It’s funny how sometimes I have a sixth sense about things.

Specifically, I was absolutely right to buy a new sewing machine when I did.

My old Bernette is not doing well. Upon her return from the menders she had a few wonderful weeks of glorious sewing. It was as though she had returned from a holiday at a health farm, sporting a face-lift and a hip replacement and feeling ten years younger.

But now she is back to her grumpy old self, chewing up fabric like toffees, skipping the odd stitch here and there whenever the fancy takes her and messing up her tension at the drop of a hat.

So, fed up of her cantankerous ways, I have, at last, got Sapphire out of her box.

It’s been a while since I’ve had to get to grips with any new technology. It’s not something I really relish.

I mean, I’ll try out new apps on my phone. I’ll experiment with using new sites on my laptop. But to actually have to work out how to use a piece of equipment twenty years more up-to-date than the one it replaces is not a regular occurrence in my life.

It’s like going from driving some old jalopy to being behind the wheel of a brand new, top of the range sports car. One where you push buttons instead of using a steering wheel and gear stick.

And quite frankly, I’ve been struggling a bit.

I’m reading the user guide. I’m trying stuff out on waste fabric scraps. But quite honestly I wish I could just get on with it.

Because I resent the time I’m wasting working out all over again how to do things that have felt instinctive for my entire adult life.

I wish my day of training was sooner. But I still have another month and a half before the instruction day on my new machine.

And I just can’t wait that long, so I’ll have to work it out for myself.

My main fear is that long before my class comes around, I will have either taken a hammer to my new machine, or else gone completely billy-bonkers with frustration.

Please bear with me.

Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible, as they say. ♥