Today, I impulsively decided to go see a movie. This time of year is usually dead for films, but I managed to find a real gem: Quartet. I was the youngest person in the theater by at least thirty years, but I don't think that I am the target audience. If you haven't heard of it (and it hasn't received a lot of press in the States), Quartet is a film directed by Dustin Hoffman about a group of retired musicians and opera singers. The acting and music were superb.
The film ends with the quartet from Rigoletto, which really has to be heard to be believed. Transcendent, really. When I was walking down the hallway, I passed by another theater playing Les Miserables, with one of Fantine's songs bleeding through the wall. It was like smelling Burger King after eating at Mortons. Why would anyone want to listen to that when there is real music, I thought. All my friends who have been raving about the new Les Mis film are just not going to convince me to see it.
The other thing that struck me about Quartet is that it is an unusual film. How many films are made today about adults, without sex scenes, violence, action, or some other element that appeals to 18-25 year old men? How many films focus solely on characters in the autumn of life, without some sort of subplot involving an adorable or troubled grandchild? I suppose I am a sucker for a film like Quartet, since I adore music and understand too well the way in which the characters reminisce about productions they did fifty years earlier. The work was their lives, in a way that it isn't, I suspect, for actuaries and garbage men and postal workers. Performers and artists really shoot for the moon in expecting their work to provide everything. Civilians don't expect that, do they?

On the personal front, I haven't been shooting the moon lately. I've had a lot of technical problems that make me feel like I might have a heart attack every night at work. One night, I was just sitting there in front of the mixer, not touching anything, when all of the channels' signal lights blinked off and on for about a minute. What The Fuck? There's got to be a short in the mixer somewhere, damned if I know where though. I hate having to fervently hope that all of my gear will work as the (metaphorical) curtain goes up every night. I just want everything to work consistently. The mixer is in for repairs, where trained technicians who probably make more an hour that I do can track down all those intermittent problems. I'm trying to get everything shipshape and Bristol fashion, to counteract all of the short term thinking that has allowed the sound system to be in such a state.

There is no perfect project

The trees are wearing their yellow flags. The weather is crisp and suited for sweaters. Ah, Fall! I find myself turning the lamp on earlier and earlier these days. The cats sleep in tighter balls and their coats seem a bit thicker. It's the perfect time to start (and ideally finish) a cozy sweater.
I have plenty of Christmas knitting to ignore, so I did a stash dive to find yarn for a new project. My criteria: enough to make a sweater, wool, and suitable for a relatively boring project that can be knit at work. About four years ago when I worked at a yarn shop, I bought a kilo of Manos del Uruguay yarn to make a large shrug. Yes, there were plenty of jokes at work about getting a kilo from South America. Well, the shrug never got made and the yarn stayed in my stash waiting for the perfect project. I thought again about making that shrug, but it doesn't seem like something I'd wear very often.
Anyone who keeps a stash will recognize this situation. Precious, precious yarn never finds the perfect project. Nothing ever seems worthy of the stashed treasure. You can't have your stash and knit it too. There is no perfect project. Find something that you like that works with the yarn and make it. How much enjoyment is really derived from yarn sitting in a drawer?
That Manos was ripe for knitting, I decided, recalling that I had a pattern calling for that yarn in one of my books. I'd made the Not Your Standard-Issue Sweatshirt a few times before, using Malabrigo Worsted. Malabrigo is amazing, but its merino softness leads to an unacceptable amount of pilling and a shorter garment life. And readers, I wore the shit out of those sweaters. Here's hoping the corriedale wool in the Manos will give it more staying power. I've already knit the back and have started on the front. I'd say that this is a quick project, but I recall from previous versions that the hood takes forever. Oh well, I've got plenty of time to work on it during the show.

