this baby, I just might get back into quilting. I haven’t done any quilting in over 7 years. Stay tuned.

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Help! I finally have decided that my ancient ElnaSuper 62C needs to be retired permanently. I need to buy another sewing machine ASAP for some boating related work (I need to sew some flags for sail course markers). It’s been ages since I shopped for a sewing machine. I don’t even know what’s available anymore. (I’ve had the Elna since 1985, and it was the one I used during college theater costume making days.)

What I need a sewing machine to do:
- general sewing/hemming
- flag making
- canvas work: outdoor seat cushions, sails, sail covers, boat covers
- although I don’t have time to quilt anymore, basic machine piecing and quilting would be really nice

Oh, and of course, it must be able to do steeks and hem handwovens without trashing my hard work.

I want reliability (and some brand recognition), service, parts availability.

Please, please, please, send me your suggestions. I’m desperate. South Bay Opening Day is in 8 days. I NEED to have these flags done ASAP. I would like to buy a machine yesterday.

And let’s have a moment of silence for the Elna.

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This was made it a scant ball of Kureyon that I found at the bottom of my scrap yarn basket. Yes, it’s another mobius basket. It’ going to be a pen/pencil holder for my desk. It’s the size of a soda can. How do I know this for a fact? That was my blocker.

Ta! Have a great week.

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Grace and I have been chatting over the past week on making mobius strips. Searching on the web on mobius strips, I found that there are quite a few directions for making mobius strips. Some are done by making a long strip, then grafting the start and end together after making a half twist. Some are done with that funky “knit into the bottom of the stitch” business that had always made my eyes crossed thinking about it. Then, there are the misnomers.

The last category is when you accidently put a twist in the cast on, when you are connecting it in a round. I’ve seen various places where people call it a mobius. It’s not. It’s just a full twist mistake.

First, let’s go back to the definition of a mobius. The mobius strip only has one edge and one surface.

Exercise #1:

1. take a long strip of paper
2. pull the ends together to form a loop (as you would when you make a paper chain)
3. turn one end one half turn
4. tape the ends together

What you have now has one edge and one surface. This is a mobius strip. The coolest and simplest 2 dimensional object in the world. Nay, universe. This is the first method for knitting a mobius scarf described in the first paragraph.

Exercise #2: Okay, let’s do another experiment.

1. take a long strip of paper
2. pull the ends together to form a loop
3. turn one end a full turn
4. tape the ends together.

Can you see the difference? The second loop has 2 edges and 2 surfaces. This is not a mobius strip. This is what happens when you accidently join your circular knitting with a single twist in the cast on.

Let’s take a look at this in terms of knitted fabric. Follow the link for the pictorial on knitting a mobius. I’ve moved it so that you don’t have to take a nap while waiting for this page to load unless you really, really want to see how I did it.
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I present you, Mobius Basket! I must say, I am itching to make another one right now. A tall skinny one to use as a pen/pencil holder. I’m going digging into my stash.

It was a beautiful day yesterday (70F +), so I took my spinning wheel outside and played for a bit. Every once in a while, a male Anna’s Hummingbird, in full mating plumage, would buzz over my head to get to the hummingbird feeder. What a beautiful sight. Our big disappointment in moving from the cottage is that we won’t be there for the nesting season. We had 2 hummingbird nests within 4 feet of the front door. I had never seen one before, and was hoping to see them build the nest and lay eggs.

Spring tip for Spinners: Gather up all that scrap fiber. You know, all that awful bits that are too horrible to spin. Put them in a mesh bag and hang them on a tree for the birds to gather for nesting materials.

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