Well, I STARTED sewing my Ribby’s zipper in today.

Now, understand that I like to start by hand-sewing them in. I find that, because the zipper tape is so stiff and the knitted fabric is so flexible, that just pinning it in place and then sewing it by machine doesn’t work particularly well. Under the presser-foot, the knitted material moves around too much and then it ends up not stitching in evenly. So, I start with hand-sewing.

This, of course, COULD be enough. I mean, the zipper is now fully attached to the sweater, but since I like them to be really secure (since zippers do endure a certain amount of tugging) and I also want to put in a ribbon to hide the zipper tape, additional stitching by machine is optimal. (No, I don’t want to try stitching through that many layers by hand, thank you.)

The problem today? I don’t have enough thread left on the spool to do the machine stitching. This means I either need to machine-stitch with a thread that doesn’t match so well or go to a store tomorrow to pick up more. (Grumble.)

On the plus side, with the zipper hand-sewn and the basting thread removed, I was able to try it on, and it seems to fit just fine. Woot!

I got a couple goodies in the mail today. First, Volume Two of Liaden-Universe short stories which I ordered, lord, something like a year ago. I’d almost forgotten about it, until I saw the authors mention it on their blogs not too long ago. Considering how much I enjoy the Liaden stories, this is a real treat. I might even save it for my birthday next week. It’s even an autographed copy. I mean, true, it’s short stories and I really do prefer full-length novels, but still–they’re Liaden stories, and that makes all the difference.

And, of course, that nice roving. Romney wool in the very October-ish color, "Goblin Eyes." I’m not sure about the Romney, though. It seems kind of harsh and you all know that it’s the soft stuff that makes me drool.

Otherwise? A fairly quiet day. Time on the couch with Chappy and a good book. A trip to a local coffee shop this morning with Mom. I even brought my new spindle and did a little spinning while sitting at the tall tables by the window. I think that’s the first time I’ve spindle-spun in public, though I didn’t do as well as I’d like–the copp is getting a little heavy for the spindle now and it doesn’t want to spin as long as it was a few days ago, but no matter.

We didn’t get to do a walk, though, because this is the kind of weather we’ve had all day. You can’t really see in the picture, but trust me, it was raining pretty steadily. The sun, it’s true, did come out around 4:00, but it’s pretty soggy out there. Ick. The sidewalk outside the coffee shop has a still-incomplete new brick sidewalk and Mom and I kept trying to decide if that square in the middle was supposed to be a reflecting pool? A place for dogs to get a drink? Something else entirely? Or, gosh, maybe just a chunk of sidewalk they hadn’t gotten done yet before the rain started yesterday? (Nah, that couldn’t be it!)

Frankly, though, I’m just so glad that this wasn’t the weather from LAST Saturday, so, really, I’m not complaining.

Oh, and this link about ordering pizza online is kind of amusing.

This video presentation about Students Today is wonderful. (Really, click on this!)

And, if you’re worried about zombie attacks, you might want to watch this one. (Actually, all the videos on that site are good–love the presentation style.)

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