My New Toys

I now have my new sewing machine - a Juki HZL-F600; I've only done a wee bit with it so far.   Tested it on stretch fabric, some straight stitching on my eighteenth century dress, a test buttonhole etc and I'm happy with ease of use and stitch quality.   I'll do a proper review once she and I have had a chance to get properly acquainted.    I do like her size and weight though, she's got a good solid feel to her and she comes with a great hard case which many machines now don't and a good range of feet too.  
I've had to take some time out to test my old Elna SE Air Electronic and list her on Trademe.   She has a name; Ellie.   Once the Juki and I have had some time together she'll get a name too; most of my tools do.  Some come with them of course like Grace my spinning wheel, but Ellie, Bernie (my Bernina) and Bonnie (my dress form) have all earned theirs.

Without further ado, here she is:

Also joining the family is Rose who comes with her name, but may get renamed if she wants that; we'll see.  Once again I've not had time to do much with her yet, had a wee go and I know that it'll take a bit for us to get used to eachother.   She didn't come with an orifice hook so I'll have to sort something out for that; can't steal Grace's as hers will probably be finding a new home as I don't have room for 2 wheels.   She's beautiful though and I love my custom design on her.

Just finished assembling her.

My lovely morepork; I actually drew this myself from a photo; really happy with him.

There's certainly no lack of things to spin on her; picked up my processed fibre today.   I really need another 24 hours in each day I think, and a cleaner cos that's what I spent half of today doing was cleaning the dining/kitchen area.   I still need to finish the neverending white on Grace and then ply it on Rose to see how that goes.   If it goes well then I'll be selling the E-spinner (with Woollee Winder); fingers crossed as I need the money and space from that.

Tomorrow I need to spend some time with both these ladies.   18th century gown needs a little seaming on the skirt and to have the lining applied to the bodice, so the Juki will get a play with that.   I need to do some basic worsted spinning on Rose to see how that goes; my test run was with carded alpaca and I did long draw which went well, but I normally spin worsted so that's my next test and if it goes well she'll come to the guild on Saturday to meet all my friends.

I've done a few more rows on my rainbow socks and decided I'm going to use the Fish Lips Kiss Heel pattern on it to test it out.    Need to get back onto the loom and if I do sell the things I'm hoping to then she'll be getting new heddles as I have decided I don't like string heddles very much.   Texsolv would be better, but only if I've got some money.
There will be no more yarn or fabric or fibre, I have tonnes and I need to start creating space by using what I have.   I may even consider reducing some stash, this is however a thought I need to work on as it's not something I find it easy to do.