Skip to main content

Background Basics

 You may call me Mark. Or `Mark..er. Marker.

A full time Scientist, part time Graduate student, an ardent lover of the solace of the forest, and a mistress to Old Man Winter's son.

Most of my time outside of school and work, when I have it, is spent at home with my cat, Lexi. She's a menace to any string, a deep lover of cuddles, a purrito or cupboard critter when startled, but overall prefers being next to me.

Hailing from the Mid-west of the USA, I find that I'm sort of a busy homebody science/nerd/geek streak, with a love of teaching and exposition, which means my posts will often be sort of technical, and likely longer than most people can stomach.

The time I spend home could be reading, time with friends, or creating things. My main "thing" is knitting, but I sew on occasion. I do find time to crochet all of my own dish rags and potholders, though. Cross stitch and embroidery sometimes find its way on my project queue, but not often. Those are the sorts of things I suspect you'll end up reading on this blog. A blog of free time.

My general philosophy is life is a vast array of messy things, happening in a sort of chaotic collision, and you are the one sitting there picking up the pieces and gluing them together to make your story. A mosaic, or perhaps more of a macaroni doodle. (Mine's probably the doodle.) This blog is likely a little glitter, and maybe a dash of paint.

I find, though, when putting together this doodle the cosmic teacher is looking at me and saying "Sweetie, that's enough glue."

Photos Pending.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Master Key

With the variety of accessories and attachments that one can use on these machines I decided that I needed to test out every one of them if I can. However, I wasn't interested in taking parts out of one of the "books" or "Towers of Power" so I designed a master set. With the large number of parts that I had acquired, I was thankfully able to give each machine its own unique set according to its manual and still have plenty left over. With this I created my own master set, a master key to unlocking all the possible potentials of the sewing machines. Lets note that first I purchased an adapter off of ebay between the Super High Shank to Low shank, so that if I had any attachments that were some how special or unique to Low Shank I could use them (in this case one of the monogrammers and a buttonholer) The standard attachments that all the machines can work with are the same across all the lines, and are pretty typical to any sewer. Zipper Cording Overcas...

(NaCl(aq) NaCl(aq))/ (C C C C C C C) Cams

Saline, Saline over the Seven C-Cams. Ahoy! These waters you tread are dangerous indeed. The sirens are a'calling, and you may find yourself lost before you see a shore again. We'll be a' talkin' about the Kenmore cams. /me clears throat For the Kenmore Experiment, I wanted to help set you all up with what you'll be seeing me work with that isn't really in many modern sewing machines. PATTERN CAMS! These little beauties are not really seen with modern machines any more for a number of reasons. One of which being that they just build them all in now for simple mechanical machines, or can program them into the onboard computer and never bother yourself with cams again. Pattern Cams are actually a fancy name for the mechanic that helps make your stitch shape. Sort of a mechanical instruction for your machine for where the needle is supposed to go, and how the machine should move the fabric. Mix of C-Cams and Monogram cams that I sold   To me...

To Helen Black: An introduction to 1601s

I'm working with the machines now, not in chronological order, but in complexity order. So the first machine I have worked with is Helen. This bird is a 158.16010. She has a slightly green, maybe mint, enamel casing. Quick things you'll note about her and what basically drew me to these generations of machines is the simplicity of the design. Proof Helen is indeed a machine Basic features that are identical across the 1601/1701/1802 line are the side opening door to get to the light bulb, the easy to remove top (it is just held on with a tension clip around), and the order of the knobs. From left to right up to down, Stitch Width, Reverse Stitch Modifier, Stitch length (with reverse button), and Stitch Selector.  Everything is upfront and easy to access. All the machines I will be testing are flat bed, so to get to the bobbin casing there is either lifting up the machine and tilting it back, or popping out the access plate and hoping your hands are small enough to re...