Well, I’ve been really quiet on the site this year but I thought I’d do a year in review anyway because it hasn’t been a quiet year in real life!  It seems a bit of a roller coaster ride of good things and drama but all in all, it was a calmer year than recently previous years.

Good news:  The fiasco involving Ryan’s accident from more than 4 years ago finally came to an end in February.   That meant with the settlement funds, we were able to clear some debt and take on some of the house projects that had been waiting – the largest of those is most of the windows.  Coordinating that and some other smaller projects occupied a lot of my attention this fall.   I still need to paint the trim around the windows.  I just don’t want to though.  I’ll get to it eventually.

Not good news: In April, we lost Dax.  She had a good run and was so loving to the very end.  She was 16 years old which is really amazing for a dog her size.

Another thing we did was change up some of the vehicles around here.  We leased (apparently Ryan’s staff pricing works best with a lease) a new car for me with AWD and a heated steering wheel/heated seats because I’m such a wuss in the winter. 😉  Here it is the weekend before we picked it up from the dealership.  I have it for 3 years.

Shortly after we got it home, someone pulled a hit and run on the Mustang (my usual ride and what Ryan drives to work most days.)  I managed to buff out 98% of the damage but still…

Then 6 months later, a … lady completely unnecessarily parked right beside me and dinged the door of the new car in the otherwise empty Costco parking lot and I had even parked “way out there”.  Apparently she wanted to cuddle.  I stuck around and got her insurance information –  because the dent was that bad.  My poor car, 6 months old and in a paint booth.  At least it wasn’t my paint booth this time.

We also got out on the two wheelers a lot more than usual.  Ryan enrolled us in a Track Day/ School for the street bikes.  For that I was on a KTM RC390 – which is absolutely the perfect bike for a track day – even if I did have to shift a lot more than the guys on the liter bikes.  I’m not sure I’ve ever screamed so much in my helmet – some of it was even in delight!  I did have a lot of fun even though I decided to mow a little bit of lawn with it.  Ooops.  I kept it upright though.  The photos showed that it wasn’t that impressive but it sure felt fast.  🙂

We also downsized the bike I ride in the dirt.  I went from 200ccs to a 105cc bike and it’s way easier for me to ride.   That bike that I had to beat into submission way back when I posted this – went to another rider in BC this spring.

That came about thanks to an experience at summer’s end in 2017.  We were at the motocross track and a young guy came into the registration shack looking for an ice pack for his brother who’d hit his face on the cross bar of his bike.  I had one and gave it to him.   Shortly afterward we geared up and headed onto the track.  At some point, I landed from a jump and my arms buckled – partly because the bike was too big for me and the bars a little wide so I had no strength/leverage to hold myself up off the bars.  I felt the chin bar of my helmet hit the cross bar of my bike.  I sucked in a breath and thought: “Wha???!”  To which my brain responded, “Oh yeah, that happens.”   “Wait, what?!?!” Ryan was not pleased when I told him about that.  The 200’s days were numbered at that point.  All that was left was for him to convince me that the 105 wouldn’t be screamy and shrieky in the extreme.  Turns out that ear plugs fix almost all of that.  Ryan says after 2 rides on this little bike that I was already faster than I ever was on the 200.  In fact, it’s amazing how fast I can crash on this bike now! 😉

At the very end of the summer, the trailer blew up its whole roof seal.  I have no idea what this is about (and neither did our nearest dealer!) – and of course I found it just as the first sloppy snow hit – but we’ve covered it with a proper cover for the winter and will deal with it in the spring.

Stormi’s still holding her own, despite a few good scares this past few months.  She’s passed the 22.5yrs old mark now. No pic because I’m a little superstitious.  The last time I posted a kitty photo was of Shadow and she ended up in emerg the next day and we lost her a week later. So for now, Stormi’s the hidden queen. 🙂

First there was the blood all over the floor by the box and all the fun that goes with antibiotics following that and then there was the tarry colored “output” incident.

Then  10 days ago, we realized she was rather er,…   backed up.   We managed to fix that over a period of 4 or 5 days and now I’m catching up on admin work while I continue to keep an eye on her.

She’s spent far too much time getting to know that thermometer at the emergency vet as far as she’s concerned. Seriously, it was only once.  Dr. Gina (her regular vet) doesn’t often take her temperature but Stormi will tell you all about how terrible it was if you’re willing to listen!

See what I mean about a rollercoaster ride?

As for sewing machine and fibre stuff, 2018 was the year of the UFO.

I think it stemmed from my massive purge phase at the beginning of the year.  We did this huge 20yr clean up/organization of the house/garage/shed.  At last estimate, I think there were was about 1700lbs sent out of here.  No, that’s not a typo.

I spent a bunch of the year working on or finishing long outstanding projects and not starting a lot of new stuff.   As of the end of the year, I still have 5 quilted projects on the list – 4 out of 5 are at the “waiting on long arm time” stage.  Will work on trying to knock 3 of them off the list this year.

Mrs. Toes, my Griztner Saxonia is still frozen solid, so she’s on my to-do list this year, as are the 2 featherweights for painting and reassembly.

About the only thing I came out of the year with no UFOs is my spinning and knitting (I went into the year with 2 knitted and 3 spinning projects).  I accomplished that by committing to 4 or 10 rows a day (depending on the project) or an hour a day for spinning.  When I’d caught up on the UFOs, I kept up with the same commitments for new projects.  Except during the Tour de Fleece – that was an all out spin fest as often as I could for the 3 weeks.  😉 At the end of the year, this is most of what I managed to do.  Firsts included: Socks, Colorwork, I-cord, Mobius cast on and Brioche. All in all, I also managed to spin more than 4000yds of yarn which is approaching 8 miles of treadling once you figure in all singles and various 2 and 3 plies.

This year’s goals:

• Keep up with clearing the UFOs
• Keep spinning every day
• Finish a few project machines (Mrs Toes, the Wee One and 2nd painter featherweight)
• Build an electric spinning wheel based on my Lendrum flyer and bobbins.
• Use my handspun.  I noticed that few of my knitted projects were with handspun and I plan to rectify that this year.
• Make more time to post – they’ll be shorter though and not always sewing machine related. Maybe I’ll post more like a journal than these huge posts.
• Grow the FB group which is where I’ll be doing any free support that I have time for.  It’s a closed group, so you’ll have to request to join – and answer those questions or I may not approve you if I can’t figure out if you’re legit or not.  You can find it here:

AA Vintage Sewing Machines Study

Regarding the FB group:

While I do realize that not everyone uses Facebook,  there’s a limit to the amount of time I can dedicate to unpaid work and still eat once or twice a week.   Facebook costs nothing and you don’t even have to put any confidential information on it or tell your friends and relations you’re on it.

Something had to give. I had to move the free help I provide via FB messenger, email, youtube, phone, etc into one spot because it was getting a little overwhelming and some people would send so many messages via every method that they could to address “sewing machine emergencies” that I would be inundated. I’m not kidding, I’d get sometimes a half dozen or more messages/emails, etc from the same person in a period of hours from FB, email, and YouTube. I was starting to feel stalked.  Then I’d answer and  fully 3/4s I’d never hear back from.  I’ve even received phone calls from other countries asking me to call them back long distance to provide free help.

This way, the response is there for others to read and benefit from and in a group, others can add their experience as well.

 

Today’s Post title comes to you from my current favorite artists:  Beth Hart and Joe Bonamassa – Well, Well