On Feb 18, 2023, at 4:06 PM, Cheryl Paul <capaul@...> wrote:

Kathy,

It isn’t so bad. I can still sew and on closer looking the parts are still all there. They were just buried in behind things and we didn’t see them. There seems to be a wire or spring that is broken or disconnected. That isn’t on the M7 or S9 as those 2 machines thread manually and the CM17 is an “automatic” needle threader, push a button and flash and the needle is threaded - it happens so fast that you can’t see what’s going on.

Since I can still use the machine to sew, I’m not going to risk slipping on snow and/or ice to load the machine in the vehicle and then, unload it into the store. Winter in Saskatchewan will still be here for another month at least, so it is still cold, meaning that plastic things break easily if dropped - bones on older folks too if they fall. I’ll just be rather annoyed when I have to change a needle or re-thread, but I’ll be OK. I just have to remember that I put my glasses on when I go into the sewing room. My eyes see perfectly since my cataract surgery, but they don’t see the little hole in a sewing needle or fine print.

So none of you needs to feel sorry for me - I think I brought this particular repair on myself - not sure exactly how, but it happened.

Cheryl - Saskatoon

On Feb 18, 2023, at 4:08 PM, Patricia Ward <ward.pm@...> wrote:

Cheryl, Try putting your finger tip or a small piece of white paper behind the needle hole to see where the hole is and then aim the thread end for it. This helps my 80 year old eyes at times.

Pat

On Feb 18, 2023, at 4:06 PM, Cheryl Paul <capaul@...> wrote:

Kathy,

It isn’t so bad. I can still sew and on closer looking the parts are still all there. They were just buried in behind things and we didn’t see them. There seems to be a wire or spring that is broken or disconnected. That isn’t on the M7 or S9 as those 2 machines thread manually and the CM17 is an “automatic” needle threader, push a button and flash and the needle is threaded - it happens so fast that you can’t see what’s going on.

Since I can still use the machine to sew, I’m not going to risk slipping on snow and/or ice to load the machine in the vehicle and then, unload it into the store. Winter in Saskatchewan will still be here for another month at least, so it is still cold, meaning that plastic things break easily if dropped - bones on older folks too if they fall. I’ll just be rather annoyed when I have to change a needle or re-thread, but I’ll be OK. I just have to remember that I put my glasses on when I go into the sewing room. My eyes see perfectly since my cataract surgery, but they don’t see the little hole in a sewing needle or fine print.

So none of you needs to feel sorry for me - I think I brought this particular repair on myself - not sure exactly how, but it happened.

Cheryl - Saskatoon

I am just like you-seeing better since cataract surgery, but need my reading glasses to thread the needle.

On Feb 18, 2023, at 4:08 PM, Patricia Ward <ward.pm@...> wrote:

Cheryl, Try putting your finger tip or a small piece of white paper behind the needle hole to see where the hole is and then aim the thread end for it. This helps my 80 year old eyes at times.

Pat

On Feb 18, 2023, at 4:06 PM, Cheryl Paul <capaul@...> wrote:

Kathy,

It isn’t so bad. I can still sew and on closer looking the parts are still all there. They were just buried in behind things and we didn’t see them. There seems to be a wire or spring that is broken or disconnected. That isn’t on the M7 or S9 as those 2 machines thread manually and the CM17 is an “automatic” needle threader, push a button and flash and the needle is threaded - it happens so fast that you can’t see what’s going on.

Since I can still use the machine to sew, I’m not going to risk slipping on snow and/or ice to load the machine in the vehicle and then, unload it into the store. Winter in Saskatchewan will still be here for another month at least, so it is still cold, meaning that plastic things break easily if dropped - bones on older folks too if they fall. I’ll just be rather annoyed when I have to change a needle or re-thread, but I’ll be OK. I just have to remember that I put my glasses on when I go into the sewing room. My eyes see perfectly since my cataract surgery, but they don’t see the little hole in a sewing needle or fine print.

So none of you needs to feel sorry for me - I think I brought this particular repair on myself - not sure exactly how, but it happened.

Cheryl - Saskatoon

Cheryl,

You might try places like Amazon for those needle threaders.  They were 'life savers' for me for the 10 or so years before an eye doctor finally made me glasses that corrected my double vision astigmatism and I could see the needle eye again.  My Kenmore came with one, thank goodness...that's the only way I got black thread through that needle!

I can't recall where I got them, since it's been a number of years but possibly eBay, which was a tad better back then than it is now IMHO, but I bought a handful of them (for all of my machines and spares because the one that came with my old machine broke fairly early on) for about the same price as one of them does at fabric/hobby stores, etc., in this area...that much I DO recall...because they shipped from China (they are probably all manufactured there) and my bank flagged the purchase as 'possible fraud' and shut down my DEBIT card...which I discovered when I went to pick up my Chinese food takeout a day or two later...several hours after the bank had closed for the day.  Thankfully, I had enough cash, which I don't usually carry.

They did it to me again when I purchased about a dozen of the clear plastic bobbin cases that hold something like 25 bobbins each (for my Janome prewound bobbins)...and again when I purchased a SINGLE embroidery design from a digitizer in New Zealand from their "$1.00 Designs" link...they flagged that as a "phishing" event and shut down my card even though I'd been buying from that digitizer in NZ for years. 

I've learned to watch very carefully what I buy, from where, and for how much vs. my card's status.  I still buy designs from New Zealand, but if the design I like in selling for $1.00, I buy others to go with the order so it's not just a ONE DOLLAR purchase.

- Cat (FL)