I'm Ms. Fix It

Well much has happened since last I posted. The day after I got my Corona knitting machine I produced this lovely fair isle sample...very seventies

But then I broke it, so instead of posting about the many jumpers I was going to make (but in more tasteful colour combinations) I took the Corona apart and tried to divine its secrets.

Surprisingly enough I managed to fix it and I learned alot about how it works in the process, which gave me a new found confidence (possibly ill conceived) to fix my old Singer sewing machine. I got it many years ago from my great Grandad, who was a shoe maker....and yes I knew him, in fact he gave me the machine himself when I was 23 I think. I vaguely remember him telling me that there was something wrong with the timing and I promised to go and get it serviced. Or course I never did and I eventually forgot why I never used it...until my sister pilfered my other sewing machine and I was left only with the Singer

Its a pretty awesome machine, Grandad added a heavy duty engine to it so he could sew leather on it and it looks good too. So I'm going to try my hand at it and I suppose if I cant fix it I will pay the $100 to get it serviced.

Even More Magnificent Than That Of The Sun - My Corona!

You know those times when you enter that zen state when Op-Shopping. The one you attain when methodically, almost meditatively leafing through the vinyl record section. Suddenly your reverie is shattered by a loud shriek from the back of the shop. On those occasions, which are rare, you flinch...should I be ducking and rolling or something...is the shop under siege? But no, when you see a fellow punter eagerly rushing to the checkout with a battered box or some garish fabric, you gather from their look of rapture that it is undoubtedly the most awesome find in the history of Op-Shopping ever...

You watch as they jealously shelter their their find as if the whole shop will descend on them and wrestle it from their hands...and your thinking WHY COULDN’T THAT BE MEEEEE. Curse my ordered approach...’start at the front and work my way to the back’...maybe I should just tackle them before they get there. But on this occasion it was ME, only I’m not sure everyone would be as excited about my find as I was but so feel free to insert your own imaginary awesome Op-Shop find and you will appreciate the ecstasy I felt when I found my Corona.

Yes thats right even more magnificent than that of the Sun my Corona shone out from its stained and decrepit box at the back of the Morley Salvos. I said to my sister Kate, who also appeared interested in the enticingly hideous visage of the object, ‘hey what’s that thing’. Despite its condition the box informed us that it was a Corona CH-1000 Knitting Machine...and suffice to say, as a hand-knitter, I was quite excited. What’s more exciting is that it cost 20 bucks!! Im not quite sure how much they sell for but I think its in the hundreds somewhere...so quite a deal, particularly when I got home and found that it was in perfect working order. And to prove it, some pictures that will take a millions years to load:

Look at it, its old.....maybe

Look at it working! 

And this is everything that came with it, amazingly enough it had all of the origional accessories. That blue and yellow note book, with the ancient Woolies logo on it, contained the previous owners patterns...good old Judith Parker...in fact I was so grateful that it was completely intact I gave the machine a name, ‘Mrs Parker’.

Anyway my sisters dogged determination to visit every Op-Shop she could think of ended with me finding that which she had coveted...THE MOST AWESOME OP-SHOP FIND EVER...maybe next time it will be her.