Grandma's old Singer (it was made in 1948 in Elizabeth, NJ, for those of you who may be curious). I've had a burning desire to fire this thing up, especially since she passed, but I don't know the first thing about sewing. Apparently I'm missing a bobbin and some other stuff that probably attaches to the top. But I'm having a lot of difficulty finding a model type or pictures of very similar machines online. I found one manual for a model that looks almost identical to this one, but it wasn't in it's own stand, it was a table-top model, and it didn't have the tacking/back-up feature that I think this one has. Anyway, I plugged it in and it definitely works. I'm going to see if my mom remembers enough to get me started. I feel a great sense of regret when I think about my grandmother as an untapped domestic/handi-craft resource, and even if it does take my mom and I a while to get it going, the experience of having my mom teach me on my grandma's machine is priceless. At this point, though, I'm afraid to even clean it. It seems to be in great condition, and it really isn't that dirty considering it's almost 60 years old, but I don't want to lose any more of that gold leaf.

And I have about 2 inches left to knit on The Sock before I decrease for the toe. I realized last night that it has taken me about 6 weeks to knit this much of one sock. That is so...pathetically...sad. I don't know why it has taken me so long. If I had knitted even a few rows each day I could have finished it in no time, and he would probably have a whole pair by now. I think I just lacked inspiration. That was easily rectified by a trip to the library where I found, on-hand (I usually have to place a hold or request a specific book from another branch), about 10 knitting books that I had been yearning to get my hands on, including Knitting Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush. I was going to just graft the toe, since I've never done that before and I think grafting looks like an invaluable skill. But now I'm thinking I may try the star toe instead. It just looks so neat and professional! I'm itching for a challenge. Maybe after the felted handbag I'll try knitting from a chart or some texture like cables or eyelets.