Since my last post, I have done two shows and started a third. They were: awesome, asskickingly hard, and easy-peasy, in that order. During the shows, I knit a pair of socks and two Daybreak shawls. I think that I have made six Daybreaks now, which is a record for me. The only other pattern I've knit so many times is the felted slippers from Tracy Ullman's book. Don't tell my cousin Bam Bam that, as his many requests for felted slippers have been denied. I'm not cruel, I just don't want to do all the work to adjust the pattern to fit his giant feet.
Since it is September, I have started work on my annual giftmas knitting. I probably should start a month earlier, but it's hard to get motivated about Christmas when the weather is so muggy. This year, my plans are less ambitious than in the past. I've already finished one present (a Daybreak) and half-finished a second (an Ulmus shawl in delightful Malabrigo sock). The second is languishing at the moment while I work on a lace sweater for my non-internet using grandmother. She is the most appreciative recipient of knitted gifts, so she gets the most involved project nearly every year. And, unlike many other mothers and grandmothers, she actually uses the sweaters and shawls I give her instead of stashing them away in a drawer forever, lest something happen to them.
I'm oddly fortunate with my current show. It's simple playback with lots of downtime when I can knit. The designer told me when I joined the show to being two books so that I wouldn't get bored. This is exactly what I need for my holiday knitting, though it means that I have to rotate through patterns that can be knit in the dark. My current project, a February Lady Sweater, was perfect for knitting at work while I was working on its garter stitch yoke. Now that I am knitting the lace body, it has to stay at home. Now I must strategize: I need a project that is plain enough to avoid mistakes while I am knitting under the dim run lights that will also make an appropriate gift for someone on my list. Or I can give anyone who has been unappreciative a lump of coal and knit things for myself. But have you seen the price of coal lately? I'll have to strike upon something else to give as gifts that properly conveys how little I care.

Well, my machine is back from the shop now. Ironically, my interest in sewing is greatly diminished now that I can again. The higher temps are largely to blame, since it is hardly appealing to sit next to a hot iron in 80+ degree weather. The hot weather is making totally miserable, since my car's a/c is kaput. My darling mechanic proposed putting a can of freon in it to see if the a/c would kick in, thinking that it was a coolant level issue. I hoped hard that this was the (affordable) solution, but sadly it was not. He didn't even charge me for the test, instead sending me to an associate of his who just does electrical and air conditioning work. Well, I haven't made it over there, because this will at minimum cost me $250 and possibly up to $1200, which I frankly cannot afford. Why not go the 460 ac route? Well, my car only has two windows that roll down and one of them does not reliably roll up on the first try. Since I do a lot of driving in Chicago, that means that I basically cannot drive with the window down in case I have to roll it up in a hurry.
Further adding to my misery is my recent discovery that the right channel in my car stereo has gone out. Since I am a sound engineer, this is driving me nuts. If it weren't encased in a vehicle, I could easily repair it myself, but this requires the work of someone with experience in popping off door panels. Also, anything other than NPR sounds like crap with only the left channel working and I love my tunes.
Sure, neither of these problems affects the operation of the car. It works and I am damn glad it does, after the inconvenience caused by the thermostat and radiator fan crapping out last month. It gets me from place to place reliably, but I am afraid my car is becoming a hoopdie. Sigh. It's ten years old, so these minor problems are not unexpected. On a ninety degree day, sitting on black leather(ette?) seats, the a/c does not feel minor.
The other reason that my sewing impulse has waned is that I am pretty close to finishing the Acer cardigan that I started to tide me over until my machine was usable. I'm almost to the sleeve cap on the second sleeve. After that, I just have to knit the neck and button bands and sew the sleeves on and it will be done. I won't be able to wear it until the fall, but I am happy to build up my wardrobe out of season. It will be ready for that first crisp autumn day, instead of being cast on then as is my usual weather change behavior. Oh, it's getting cold, I think, time to knit something warm. No, the time to knit something warm is before you need it, but knitting warm sweaters is a beast in hot weather. I'm pondering what to knit next and have decided that it can't be something that is knit from the top down. I don't want a whole sweater lying on my lap like an unneeded blanket. So, something that is knit in pieces and seamed together, even though finishing is one of my least favorite parts of knitting.
I also need to find something that makes good backstage knitting. I'm about to start work on a new production as a mic runner, which I very rarely do. I usually mix from front of house and am damn lucky to have an A2 backstage in case of problems. Actually, I don't think I've had an A2 since college because most producers just don't budget for a sound crew. When I'm not making my moves, I'll need some kind of basically mindless, easily picked up and put down again project to keep me from nodding off. Socks? Another shawl I probably won't wear? Decisions, decisions.

