Here I am again in the late afternoon. I am tired and grumpy as a bear. I don’t bite though. Yesterday’s pushups at the gym netted sore shoulders. The romp in the park with Sheba yesterday and today’s walk around the neighbourhood adds to my fatigue. Then there’s the excitement of putting in a new zipper and some top stitching on my parka. My failure was a moment of disappointment and woe.

Today I made another trip to Fabricland and bought the regular thread and topstitching needle for the thread I bought yesterday. I thought I was going to do a great and proper job on my coat. I was successful in using the needle threader after a couple of tries. I was thrilled! I attached the proper foot and punched the zigzagg stitch on the screen. I wanted to do some topstitching around the bottom edge before putting in the zipper. An error showed up. I had to select the zigzag foot on the screen. It was still programmed for the zipper foot. Everything has to be copacetic before it will go. And even then, I still screwed up.

Only a few stitches in, Bernina stopped. The screen lit up showing 2 bobbins. I fiddled to no avail. Nothing moved – not the thread or needle. So I cut the thread, hoping everything will loosen up. No deal. I shut the machine off. The screen said some kind of malfunction and to restart. I pressed the ? on the screen. It said no help for this kind of malfunction. I went YIKES! Lugging the machine back to the store did not appeal to me. I berated myself silently. Why didn’t I set up my appointments for instruction instead of waiting to get familiarize on my own? Grrr! It would be so embarrassing.

I tried not to go off on a rant and toss or bang things around. It would only cause more damage, right? I thought of what I would do if it was my old Kenmore. I would take out the bobbin. It didn’t work. The threads were still stuck tight. I consulted YouTube again on how to take the casing apart. I had watched it before. Then I was too scared to take things apart, but now I have no choice. It was really quite simple. I removed the threads. I put everything back as shown. I restarted the machine. It purred. No funny malfunction showed on the screen.

I decided that was enough monkeying around for the day. Tomorrow I will be fresher. I guess that’s how I learn. I mess up. Then I try to figure out the hows on my own first. It stays with you longer. And things are not that fragile, even if it involves electronics. Even when things fall apart, you can put it back together. Now I need a snack. It helps for everything.