A few days ago an email came up on the Melbourne s’n’b list offering a free knitting machine to anyone who could pick it up. It was in a suburb not too far away, and one we could do a quick detour to if we were heading to the city, so I put my hand up for it.

The lovely lady who gave it to me (thankyou Maree!) warned me that it was grubby. She was right. When I took it out of its box I got oil all over my hands. It was practically dripping with it. Old oil had dried and turned orange on the face of the machine, too. And if you happend to touch the slidy bar that the thingo runs over you got black grease all over you.

Basically, it needed a good clean, then re-oiling and re-greasing where the oil and grease were supposed to be, so yesterday I did just that. Which included an hour or so of cursing from the beau as he took over to work out how to unscrew the main bit from the case, and a trip to Bunnings and Clark Rubber to replace the rubber feet and some foam.

Five hours later, it was all shiny and clean:

Only then did I notice something amusing. Look closely and note the model number:

I hope this isn’t a bad omen!

By the time I’d finished I was too tired to do more than peep at the ribbing attachment, or to see if I could get it working. Another time.

In WIP news, I was able to return to High Verocity last night since the temp had returned to a civilised range. In the pattern photo the collar was right up under the jaw of the models. While I love a good high collar, I’m a bit sensitive to wool. I usually wear a cotton skivvy underneath to prevent itching, but no skivvy is going to reach high enough for this pattern. So, after trying it on to see if I liked the height, I decided to finish the collar 5cm before the pattern said to.

Today I’m going to sew it all up. Tomorrow I’ll post pics.