My sewing machine is still in the shop. I am trying to be patient about it, but it's hard when I have all of the pieces for a quilt cut and ready on my dining room table. I've been knitting instead and have made unbelievable progress on the Acer sweater I mentioned in my last post. I've finished the body already and used a three needle bind off to join the shoulders, which I prefer when matching cable and lace patterns to a sewn seam. Now, I am almost to the sleeve cap on the first sleeve. I don't understand why sleeves take so long. I'm knitting it in the round, so it's like knitting a worsted weight knee sock. Not that there's any rush, since I won't be able to wear the sweater until Autumn.

I also have to decide what to give my grandmother for her birthday. It's at the end of June, so if I want to make something, I should have started it yesterday. I was thinking of knitting her a little tee, but I don't know how well received that would be. I knit her a cabled Aran weight sweater in yarn that can go through the washer and dryer for Christmas, yarn that I would not have used were I not concerned about the laundry situation at her rehabilitation center. It even has a big hood that is perfect for a Lindsay Lohan style nap. Well, she looked at it for about a minute, then handed back to me and told me to take it back to her house, that she couldn't have it in rehab. Darlings, my feelings were *hurt* until my cousin later explained that she planned to ditch everything that she has in rehab and doesn't want to have anything nice there in fear of loss or theft. Fair enough. She probably won't be out of rehab until a couple of weeks after her birthday, so I am torn between giving her something that she can immediately enjoy and giving her something nice that I will have to take over to her house for safekeeping. Maybe a Hey, Teach! cardigan would be nice for keeping off an air conditioning chill. She has to keep it arctic in her basement, where she keeps her television and rarely used computer, in order for it to be a tolerable temperature up on the second floor. Split level houses are a real argument for zoned HVAC, but retrofitting one would be a costly pain in the ass. I digress. I might go visit her on Sunday and take my trusty tape measure to get an idea of her current size. My grandmother's nearly year long bout with cancer has turned her into one of those birdlike old ladies, so I have no idea what size sweater to make.

I got my sewing machine back from the repair shop on Tuesday. Today is Thursday and it already needs to go back. Somehow, I shelled out seventy bucks for my machine to work for a single day. Granted, I got a lot done in that day, but sewing machines should be like flash bulbs. Fortunately, the place that "fixed" it offers a sixty day warranty, so I'll be schlepping it back there again to get it actually fixed.
What's wrong with it? Well, something involving the bobbin. It loops. The thread doesn't feed freely when I'm done sewing a seam so that I can cut it at a decent length, but breaks instead. When it breaks, I have to re-thread the bobbin. I've tried the following: new needle, re-threading the top thread, filling a new bobbin so that it's already threaded and fed properly, taking out and re-seating the bobbin enclosure, swearing profusely, and crying. None of these have solved the problem. And yes, I am sure that the needle is in right, the foot is down, the feed dogs aren't full of schmutz. I haven't been sewing through tile. I am extremely frustrated and more than a little pissed, which is why I've decided to wait to cool down a little before carting it back to the repair shop.
In the meantime, I am knitting and watching Quantum Leap on Netflix. You can stream all of Quantum Leap! I lurve that show. The knitting is part of my wardrobe replacement initiative, the Acer Cardigan that I mentioned before--if only in the sidebar. Though there are 200+ stitches per row and it is knitted flat instead of in the speedy round, I agree with other knitters who have called it a quick knit. Sure, the rows are a bit of a slog, but the lace and cable pattern is easily memorized. Easy recalled lace is quick lace. Winston has been sprawled on the lace chart for the last couple of hours, combining his love of lying on printed materials and being nearby. He's been behaving himself, mostly, these days, so I'll let him stay on the charts.