Sewing Machines & Ice Hockey

3 stories about 2 things near & dear to my heart

Greetings everybody,

My goal going forward is to publish between 4-6 articles every month. The idea right now is that there will 3-4 free articles, and 1-2 that will be available to those with a paid subscription. This particular edition of The Sewing Machine Newsletter will be the first time that paid subscribers have access to the entire article. If you have a free subscription, you will only be able to read the first portion of the article.

Just to be clear, sewing machine education is my primary goal, so my plan is to keep all the educational articles free. Articles that read more like opinion pieces or essays or random musings will be the type of articles that I make exclusive for paid subscribers.

I do want to welcome all the new readers who recently subscribed to The Sewing Machine Newsletter. In the last weekend of July we nearly doubled our readership, and I am happy to have all of you here. If you haven’t already, I recommend you take a look at our Archive of sewing machine educational articles. We have published 10 articles so far, all of which are free. I hope you find them helpful.

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Sewing Machines & Ice Hockey

The moment I became conscious of ice hockey is an extremely vivid memory. I was 7 years old. It was night time. My dad was flipping through the TV channels when a sheet of ice appeared on the screen. A group of large men were skating around, each wielding a stick and covered in body armor. They zoomed up and down the ice, body-checking one another into the boards, and vying for possession of a small black disc, apparently trying to score a goal.

“What’s that?” I asked.
“Ice hockey,” Dad said.
“Did you know about this?”
“Know about what?”
“Ice hockey!”
“Of course. It’s one of the four major sports.”

I didn’t believe him. Why would he have not told me about the coolest sport in the world unless he was unaware himself? It’s like soccer, but on ice. You have a stick like a sword, boots with sharp metal blades on the underside. You score goals. You’re allowed to fight. What’s not to like?

Shortly after that fateful night, my Dad bought me all the necessary gear and signed me up to play for the Berkeley Bulldogs, my local hockey team. I went on to play competitively for the next 13 years. When I was 17 I moved from California to Ontario, then a year later from Ontario to New York. Hockey took me all over the country. It helped me go to college at places I probably wouldn’t have been able to go to otherwise. It played a crucial role in my formative years. Now that I am a sewing machine man, I can’t help but link the two worlds together. Sewing machines have their fingerprints on far more things than one might think, and hockey is definitely one of them. I have few stories to share that will corroborate my claim…

(1) How a Juki DNU-1541 saved me from the sludge

In my eyes, hockey is an aesthetically beautiful sport. When played at a high level, any given game contains a magnificent juxtaposition of heaviness and lightness. This contrast of styles shows itself in a manner that other sports cannot quite replicate. It makes ice hockey unique, and it’s the reason so many people like me love to play the game.