Early next year I am getting a sewing machine and I am so excited. I have been trying to figure out which machine to buy and so far the Janome dc3050 is the frontrunner. I have tried it and I like its versatility - I am just not sure it is not a bit too fancy and it is perhaps also a bit pricier than I would have liked (especially for a model which has been on the market for years). What machine do you have and what would you recommend? I am not a complete beginner - I just haven't sewn for a few good years. I have also spent time thinking about why exactly I want a sewing machine.

Of course I want to make my own clothes. Being a proficient knitter has taught me how amazing it feels to wear something that fits 'just right' and in colours I like. Like many others, I find clothes shopping an ordeal - partly because I never seem to fit into one particular size and partly because I don't like most of the clothes bought in shops. Upcycling old textiles is also greatly appealing (and nothing new to me - my favourite pair of trousers as a teen were fashioned from old 1950s curtains) and being able to mend things in my home strikes yet another cord. Perhaps I'm just trying to convince myself that this is not just another act of consumerism but actually a practical purchase. That is how my head works.

However, I do find myself slightly scared by venturing into the world of dress-making. I went into a few fabric stores in Copenhagen and I was petrified. This was presumably how I felt the first time I went into a yarn store, but I really cannot remember nowadays. I was surrounded by rolls of material and I had NO IDEA what most of them were or how they could be used. I have mostly dabbled in cottons, so I was quite unprepared by the sheer variety available.

I am still knitting, of course. I finished a project whilst on holiday, but I need to sit down and work out pattern before I post more details. It's an own design and it'll be available in a range of sizes. I have a lot of things on my plate work-wise (going on holiday is great; coming back is always slightly stressful) so I don't know when I'll publish it. I only have the sleeves to do on my red alpaca cardigan. I have two more charts left on my Faroese yarn shawl. And I have a sample I need to knit with the deadline looming (yes, it's for a publication; no, not my design; yes, it's super-pretty). All so many projects almost done.. just not there yet.

Random links:

• This headline made me convulse with laughter.
• What a shame my Christmas shopping is done.
• Some people are geekier than me. Or you. Or my Significant Other. Although he enjoyed that site.
• What a way to wake up every morning.
• The geekiest thing I've seen on YouTube. Well, today.
• 10 Essential Books from the Last 25 Years. Exactly what it says on the tin.. not. Too token, too white, too male, and much too US-centric. Also curiously omitting the book which named the referenced generation and no Atwood either (take your pick but The Handmaid's Tale would be my choice).
• This Danish criminal case has rattled me. For years I lived very, very close to where these crimes took place and when I heard about the police trying to find the perpetrator, I had a horrible feeling I knew the guy. I'm very, very, very glad to be proven wrong (if indeed the arrested man is guilty).