Solid as a rock, and just as heavy...

The best sort of sunday afternoons always feel warm to me, regardless of the weather.  The warmth comes from the egg-yolk yellowness of the late afternoon light coming through the curtains, the warm tea or coffee I slowly sip as I go about my tasks, and from the calm tempo of family life on this holy day of rest.

I'm sewing bassinet sheets for my sister. The machine I normally sew on is in the shop for the first time in its life.  After 34 years of family service, the tension knob finally decided it had enough and died, smack in the middle of a baby hat I was making. I miss it's stretch stitches, but not much else about it.

You see, I dug out my grandfather's sewing machine, and am sewing with that instead.

It's a lovely machine, and somehow very masculine.  Perhaps the masculinity comes from its solid steel construction (not even an ounce of plastic), and the spare elegance of its lines.  It reminds me of a well maintained vintage 50s car.  It runs like one too, with a quiet, efficient hum.
It reminds me so much of everything my grandfather was.  He must've bought this machine early in his marriage, somewhere in between 1940 and 1947.  My parents got it from him when my grandparents moved into an assisted living community, and eventually gave it to me.  I imagine he was attracted to the simplicity of its design and it's ruggedness.

The son of a brilliant carpenter, my grandfather was a consumate craftsman.  He loved clean lines, warm woods, the intricacies of machinery, taking care of things, and my grandmother, all with a quiet, practical passion.  He was constantly making or fixing things in his immaculately ordered workshop in the basement.  He's the first person I've ever seen plane wood, and the only one outside of a historical reenactment.
Thinking of him always makes me think of the word "husbandry."

Both my grandmother and grandfather used this sewing machine, but Grandpa maintained it, as he maintained the rest of the house, furniture and grounds. When I opened the carrying case for the first time since we got it, he had tidily included the manual, a spare belt, and the necessary screwdrivers for changing the needle and other maintenance.

The motion of the machine is smooth and easy, the tension perfect.
It ceaselessly makes stitch after precise stitch.