I can do math, and other good news

Last night I cast on Guinan, a really freaking cool-looking hat that has concentric circles of I guess you'd call it horizontal ribbing. It looks like Whoopi Goldberg's hat when she was Guinan on Star Trek. My mother-in-law will LOVE it, everyone insists, even though she never ever wears hats ever. So it said to cast on 90 stitches, which I did, and then I looked at it and thought, "Gee, that's never going to fit around anyone's head!" So I actually...did a swatch. I've never done one before, and I was a bit nervous that it would take forever, but of course it only took a few minutes. And I found that, while the pattern gauge said 5 st/in, I was actually knitting 7. After a few agonizing minutes, during which I was actually almost driven to tears, I figured out that all I needed to do was cast on 126 stitches instead of 90 (adding two stitches for every five in the pattern) and I would get the measurement I needed.

And I was right!

So far that's going extremely well, and I will try to post pictures of that later.

That's the first bit of good news, actually - I found my camera charger. I have lots of yummy pictures to post for you, but I keep leaving my camera at home and then not actually posting them while I'm at home. If I can remember to bring my camera to work tomorrow, I should be able to get them all where they should be.

The next bit of good news - and this one is really big - is that I have a new sewing machine! Okay, it's not new, at all. It's older than mine, and it's a Singer too, but it works better than the one I have. And the best news is, it cost me nothing but a few minutes of my time. I was lamenting to my boss about the death of my sewing machine, and she immediately offered to loan me hers, which had been collecting dust in her closet for years. I accepted happily.

Later, she said that she needed some measurements taken for a custom jacket she was ordering. She had no clue how to do it, so I offered to help. She then said that she would trade me my help for her sewing machine...permanently. I think I almost choked when she said that, but ultimately she convinced me that she would probably never use the sewing machine again. Smiling, she added, "If I ever get inspired though, I know where to find you!"

So I'll post pictures of that beauty later, hopefully in action as I teach Chuck how to use it. He's so excited - he's always designed beautiful garments, and now he'll be able to put some of them together.

I haven't sewn anything on the new machine yet, but last week I went crazy hand-stitching some fabric arm bands, which I also have pictures of on the camera that is currently at home.

So there's my update. Life is good in my crafty world this week. :D