Welcome to Panic City.

I'll be your tour guide, Bams. . . . .

Ok so I believe I mentioned on the podcast that this year I am determined to work on my machines more, so that I can really gain some proficiency. I don't have access to a class or anything because they are all really expensive, so I'm attempting to learn from here.

Welp today I decided I'd knit up a sock for my Darling Husband who deserves all the socks in the world, but would never take them because he wouldn't like to see you all with cold feet. I got one done (although I'm not sure if it's big enough. It's easily frogged and reknit. At least I did it ya know? Anyway I had to pee SO BAD, but I was almost done so I just finished up, then I CO for the second sock. I was going to use my garter carriage (this thing which knits AND purls - most machines can't do that . . or can any? I need to know) Anywho, I CO for it, then started the first row of ribbing with my garter carriage. I like to hang around while the first row knits just in case. . If I have trouble with it, it's almost always right up front.

Sooooo, before it will pattern on my machine, you have to run a magnet past one end of the machine. It's sort of communicating to the machine to start the patterning. Welp, I forgot. I haven't used this machine that much since I got it, especially not with the GC, so it knitted the whole row instead of a 2 x 2 rib. whoops. No big deal really, so I went ahead and stopped it so I could fix. I've done this before. It's not a huge thing.

Welp, when I went to slide over the garter carriage, a piece popped off. Now this is (comparatively speaking) an expensive fucking piece of equipment. They are hard to get, they don't make them anymore and it's hard even to find someone to repair them. With our current financial situation (which is by no means destitute and so many people are worse off right now), it's really not an option to fix or replace and I love that thing. It's noisy. it's slow. It's MINE!!!!

Now I could see that the piece did not BREAK off. Clearly it was made to come off (thank goodness), so I took the carriage and THE PIECE upstairs so I could pee and look at it. So that first bit of business taken care of, I sat down with it in my lap looking and looking. It had a ittle brush on it that I knew would go up against the machine needles, but for the life of me, I could not remember how, but I persevered.

After coming very close to panic, (I'm not kidding, I was on the edge people) I noticed that THE PIECE had a pair of slightly worn grooves on it and started looking around for what could have been wearing them in that particular pattern. and WOO FRICKIN HOO.

I found it.


We are now leaving Panic City. I hope you enjoyed your visit. Don't come back if you can help it :S