I was trying for a hot water bottle cover in Fair Isle. The purple was old Shetland (though unlabelled) stuff, quite harsh. The white was a new cone from good old J&S, and must have been a little thicker than previously. The pattern was stacked snowflakes or windflowers. Tension was 8 on the Kitmaster, and it was like rolling a boulder uphill, with frequent jams. So I gave up. The piece of fabric that came off the machine was like cardboard, with several dropped stithces. As Shetland wool is so "sticky", I couldn't be bothered to wind each colour back. Then had the idea of seeing if I could sew it onto a thin cork backing as coasters. It worked. Bit rough round the edges, but hey, it's "lemonade". Tried one piece on felt, but that flexes a little. Looking for the flet (and tidying up my haberdashery trays in the process), I came across a "deep" plastic coaster still in its packet. By this time I had very little good areas left on the original piece. It is too thick to let the backing fit neatly inthe frame, so it had to be a sellotape job.
