Sweater woes

I have lots of beautiful hand-knitted sweaters, but most of them don't mix with full skirts that sit at the natural waist well. I've recently been converted to the far superior comfort of long skirts when it's cold, so those outfits all require a sweater, and I've been experimenting with which sweaters are less annoying (I've tried out two cardigans that didn't work at all - the chartreuse april by petiteknit and the black tweed cable cardigan designed by me - and five different pullovers, four of which have been made for me by waxjism: Pom2 by Bonnie Sennott, Minori by Rievive, Tsubaki by Hiroko Fukatsu, and my brand new (she finished it last Sunday!!!) beloved Inishturk which was the most-wanted and longest-desired sweater on my Ravelry wish list until she made it for me with some incredibly beautiful and soft unbleached bluefaced leicester yarn!!!! - it's so new that I haven't got any good selfies in it yet. I think Wax took some awkward pictures where I'm making horrible faces with poor lighting and bad framing, but fortunately she hasn't remembered to upload them. Oh, and the one I made: Sweater no. 18 by My Favourite Things. Anyway, those all worked to varying degrees, but they all were a bit inconvenient too).

I just finally finished the first sweater I've deliberately made to wear with high-waisted silhouettes (except I ordered one button too few for some reason, so it's still missing one button that I have to order) and I'm in love with it, but I don't have any other sweaters that color and it won't go with any of my pants! I immediately realized I'm gonna need a second sweater that color (Drops Alpaca color 7323 Seagreen) but with a different fit, but I don't have a design in mind yet (obviously it can't be the same pattern, because it would be way too confusing trying to tell the sweaters apart then). Honestly, I can't wait to wear this sweater, and my immediate reaction to trying it on was about half dismay that it only really goes well with three skirts that I currently own.

Then I turned to the socks I was working on before I started the sweater. I was in the process of binding off the first one and I quickly finished, only to discover that I can't find the pattern I was using on my phone. Apparently I didn't make any notes either??? Interesting choices past me was making a month ago, between this and for some reason ordering 9 buttons when the sweater called for 10, and I typically order one or two extras in case of accidents. I may have to sit here counting the stitches in the finished sock (which is made of fingering weight merino on 2.25 mm needles).

Nooo sewing machine don't leave me now

Last Monday afternoon I got really enthusiastic and decided to start the better flannel bloomers I've been meaning to make on the sewing machine. The machine sort of hesitated, and I thought, it probably needs a little care. I saw a video recently about cleaning the dust out from around the bobbin and under the plate, so I followed the disassembly instructions in the manual and cleaned some dust out with a Q-tip and a makeup brush and then put it back.

I didn't put oil in, even though the instructions said to, because the bottle of sewing machine oil we have is like fifty years old and all yellowed and crusty (the plastic, not the oil), and to keep it from leaking I put it in a freezer bag and knotted it closed a few years ago and I didn't want to open it. I've never oiled a sewing machine before and I didn't really feel prepared to start.

But when I tried to start it again it just sort of froze up and failed to start! I went through the process I had followed in the manual and took it apart AGAIN exactly the same and put it back together again too, just to check I hadn't made a mistake in putting it back together, but yeah, no, the motor still just goes mmmmm and the gears won't turn.

So. Either it REALLY needs oil, or I did something wrong that I'm not smart enough to figure out. Because of the latter possibility I'm kind of afraid to try to oil it though, because that means taking it apart again through all the same steps! Other alternative is to have it serviced. I have to start by looking up Bernina service. It probably has to be driven to Kaarina, realistically. And normally I'd just be like how about I never get around to doing that because it sounds alarming. But right now I have a lot of projects that I want to do, and four cut out pieces of flannel on the table that... I'd really like to be able to wear?