Just Relax

I got an semi-emergency call from Natalie who said her Kenmore was holding the thread too tight. Was it nervous? In a panic? What had Natalie done to it? I doubt it was anything dire since her Kenmore is about forty years old and still in great shape. She brought it over, we tested it out, but it didn't behave exactly as she had described. Isn't that frustrating? The tension mechanism was not quite right, though, so I said I better take a look at it. Here's what I found when I took it apart:

tension mechanism in order of disassembly

That's way too many pieces and so many ways for it to go wrong. Then I noticed something on the counter that wasn't there before, a piece of felted lint:

felted intruder

It must have fallen out of the disks. I cleaned each part off and found other bits of stubborn dirt so reassembled it all to find it was just fine now except she was noisy. Out came the oil and cotton swabs for cleaning and she was better but there was still a distinct click-click as the needle entered the race. It wasn't hitting anything so I took the ring and race off and the noise went away. Checking and watching each part very carefully I could see the race had a bit of play as it fit into the hook. I found another one, exact same number and configuration so as it was replace and tested, wait for it...it was now quiet! I believe the race had worn away enough to cause it to fit with too much slop in it so it got an update. Natalie is going to be happy with it now!

Race

Race in place with hook and ring

We continue with winter here and have even succumbed to having out roof raked. There must be nearly two feet of snow up there and even with a new roof in 2017 that's quite a bit of weight. The extra insulation my husband insisted we have added must have paid off since we have no icicles hanging from out roof. All of that snow is now in our yard and is four feel deep on the patio so we need to work to get it further away from the house: spring melt will come one day. Just to add a bit of spring to our never-ending winter, I have this beautiful basket of bulbs, sent as a memorial for my mother-in-law who passed away in February:

Bulb Basket to remind us of spring

They smell wonderful and are just an encouragement for spring! I hear we are getting another foot of snow this weekend, just in time for daylight savings time.

Update: It wasn't exactly a foot of snow but it was snow on top of ice for a real mess. I've been working on a few Christmas projects (always thinking ahead!) and can share the end results with you later in the week. In the meantime I'm going to use this bad weather as an excuse to stay inside and SEW but I don't think I needed an excuse, did I?

Patio snow removal (he's not getting lost in that color)