Adventuring in Haines (and a good old garage sale find)

I adore Haines, Alaska - it's quickly becoming one of my favourite places.  Between the gorgeous drive (you can see part of the scenery and some of the town in this post; ETA: way to forget the link, Heather), the adorable town, and the friendly people, I'd probably happily move there!  If I could find a job.  And if it weren't another country.  Though a large chunk of the Yukon agree that Haines and Skagway and other nearby towns might as well be part of the Yukon - we're basically the same people, so we might have to plot stealing those areas back or something. 

Don't worry folks, we'll let you keep your flag - you're obviously fond of it if the presence of one on every single house is anything to go by.  We'll just stick a leaf on it or something!  ;)

(I am just kidding - please don't take this as a serious plot to invade or anything!  Though if you're not using those towns, we'll happy trade you them for some poutine and a Zamboni or something.)

Anyways, as you can probably guess, I had a good time in Haines this past weekend.  We went down for the Haines Beerfest (my first time going!) and had a blast.  The weather was extremely warm and I killed my ankles and feet by walking all over town in flip flops, but the beer was good and I made lots of friends by sharing my ginormous bag of popcorn with everyone.

BTW, three separate people stated "you must be Canadian" after I offered them popcorn.  Weird.

What does this have to do with "Things I Make"?  Well, not a lot.  Unless you count this fantastic find I stumbled across at a garage sale there.

It's a Singer 99K in pretty good condition!  The shellac is starting to peel, but she appears to run well and the lightbulb works.  I haven't actually tried sewing with her yet, since I need to find some time somewhere to give her a good cleaning and probably not a small amount of oil.  Not bad for $20 USD (probably about $26 or so CAD)!

I'm pretty stoked though.  Poor...everyone in Haines.  I crowed about my find to absolutely everyone who made the mistake of making eye contact with me! 

 

 

It came with some goodies under the machine.  I'm pretty sure all of those weird feet are rufflers.  Who ever used to own her must've been a serious ruffle-addict!

There was also some buttonhole templates, but sadly no buttonholer.  I'm going to see if I can't find one for this machine - though my Kenmore does buttonholes just fine.  Maybe I'll track down some other feet for it too.

Pretty sweet find, eh?  I need to figure out a name for her soon.  Any suggestions?

Review: Pokdej's Interchangeable Needle Case

I've been on the lookout for a decent interchangeable knitting needle* case for a while now.  I was originally planning on sewing one for myself, like I did my double point needle case, but then I came across this:

It's a clever little case made by Pokdej knitting assessories (etsy link), a woman out of Vancouver, BC.  I came across her shop via an ad** on Ravelry, and initially checked it out for inspiration.  But looking closer at her cases, I could see the quality of the product and the great design she came up with, and decided to support this shop.  Doesn't help that she's Canadian!

The cases all come with needle slots, an attached zippered pouch for end caps, tightening keys, notions, etc, and space on either side of the pouch for cables.  They come in two sizes:

• Regular Case: has 9 slots to hold needles ranging from 3.5 mm to 8 mm, plus 4 extra wide slots for other needles.
• XL Case: has 18 slots for two sets of needles, plus 4 extra wide slots for other needles.

I chose to get the XL case, since I have a set of wood needles and a short set of metal needles.  They all fit in perfectly, and the extra slots are great for the bulky and smaller interchangeable needles I've bought individually.

The little labels under each slot were 'sold' separately - the case doesn't come included with them.  But it was well worth the extra few bucks for the ease of finding the right size, and I was able to choose metric instead of US sizing (which can't seem to wrap my brain around and drives me batty).

I've had it for a few weeks now, and the needles are staying put despite being knocked about in my camp bag and backpack, and tossed around the room (I'm not always gentle when I decide that it's time to sleep and I have to clear off all my knitting crap to get into bed).  Looking at the pouch now, I probably shouldn't have bought one with white on the outside, but oh well, too late now.


While I probably could've made a similar case myself for less than I paid, this case is well made and well designed, and I'm really pleased to support this person and her clever little shop.  She makes some excellent knitting accessories - I love her clear vinyl box bags, and she offers build-your-own kits, where you can pick your own fabrics and colours and she'll make them up just for you!

The interchangeable needle case is surprisingly compact - it's much smaller than I thought it'd be.  I've included a mechanical pencil (oriented the wrong way - oops) for scale, below.

See that cute little round pouch there?  That was from a goodie pack I won in a giveaway from Suzy Bee Sews.  Thanks again Suzy!  I use this case constantly for stitch holders and tightening keys, and incidentially, I used up the rest of that clear elastic on my recent Linden sweatshirt!

I love my interchangeable case.  It's so pretty, holds everything snug, and keeps track of my needles.  Couldn't have been better timing either, because the plastic case that came with my wood needles disintegrated as I was transfering needles.

Where the heck are all of my metal needles?!

Now if only I could find all of my knitting needles...  

*~~*~~*~~*

Re-reading my post, I do want to note that I paid full price for this case and this review is totally because I'm in love with the product.  I know there can be controversy over product review posts, but no one paid me to write this (or even asked), and I'm truely gaga over this case.  :)  I actually had to force myself to hold off writing it as soon as I got my grubby paws on it, just so I could see how it held up with use.  Which is excellent, btw.  Except for the white - WHY DID I ORDER A WHITE CASE?!  Silly dirty geologist, you never learn.


* Interchangeable knitting needles are a system of circular needles where a cable can screw into the base of a pair of knitting needles, allowing you to vary the length of cable and needle size without having to buy a whole bunch of fixed circular needle sets.  Really handy if you do a ton of different types of projects and don't want a thousand different fixed circs.  There's apparently some disadvantages, but I haven't experienced any yet.
** Incidently, Ravelry is the only site that I will actively search out, click, and buy things from.  I completely ignore ads on every other site - mostly because I don't know if they can be trusted.  Ravelry only allows relevent ads that a veto'd ahead of time.